Break Into The Publishing World With This StartupIt uses patent-pending low-cost technology for digital rights protected eBooks.
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
You're reading Entrepreneur India, an international franchise of Entrepreneur Media.
When everything is getting digitized than why should publishing industry should lack behind. A recent survey by Nielsen India revealed that India's book market, currently the sixth largest in the world at Rs 26,100 crore, is likely to touch Rs. 73,900 crore by 2020. The survey says that more than 70 per cent of the publishers in India have digitized their content to produce eBook versions thereby reaching the target customers through a digital medium.
Sensing the opportunity, Mahendra Sharma plans to cater this huge growing market by founding Matrubharti, a self-publishing platform and an app serving eBooks in Indian languages.
It's first of its kind app from India that takes content directly from authors and publishing it as an eBook. It uses patent-pending low-cost technology for digital rights protected eBooks.
Breaking the barrier for new authors, Matrubharti has given an international platform to publish content to many new and aspiring writers in regional languages.
Money Rolling In
eBook publisher Matrubharti has recently raised a seed funding of Rs. 20 lakh from Viridian Capital. The seed funding amount will be used for investment in technology and expanding the team.
Incubated at the Espark-Viridian Accelerator Centre at GIFT City (Gujarat International Finance Tec-City), Matrubharti has more than 1,800 authors registered and have published 4,350 eBooks, so far.
Speaking on the seed funding and future of digital content, Sharma said, "Investment by Viridian Capital in our firm is a testimony that we have a business model which is likely to grow at a healthy rate. Matrubharti offers a digital platform to new and aspiring writers, which is our unique selling proposition among digital publishers."
"We have a premium subscription model through which readers can download any number of eBooks during a particular period, which reduces the cost of purchasing an eBook for readers" Mr. Sharma added.
On Future Growth
Matrubharti publishes over 450 eBooks every month with 7.5 lakhs of eBooks downloaded so far. "Our growth rate is 20 per cent month on month and we expect a similar growth over the next one year, as we believe that penetration of smartphones would increase the sales of eBooks going forward," said Sharma.
Published in six languages so far, Matrubharti plans to publish eBooks in 21 languages.
These platforms encourage authors to write more and spread word of knowledge among the masses.
