A somewhat complete history of our first decade.
2022 marks a special year for Instamojo: it’s our 10th birthday! 🎉
10 years of powering MSMEs across India and revolutionising the eCommerce world.
Fun fact: Instamojo started as a side project. Looking back, it’s hard to believe that a small idea evolved into a brand that is spearheading the eCommerce revolution in India.
Since birthdays are a time of reflection, to mark this occasion, we wanted to share a list (a highly incomplete one) of milestones in Instamojo history over the past decade.
Contents
- 1 2012 – Setting up Instamojo
- 2 2013 – Launched Payment links
- 3 2015 – Payment processing and simple online store builder
- 4 2016 – Instamojo app store
- 5 2018 – 2019: Launch of capital & logistic products, re-branding
- 6 2020 – Building the future of eCommerce in India
- 7 2021 – Exponential growth as an eCommerce platform
- 8 2022 – Milestone year!
- 9 How Instamojo amplifies the happiness of this special occasion
2012 – Setting up Instamojo
In September 2012, Instamojo was co-founded by Sampad Swain along with Akash Gehani and Aditya Sengupta.
It all started with Sampad’s first project, Instastartup.com, a blogging site. He had trouble collecting funds online, which led him to understand the problem of online transactions. He brought in the idea of a payment gateway that can collect payments online and started working on it as his side project.
The name of Sampad’s blogging site ‘InstaStartup’ eventually inspired the name ‘Instamojo’ which means instant magic. The rest is history.
From a small side project, Instamojo grew into a full-fledged enterprise worth millions of dollars, employing over 150 great minds, and supporting thousands of small businesses across India.
Here’s a look at what the first Instamojo logo looked like:
When we designed our logo, we wanted it to be simple and have a sense of inclusivity to it. It’s a symbol of our belief in growth and moving forward. The two colours used — mint green and navy blue — represent trust, empathy, reliability, and transparency.
2013 – Launched Payment links
In 2013, Instamojo introduced its flagship product — payment links.
With this product, merchants could sell digital products such as courses, eBooks, and templates directly to their customers by sharing a link.
When a customer clicks on the link, it would lead them to a landing page which contains information about the product. They can make a purchase easily on this page. Customers can choose from payment methods of credit cards, debit cards, or net banking.
The biggest advantage of Instamojo payment links was that they needed no integrations. Generating the link is a no-hassle process and merchants could share the link across socials or embed it on their websites.
Here’s what the old Instamojo home page looked like:
2015 – Payment processing and simple online store builder
By 2015, Instamojo established itself as a payment processing company, enabling businesses to start making transactions and sales within minutes.
We stood out from other payment gateways because we innovated, localized & customized our products a lot. Without much physical paperwork, mandatory API/technical integrations, ad-hoc requirements, and mandatory requirements of the website, sellers can just get started.
The best part — they don’t have to wait for weeks or months to start making sales.
The same year, we also launched a milestone product — an online store with zero costs.
With the domain instamojo.com/{{username}} merchants can get a ready-to-host and ready-to-market online store. They can start adding their catalogue, set pricing, and even add a brand logo. Here’s a screenshot of a demo store:
This free store version is the predecessor of the current premium online store builder on Instamojo.
2016 – Instamojo app store
As our audience evolved, we understood that they needed more products that can be seamlessly used in their store without technical integration. This led to the launch of the Instamojo App Store.
Instamojo users can access it directly from their dashboards. The app store has a suite of apps where you can subscribe to any app that will make your job simpler. Some apps are free, and some are paid. You can purchase credits from the Appstore to pay for them.
2018 – 2019: Launch of capital & logistic products, re-branding
2018 was a huge milestone for Instamojo. We started laying the foundations for non-payment offerings.
Instamojo underwent a major rebranding process and introduced two new products specially designed for MSME growth — MojoXpress and MojoCapital — a shipping product and working capital product, respectively.
To mark this milestone, we decided to change our brand identity to be more inclusive and represent how we evolved from just a payment gateway to a full-fledged growth gateway for small businesses.
The ‘i’ in the Instamojo logo is designed to represent innovation. Navy blue symbolizes how we power small businesses with the best solutions.
By this year, we also reached 500,000 sellers across India.
In 2019, we launched MojoVersity — a free online learning platform designed for entrepreneurs, the first of its kind. It has courses created by experts in different fields which can be accessed by anyone.
2020 – Building the future of eCommerce in India
Recognising the scope of eCommerce growth in India, Instamojo took its eCommerce solutions to the next level. In February 2020, Instamojo acquired GetMeAShop – an online store builder. The company became all set to introduce SaaS offerings to merchants to build the online store of their dreams.
The eCommerce website builder of Instamojo is an easy-to-use tool that comes with an in-built payment gateway and marketing features. The major highlight is merchants can get their stores up and running in minutes without having to code their way to an eCommerce website. DTC brands across India loved this new product and we started seeing positive results in the first year itself.
“…we set up a premium online store on Instamojo with the aim of streamlining our order and inventory systems and giving our customers a smoother buying experience. And it was definitely worth it!” – Karan Upmanyu, founder of Wood Street Sauce
Instamojo officially became a primarily eCommerce SaaS platform and moved away from being just a payment gateway. However, we continued to offer payment gateway services over the years.
2021 – Exponential growth as an eCommerce platform
2021, the year after the pandemic struck the world, Instamojo saw a 100% growth in subscriptions. More than 25 lakh DTC businesses were using different products of Instamojo, including the online store builder.
We also brought major product updates to the eCommerce store builder. Some new features include analytics and CRM features along with new store themes.
Also in 2021:
- Launched 5 new features on the Instamojo Android App
- Grew newsletter subscriber base to 2 lakh+ (sign up for our business newsletter here)
- Introduced Cash on Delivery option for premium store merchants
2022 – Milestone year!
We celebrate our 10-year anniversary ⭐️
This year, we released some major updates and new features for premium store merchants. Some of them include the Facebook integration, Product bundles, Customer testimonials, and Order management.
We also launched Smart Page Pro, a premium landing page builder. Smart Page is for merchants who sell services online or only have a single product to sell. It lets them showcase their portfolio and collect payments from clients.
How Instamojo amplifies the happiness of this special occasion
We also celebrated our growth and success with our merchants. As a thank you for their support and faith in us, we announced alluring deals that can enable them to grow their business with the tools they need!
The first 10 years, and many more to come!
The journey had a lot of ups and downs, like any great business. But, the bottom line is that Instamojo had a clear vision: to serve small businesses. And we stayed true to it throughout the path and will continue to do so.
Here’s a nostalgic trip taken by our CEO – Sampad Swain in this Twitter thread! Enjoy the read.
Yesterday @instamojo completed it’s first decade!
10 yrs has been intense struggle but proud of where we stand today after 10 yrs 🙌🏼
immensely grateful to my co-founders, ex employees, current mojoites, investors & all well wishers. super stoked about our future than ever 💪🏽
— sampad swain 🦇🔊 (@sampad) September 20, 2022
Join our journey, and live the Instamojo experience.
