At a time when the digital technology sector’s growth is skyrocketing, PushBots, an Egyptian startup, has launched Instapush, a service that helps entrepreneurs monitor critical transactions carried out on their websites by receiving instant notifications. This service includes notifications at different levels such as technical, commercial, and news. It notifies entrepreneurs of every new sign-up, purchase transaction, update, search, or download made from the website. The user can specify which notifications they are most interested in, and then integrate the Android application with the service to receive all notifications on their mobile phone, without having to develop a special application or devote long hours to keeping track of critical things that are happening on their website. The two founders of PushBots, Amr Sobhy and Abdullah Diaa, noticed a “hunger” in the technical sector for notification services, especially after the success of the Tweet-to-Notify service they launched to offer solutions to app developers, allowing them to post a tweet that is delivered to the mobile phones of all the registered app users. This success was their inspiration to develop their new product. Thanks to the popularity of Tweet-to-Notify, PushBots has acquired users from over 108 countries in less than six months. “This success is what motivated us to launch an entirely new product that focuses on sending important notifications to entrepreneurs, website owners, and developers whose products are still in their alpha and beta versions,” says Sobhy. Instapush works in four steps. First, one registers by e-mail, adding the app title and the domain name. Then, the user specifies the events about which they wish to receive notifications, along with the data these notifications shoud include. After completing these steps, the user receives a code to add to their website (made easy with a video tutorial). Finally, users can download Instapush and begin monitoring their sites. Instapush’s founders decided to release the app for free to quench the market’s thirst for such a service; however, this generosity won’t last long. “The service is available now for whomever wishes to download it for free, but as soon as we are done with the current trial period, we will announce the service subscription fees,” says Diaa. PushBots graduated from Egyptian incubator Flat6Labs in January 2013.
The founders are now looking for a VC to support them in launching marketing campaigns on social media and to help them increase their company’s customer base around the world, as well as to launch more apps and prepare for the iOS version. The US, Germany, Netherlands, and India are on top of PushBots founders’ expansion list, as the most registered users so far hail from these four countries. Once PushBots is ready to tackle these markets, it will face fierce competition by startups like UrbanAirship, Parse, Element Wave, and Push IO which have been in the global market for one or two years and also work in the notifications apps domain. Each notification’s price varies between one and seven cents, depending on the features that each company offers, ranging from one million free notifications to an unlimited number of notifications. But Sobhy and his partner’s interest in the global market will not lead them to neglect Egypt. “The local market is witnessing significant growth in the technical and startup sectors which certainly puts it among our priorities, particularly because we are the only people providing this service locally,” Sobhy says.Subscribe to MENA Opportunities and get more...
