Startup Circle: How is Doot enabling the use of Sound Wave technology for field communications?

To feel the full force of the benefits of the tech from Doot, imagine a completely contactless world. Imagine you walk into an airport and never have to carry your documents again. Or maybe you scan a QR code and your phone is your boarding pass. Open a bank account sitting at home using Doot's proprietary models. It can even validate your movie tickets without any physical exchange of documents. This technology can make old school tech smart and part of the IoT future. It requires no additional expenditure on technology as the company uses speakers and microphones. And since they are in-built with phones, smartwatches, people can use it with ease. The technology uses industry-standard security.

Read Mr Surya Phadke, Chairman at Doot, talk about the startup and describe how the technology works.

What is Doot about? Tell us about the team

DOOT is India’s first IdaaS and identity messenger application leveraging an Out-of-Band communication platform called SVAN. SVAN makes it possible for devices to communicate by sending messages over sound waves. So in essence, devices with the DOOT application can communicate even in airplane mode.

DOOT was the brainchild of Siddhaant and me. I am an MBA from INSEAD & THE WHARTON SCHOOL and an engineer from BITS-Pilani. Siddhaant and our co-founder is a digital nomad, educated in International Relations at the prestigious London School of Economics, he serves as the head of business development for DOOT. Our board is multinational with engineers and researchers from the field of sound engineering and application development completing our team.

How did you come up with the idea?

We were developing our data-over-sound products for broadcast and entertainment when we realized that the technology has great potential to create a short distance messaging service (SDMC), this is especially interesting for developing nations where a majority of devices don’t have continuous access to 4G/Internet.

When we started developing the application use cases we realized that creation of our proprietary IdaaS DOOT 1iD aligns with the United Nations directive as part of their Vision 2030 initiative along with International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO).

The DOOT 1iD with SVAN (our data-over-sound) technology enables us to tokenize every digital document including Social Security/Aadhaar, Credit cards and provide a sound-based service to provide a new form of consumer experiences such as ultra-sonic commerce, contactless digital signature and many more.

What is the USP of your app?

It has to be the ability of our devices or devices enabled with DOOT app to communicate while in airplane mode.

What is your business/market growth? What all industries can you possibly tap into?

We can target the host of industries but the most important use cases are in Law Enforcement, Banking and P2P payments, Aviation and Hospitality.

How do you think Doot will change the way we currently operate?

DOOT will revolutionize the wat Indians interact and prove their identity in day-to-day life. From entering movie theatres to making payments and boarding flights we aim to completely remove the need for paper but more importantly make it more frictionless where users wouldn’t need to scan QR codes or tap cards to make payments. The vision is to create a world where your phone automatically detects and authenticates the service you want to receive. That is, it shouldn't further need a deliberate action. Thus, consumers can enjoy their experience with 0 human error and 100% security.

Funding, if any?

For our Indian JV, we have currently raised $50k, and aim to raise more via strategic partnerships with law enforcement and private players.