This month, we conducted an interview with Mogi IO founder and CEO Mr. Vikrant Khanna. We asked him questions regarding business, Mogi IO, and future plans. If you enjoy the entrepreneurial spirit, stay tuned to learn more about what it takes to launch a startup.
When Mogi IO CEO was asked to summarize his experience of launching a startup; “Spanning from the corporate world to a startup, the foundation is rapidly changing. There’s much more chaos at first since tasks are typically much more critical then in the corporate world. However, setting up a startup is also much more rewarding. Not only will you reap the benefits, experience, and know-how, but you will also have full responsibility. In the end, I think it’s a much more exciting and inspiring experience. A crucial point is that timing is everything.”
Q1. Please introduce yourself & your startup?
Ans. I come from a fairly progressive background, a family of doctors, lawyers & professionals. While growing up the idea of creating something new & innovative always excited me & that has been the guiding force in my journey. After completing my MBA from IMT Ghaziabad I joined Dabur as a Management Trainee, where within a couple of years I got the opportunity to handle their largest haircare brands. I also launched Vatika Shampoo at Dabur, which was Dabur’s first successful launch in a classic FMCG category such as shampoos, toothpastes & soaps. I later moved to General Mills where I spearheaded the launch of their Pillsbury brand in India.
Later, the technology bug bit me & I spent time in companies such as Satyam Infoway& Airtel ( as a VP of their Digital Platforms) During this period I also completed my Executive education from INSEAD, Singapore Campus. My last corporate stint was with Homeshop18 (Network18 co, invested by SAIF Partners), where I headed the business as their COO. I was a part of the core team which did the SEC filing for the NASDAQ listing in Jan 2014 (IPO has shelved post NW18 takeover in May 2014). Besides my professional life, I’m also a marathon runner, avid traveller & connoisseur of food.
Talking of Mogi IO – it’s a B2B SaaS venture where we are building next-generation technologies in the Media Tech space. Established in the year 2019, Mogi enables content platforms to stream buffer-free videos, of high quality, at 50% of their size leveraging its patented AI technology. Our vision is to create a world-class Media tech company building disruptive technologies
Q2. Can you talk about your innovation in the Video technology space?
Ans. One of the biggest learnings we have had after studying the performance of various Global Content Distribution Networks (CDN), which is considered the infrastructural backbone for video streaming, is that there is a huge band of variability if the performance of even the so-called best CDNs. This happens as there are multiple external factors that impact a CDN’s performance, not all of them are within its control. If there is variability, there would be congestion & buffering. To address this issue Mogi has created our own IP – Mogi Streaming Engine (Patent pending technology), which relies on a path-breaking multi CDN architecture. This engine does client-side, midstream, real-time switching between CDNs to optimize for fastest video deliver, least buffering & lowest cost.
Mogi’s second IP is where we deliver 50% better compression (compared to conventional transcoding solutions available in the market) while enhancing its quality using AI, at the time of transcoding the video. This technology not only improves the video viewing experience but also reduces steaming costs by 50%
Q3. What made you think about such innovation?
Ans. We came across the idea of Mogi IO while building a short format video app with my now co-founder & CTO – Rahul Lahoria. It was while working on this project that we realized the complexities of building an in-house video streaming solution.
The big problem here was around the multiple challenges involved in delivering a buffer-free streaming experience, heavy video files, and poor video quality. It was during this phase when we realized that the entire video delivery tech ecosystem was broken, too complex & expensive. It involved integrations with many technology partners & had too many moving parts. To overcome such complexities in streaming operations, we started building our in-house tech stack. This final tech product was able to solve these problems that users like us were facing.
Q4. Please tell us about the products & their features
Ans. Mogi enables content platforms to stream buffer-free videos, of high quality, at 50% of their size. Leveraging its patented AI technology. This buffer-free video results in superior viewer engagement while reducing streaming costs to half for the video platform. Mogi has built various products catering to different industries.
Our Solutions include:
- Photu – Image Tech for faster website loading time.
This solution helps compress 80% of the image size for superfast website & app page downloads speeds. With features like Smart Crop and Auto resize based on device, this solution helps with Higher Organic SEO Ranking, Lower bounce rates &Higher Revenue.
- Videu– Mogi’s Video Tech solution has 2 IPs. First is AI-based transcoding wherein Mogi delivers video compression which is 50% superior to any other transcoding solution in the market while enhancing quality. Mogi’s second IP is its Patent pending Multi-CDN tech – Mogi Streaming Engine, which delivers buffer-free videos
- MOTT – White Label OTT solution, enables content owners to launch their own OTT app in a matter of days. This solution has 4 layers – App, Backend CMS, video cloud infrastructure & Monetization. All monetization options like AVoD (advertising video on demand, SVoD (subscription video on demand), and TVoD (transactional video on demand) are integrated with this with Plug n Play solution.
- Liveu – Lightweight RTMP live stream, that supports millions of concurrent live users, with easy access and easy share
Q5. Plans for this year.
For this year, we plan to launch retail products such as Mogi’s white-label OTT. Our vision is to enable millions of content owners across the world to launch their own video platform & start monetizing it instantly. To become the Shopify of video. To bring this vision to life we are raising our next round of funding. With this fundraise Mogi plans to hire top talent for tech development, product & sales. We also plan to invest in marketing & expand to global geographies for our retail OTT product.
