JustDial Finally Gets A Ring Tone With IPO in India and Could Spur More

Forbes 5 June 2013
Finally, after the long drought of IPOs from India, mobile search company JustDial made it out of the gate and closed at a 15 percent gain in its public offering on the National Stock Exchange.
The last public offering from India that created as much fuss was MakeMyTrip, and that was in August 2010 when the Indian travel startup managed to list on the NASDAQ exchange in the U.S. and reached a market capitalization of $903 million on its market debut — one of the best performances of Asian startups in IPOs that year.
Yet let’s give JustDial’s founder VSS Mani credit for perseverance and fortitude. When I visited with him at his startup in Mumbai near Bollywood in 2010, while I was doing research for my book Startup Asia, he was eyeing an IPO back then after struggling for several years to get his startup off the ground. So having been on the road show longer than he probably cares to remember – having originally filed for a $79 million IPO in August 2011 – Mani now something to smile about.
JustDial is a made-in-India startup combing three big trends, mobile, paid search and outsourcing all in a sort of new fangled yellow pages. Customers simply call 1-800-Just-Dial, an operator in a call center answers and responds to such queries as find me the nearest local florist or best plumber. Customers get five listings and testimonials from prior purchasers for free by text or email.
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