Rising Tech Stars of 2012

Bangalore: The year 2011 had been incredible for a few people in technology and they have started 2012 with a bang.

A couple of these intellects plan to make their companies public by this year end while some are stepping in the limelight with their innovative ideas and products.

BI compiled a list of rising tech stars who will assuredly make the headlines up in the recent days.

1. Ben Milne: Dwolla.

Ben Milne started Dwolla in 2008, out of frustration from credit card fees. Dwolla is a cash based payment network, alternative to credit cards where a user can send or receive cash using phone, computer or even the social networks. Dwolla links directly to bank accounts and unlike credit cards, it only charges 25 cents (ie Rs 12.50 only!) for any transactions over $10.

Dwolla received a lot of interest from investors and Milne is likely to announce a fresh round of financing soon. Dwolla was processing $1 million a day as on July last year and with a speed like that it may turn into the “Future Cash” as Milne describes it.

2. Ben Silbermann, Paul Sciarra and Evan Sharp: Pinterest

Pinterest was founded in 2010. The website which resembles a pin board and allows you to organize and share the things you love. It had witnessed an explosive growth last year, like Twitter in 2007 and Facebook in 2006, according to Business Insiders Nicholas Carlson. In one week, Pinterest has scored 11 million visits and the monthly page views are rumored to be more than 1 billion.

With a recent funding of $27 million, the company is expected to grow fast in 2012.