It began with seed capital of just Rs 1.5 crore, getting an additional Rs 2 crore from Hyderabad Angels, a group of angel investors, in January last year. Half the amount came from Sashi Reddi, a serial entrepreneur and the founder of AppLabs, a software testing company acquired by Computer Sciences Corporation in September 2011.

"I bet on the team," Sashi says. "That was the strongest thing about this venture. It had a committed team of founders, who initially pitched in with their own resources." He intends to invest even more though he knows it could be a long wait - "up to five years or so," he says - for the company to acquire reasonable size.

These startups were chosen after hours of brainstorming, multiple conversations with VCs, the companies concerned, and their competitors. Three main criteria were used: they should all have started after January 1, 2009, should have witnessed early revenue traction, and most important, should have a differentiated service or product.

We feature four out of 15 coolest start-ups. Keep watching this space for more.