In Startup50 2016: For its big, bold and hi-tech approach of creating the Android experience of the future.

Founder: Sai Srinivas Kiran G

Incorporated in July 2013, CREO, a Bengaluru-based consumer technology company, is on a mission to build software that empowers every device to deliver new experiences every month. It fulfils this by building features which stem from ideas and suggestions given by its community of users and makers on their proprietary Android based OS, Fuel. CREO also recently launched the CREO Mark 1 Smartphone on its proprietary Operating System, Fuel.

Where’s the money from?

The company raised US $3 million from Sequoia India, Beenext Ventures and India Quotient in January 2016. Earlier, Sequoia and India Quotient had pumped in INR 11 crore in March 2015. In fact, the company is also backed by angel investors such as Kavin Bharti Mittal, Pavan Ongole of Bharti Soft Bank; Arun Seth, former British Telecom employee and Palaash Ventures.

New launches

The company launched its flagship smartphone Mark 1 earlier this year, with the intention of putting out its proof of concept of superior software that can provide a unique experience to smartphone users. Mark 1 has competitive hardware features that work well with the Android-based FUEL OS, which has been its primary distribution in the initial stages. In the longer run, it aims to license out to other OEMs.

While CREO aims to deliver consistent experiences to users, it also wants to enable OEMs to understand their users better, with FUEL and be able to monetize the OS as well.