According to a new mapping and geospatial startup Pataa, the unnamed and unstructured address system in India costs nearly INR 75,000 crore annually, or 0.5% of the GDP. By giving each home and anonymous site in the nation a digital address, the company hopes to find a solution to the problem.

In conversation with Analytics India Magazine, Kratika Jain, co-founder and head of operations at Pataa, said, “We’ve divided the entire world into 3-by-3 metre square blocks, which we have termed ‘Square codes’; by doing this, we have created 57 trillion completely distinct square codes.”

The startup explains that the square codes will be geotagged and will act as unique delivery addresses of users, providing almost 100% accuracy. The company is primarily attempting to provide a digital address to each and every household in India. 

But how is Pataa different from Google Maps, the leading player in the segment? Kratika responds that, “Google is a navigation expert; we are solving the addressing problem.”

“In Pataa, we give you more than just the navigation; at our platform, the user can actually add in a multi-dimensional layer of the address. Once registered, the user won’t have to manually enter the address every time it makes an account in other apps or websites.” 

It is believed that the majority of businesses use Google Map API—not for its accuracy but rather for its capacity to deliver real-time traffic information as well as the quickest route to the users’ desired destination.

However, Kratika believes that precision plays a much bigger role and claims that the app’s precision can be as high as 3 metres “which is even better than Google Maps, which has a position of close to 12~60 metres”. She further adds that, “Precision is the game play in a country like India.”

‘Pataa’ in e-commerce

By 2025, it is expected that India’s e-commerce market will have grown by 19.24% CAGR, from US$ 46.20 billion in 2020 to US$ 111.40 billion. 

Several mapping companies have expressed interest in the e-commerce market, primarily owing to its projected growth. For instance, Flipkart has made significant investments in MapMyIndia to boost its supply chain and logistical operations. MapMyIndia, widely dubbed as the Indian substitute of Google Maps, places a lot of emphasis on the B2B market. Pataa, however, considers this scenario from a different perspective.

The startup claims that there are several issues plaguing the e-commerce sector that need to be addressed on priority. According to Kratika Jain, “70% of the people churn out at an e-commerce app’s address page—these are our findings. It’s significant because when you invest a lot of money in digital marketing, you naturally want customers. 70% churn out is substantial, and we guarantee [nearly] 40–50% conversions with Pataa. Users won’t need to manually enter the address into any new applications, thanks to our API.”

She further explained that, “When ordering from Amazon, you typically receive a notice stating that the purchase will be delivered between 9 AM and 6 PM.” Jain believes that this is indeed a broad window of delivery offered by the online retailer but that it could be narrowed down to the precise time with Pataa.

“This is a sizable window, and in a nation like India, the delivery man must phone you before delivering a package. With Pataa, that is changeable; in fact, we can forecast the precise delivery time with precise geolocation.”

Improved drone delivery 

Recently, the meteoric rise of the drone delivery system has been the subject of much mainstream media coverage. 

In response to this trending shift in delivery mechanism, Kratika Jain said that, “There are few businesses in Ireland using drones to deliver packages, but the way they collect addresses and carry out deliveries is hilarious. The package is sort of left anyplace close to the residence. Therefore, all that is required of the user is to keep an eye out for the parcel and such.”

“With the help of our addressing system, drone delivery services can obtain the user’s geotagged address in order to carry out exact deliveries. With Pataa, drones can route accurately in locations with limited connectivity, which is ideal in case of an emergency situation or remote locations, for example, Indian army camps in remote northeastern parts.”

Since the Indian government has allowed private enterprises to use drones for delivery, a large number of drone businesses are sprouting up in India. Redwing Labs recently completed a pilot test in Arunachal Pradesh—opening the door for the supply of medication to rural areas of the nation. Businesses like Pataa could provide valuable insight and play a crucial role in the drone delivery of groceries or medicine to establishments like government schools and the Indian defence forces located in remote areas of India.

Road ahead

According to the co-founder and head of operations, Kratika Jain, Pataa has reportedly raised $2.5 million in seed funding and is presently working to raise an additional $3~$5 million. 

She further underlined the necessity for expansion in developing nations like South America and Africa—“We aim to be the nation’s digital addressing system, and we’ve determined from our analysis that the issue doesn’t just affect India.”

In conclusion, Kratika Jain remarked that, “Simply because of the inadequate addressing system, 50% of the world’s population actually has no address. That is a sizable number, then. Therefore, in nations like South Africa or Brazil, where the addressing system is a major issue, we want to sort of reach out to those areas. Numerous Latin American nations are also dealing with serious problems in this area. We want to be the go-to addressing platform globally.”