Sajeda Momin

London: Two young British Indians have minted money from a free online buying and selling service they created.

The cousins, Kulveer and Harjeet Taggar, who both studied at the University of Oxford have become millionaires overnight when their company was sold for £2.5 million only months after it was launched.

Kulveer (24) and Harjeet (22) set up their first entrepreneurial venture as undergraduates supported by Oxford’s Said Business School. Called ‘boso.com’ short for Buy Or Sell Online, it was an internet auction site.

The site was a huge success and the Tagger cousins received financial backing to move to the Silicon Valley across the Atlantic.

Building on their experience they went on to launch ‘Auctomatic’, a service helping businesses manage selling on online site like Ebay in October 2007.

Auctomatic was actually conceptualised and begun as a free online service while the pair were studying and working at the University’s student society Oxford Entrepreneurs.

In November 2007 the Taggers returned to Oxford during the Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford event at the Said Business School and two days into their stay they were approached by a buyer.

“The approach came as a surprise. Any entrepreneur is inherently confident, but we never imagined we’d be so lucky that we’d sell our company within a year of launching,” said Kulveer, former president of Oxford Entrepreneurs.

During the Silicon Valley Come to Oxford event, Auctomatic became part of a bidding war between three companies.

As the cousins were struggling to make ends meet and still negotiating for funding they decided to sell and eventually sold to highest bidder Live Current Media raking in £2.5 million.

Source : DNA