“Over the last three years, 75% of the revenue has come from mobile so we are in the mobile industry,” says Mihai Paun, chief executive officer of Ascend Netsolutions.
“(…) The mobile industry, in my opinion, must be treated differently from the traditional Web. We believe this is an industry that is soaring.”
Ascend Netsolutions was established in 2010 and its owners are Habanco Investment, a Cyprus-based company and Accord’93, a Nokia dealer on the local market. Both companies are represented by Elena Daniela Nicula.
The mobile applications market was not as dynamic four years ago as it is now, with very few applications developed for the Romanian market back then. Ascend Netsolutions posted about EUR1.5 million revenue last year, and works only for private sector customers in Romania. It set a growth target of 20% to about EUR1.8 million revenue for 2015.
“We ended the past two years in the black. The profit is small compared with the annual revenue of about EUR1.5 million, but I think that’s reasonable given the still unfavorable economy and that we only work with private sector customers in Romania.”
One of the biggest projects of the company last year was Oliviera, an online food delivery platform available in web and mobile versions. Oliviera started as the company’s own project and then Bulgaria’s HelloHungry bought it. Ascend Netsolutions is also the developer of the Star Taxi app that allows users to call a cab using their mobile phones.
Another major project was delivering a mobile sales force management solution to a telecom operator in Romania.
Besides mobile applications, Ascend Netsolutions also develops online stores, corporate websites and web applications.
The company is due to launch a new project of its own soon, a mobile application enabling consumers to order products from mortar and brick stores and have them delivered in a short time (minutes to hours) at no additional costs to them.
The application will connect people willing to deliver the products users pick from various stores, be they supermarkets or pharmacies. The project, which is called Bringo, will consist of two applications, one for the people who order the products and one for those who deliver them.
Bringo will display a list of all the stores in the area the user is in, who will choose the products they want. The order will be delivered by the person closest to that particular location who has the money to pay for it and the transport capacity. The delivery people will sign an electronic contract with Ascend Netsolutions and be paid a set amount for each delivery. The company is already in talks with various stores.
The project is now undergoing testing and is to be launched in Bucharest in the next few weeks and then in the major cities of the country. The company also plans to launch Bringo to other cities in Europe such as Budapest and Sofia.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)