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Noida-based social TV guide and second-screen engagement startup offering show recommendations, alerts and viewing rewards in India.
Also known as iCouchApp · iDubba · iNiD Digimedia Pvt Ltd
Investors · 5
Also in the syndicate · 4
Company profile
researched Aug 2026iDubba was a Noida-based television discovery and engagement service for the Indian market, operated by iNiD Digimedia Pvt Ltd and founded by Rabi Gupta and Ashish Kumar. The website functioned as a social TV guide: users could "like" shows to establish taste profiles, receive program recommendations from an in-house engine built on Apache Mahout recommendation libraries and a taste-based algorithm, browse a pictorial guide page, and set granular alerts ("iAlerts") such as notifications for Hindi movies starring a particular actor in weekend prime time, delivered by SMS or email.
A "Tune in" action recorded that a user was watching or liked a show, and activity earned points that placed users on genre leaderboards (sports, infotainment, soaps and others). Monthly, iDubba distributed TV credits based on leaderboard position, redeemable for free DTH recharges, DTH connections or LCD televisions. Sharing controls let users post viewing activity to Facebook and Twitter. The service covered English and Hindi channels in India, with an Android app in development and an iPhone app planned.
The company later pivoted toward iCouchApp, a second-screen TV engagement application, and a business-to-business offering combining product, engagement and analytics for TV channels and media houses, with analytics provided in partnership with Goonj Labs.
Founding story
Rabi Gupta and Ashish Kumar, two engineers from Meerut who were 27 at the time of 2012 coverage, started iDubba with the idea of making their own TV viewing better. Gupta, an alumnus of Birla Institute of Technology, had worked at Wipro; Kumar, a BTech in computer science from Uttar Pradesh Technical University, had worked at Pionero Technology and a web development firm. They found that assembling Indian TV programming data was a major obstacle and funded the early period from savings and money borrowed from family and friends before The Morpheus accelerator took them into its sixth batch.
Business model
iDubba was offered free to registered users, and at the time of its 2012 angel round it had no monetization in place, stating plans to build a user base first and later pursue targeted advertising in its mobile apps and monetization of user behaviour data collected on the site. By 2014 the revenue model centred on iCouchApp, sold to TV channels and media houses as a combination of product, engagement and analytics, with analytics delivered in partnership with Goonj Labs, while the consumer app remained a standalone second-screen product.
No monetization was in place at the time of the 2012 angel round; planned routes were targeted advertising within mobile apps and monetization of user behaviour data. The later model was B2B licensing of the iCouchApp platform plus engagement and analytics services to TV channels and media houses, which produced the company's first revenue cheque reported in February 2014.
Traction
By May 2012 iDubba reported more than 70,000 total activities, of which over 25,000 (15,000 reminders and 10,000 tune-ins) occurred in the three weeks after the beta release, more than 1,200 people actively tuning in, 50-plus active leaderboard players, 150-plus channels and over 18,000 shows and movies in its database; 90 leaderboard leaders were slated to receive free DTH recharges that month. In February 2014 the company said iCouchApp had more than 60% engaged and active users and that it had received its first revenue cheque.
Latest developments
As of February 2014 the company was concentrating on iCouchApp, preparing a simplified new version of the second-screen app, adding B2B clients monthly and aiming to break even within four months. The idubba.com domain now displays a domain-sale placeholder page.
▸Full profile — market position, technology, go-to-market, geography, history, risks & controversies
Market position
iDubba was described in 2012 coverage as part of an emerging Indian content-discovery and "social TV" segment, competing with Mumbai-based What's On India, a pioneering web electronic programming guide that had added social interfaces and already had Android and iPhone apps, and alongside TV-fan hubs such as Telechakkar.com.
Relative to existing electronic programme guides, iDubba emphasised a social layer, taste-based recommendations, granular keyword and cast-based alerts, and a rewards economy that paid TV credits for viewing activity. Press coverage positioned it as a domestic counterpart to the international TV check-in service GetGlue, which did not list Indian shows or offer an alert system, and noted the founders' argument that a cable/DTH-oriented guide suited India better than internet-TV approaches.
Technology
A recommendation engine built on Apache Mahout recommendation libraries with a taste-based matching algorithm, an iAlerts platform supporting keyword, cast, genre, live and premiere triggers delivered via SMS and email, a pictorial guide page interface, in-house APIs, an in-house CMS for content management, and Android and planned iPhone applications.
Go-to-market
Consumer acquisition ran through the free website, planned Android and iPhone apps, social sharing on Facebook and Twitter, rewards and leaderboards, and press coverage; The Morpheus accelerator community served as an early beta user base. The later B2B motion sold customizable engagement and analytics solutions directly to TV channels and media houses, with the company reporting a growing number of clients each month as of early 2014.
Indian television viewers, particularly cable and DTH households watching English and Hindi channels; later, TV channels and media houses buying engagement and analytics products.
Geography
Based in Noida, India, with a product covering English and Hindi television channels across India.
History
Rabi Gupta and Ashish Kumar began work on iDubba around 2009-2010, self-funding it with savings plus money borrowed from family and friends, and ran it for more than a year before being inducted into batch 6 of The Morpheus accelerator, where Sameer Guglani and Nandini mentored the team and the accelerator's entrepreneur community acted as early beta users. After more than a year of testing, the public beta launched in May 2012 alongside an undisclosed angel round. The operating entity was reported as iNiD Digimedia Pvt Ltd. By February 2014 the company had pivoted toward iCouchApp, a second-screen TV engagement product that had been in the market for about six months, had booked its first revenue cheque roughly four years in, and planned to merge iDubba and iCouchApp into a single product while targeting break-even within four months.
Risks & controversies
The company operated without a revenue model for roughly four years after founding and pivoted its core product; the founders described sourcing Indian TV programming data as a significant early obstacle and acknowledged still searching for product-market fit as of 2014. The idubba.com domain currently resolves to a page advertising the domain for sale.
Compiled by commissioned research from 8 cited public sources — announcements, filings, and press listed under research sources below.
Key figures
latest reportedCompany-reported or press-reported figures, each dated to when it was claimed — not independently audited.
Timeline · 4
launches, deals, and filingsCo-founder Rabi Gupta said the company shifted from the iDubba TV guide and alerts model toward the second-screen engagement product iCouchApp, received its first revenue cheque after about four years, and planned to merge the two products.
iDubba, operated by iNiD Digimedia Pvt Ltd, raised an undisclosed angel round from investors including Rajan Anandan (MD, Google India), Srikant Sastri (Vivaki India), and Abhishek Rungta and Pallav Nadhani of Seeders. The company said proceeds would go toward technology development, research, marketing, content sourcing and improving user experience.
After more than a year in testing, iDubba released the public beta of its website, adding a recommendation engine built on Mahout libraries, a pictorial guide page, keyword-based intelligent alerts and rewards for watching TV.
The company's blog reported that iDubba was covered in the national edition of The Hindu, describing its taste-based TV show recommendation approach.
Dated company events from announcements, filings, and press; legal rows summarize public dockets and regulator releases.
▸Research sources · 8
primary sources listed
- Idubbaidubba.com · web
8 public sources were cited for this profile; the first-party ones are listed here.
Frequently asked questions
- What does Idubba do?
- Noida-based social TV guide and second-screen engagement startup offering show recommendations, alerts and viewing rewards in India.
- Who are Idubba's investors?
- Idubba's investors include Hyderabad Angels.