The inside story of the Khatabook-Dukaan mess

The slugfest over plagiarism and IP theft charges throws up a far more important question: should an investor sacrifice ethics at the altar of FOMO?

The public details of the case are as follows. In mid-August 2020, a company that goes by the name Growthpond Technologies alleged that its app had been plagiarized by another company called Kyte Technologies Inc., which popularly goes by the name Khatabook. The app in question is called Dukaan, which translates to "shop" in English. 

The issue came to light when Khatabook launched its own app called Dukaan by Khatabook, and the similarities with Growthpond’s app didn’t just stop at the name. The logo used by Khatabook was eerily similar, and so were the colour scheme and user interface. If …

Author

Ashish K. Mishra

Ashish is the editor-in-chief of The Morning Context. One of the best-known business feature writers in India, he was selected for Germany’s Robert Bosch Stiftung Fellowship in 2012 and received the Mumbai Press Club RedInk certificate of recognition in 2015 for his story “Inside the Network 18 takeover”. Before joining The Morning Context, Ashish co-founded The Ken, where he was managing editor. His previous writing stints include Mint, Forbes India and The Economic Times.

Editor-in-chief

ashish@mailtmc.com

London

Author

Arti Singh

Arti is a former writer at The Morning Context. She previously worked with publications such as ET Prime, VCCircle, Firstpost and EETimes. Arti has keenly tracked the evolution of financial technology in India and written some of the defining pieces on the ecosystem as it birthed and matured. Even when not writing about it, she loves to dissect the revenue models, margins and regulations that are shaping the sector.

artisingh@mailtmc.com