This Hyderabad startup is making ‘smart’ calculators for small shopkeepers

The smart calculator from Tohands is available for pre-order (Image credit: smart.tohands.in)

“The backbone of small businesses in India is still a calculator, whether you go from a jewellery store to a Kirana store,” says Praveen Mishra, the co-founder of Tohands. Mishra’s Hyderabad-based startup has designed a smart calculator – pegged as the world’s first such device – that also records data while doing calculations, reports the Indian Express.

But even just a year ago, Mishra himself was not convinced there was a market for a smart calculator. His doubts were put to rest when he saw a woman shopkeeper in Bengaluru struggling to keep track of the several transactions she made throughout the day.

Mishra, 21, observed that the shopkeeper would use a calculator to calculate the sum for each transaction, write it down on a piece of paper and, at the end of the day, add it all up again using a calculator to arrive at the final amount.

“Calculators have a basic use case but we can do a lot of things on top of the calculation part, which is where we think the smart calculator will be a really good tool for the shopkeepers,” Mishra told Indian Express in an interview.

He further noted that small business owners are usually not comfortable using digital cash books, and nor do they have the resources to invest in fancy billing machines. By and large, most use calculators to keep track of daily expenses and income.

To make the process easier, the Uttar Pradesh native started Tohands in 2017 with Satyam Sahu, who is in charge of the software and app, and Shanmuga Vadival, who looks after the hardware. Mishra himself looks after the product side of things.

Since its inception, Tohands has developed three versions of the smart calculator. The final version, which is available for pre-order at Rs 3,000, is described as “a powerful smart calculator that helps shopkeepers keep track of all income and expense, provides them with daily, weekly, monthly reports and analytics.”

The smart calculator was launched by Telangana IT secretary Jayesh Ranjan last month. “This device spares the shopkeeper the hassle of jotting down all the income and expenses made during the day and presents an updated statement at the click of a button,” Rajan was quoted as saying by Deccan Chronicle.

Tohands has raised Rs 50 lakh in funding from Startup India Seed fund and T-hub.