In January, a young entrepreneur Farooq Seeru from north Kashmir’s Sopore town, developed Saalas, a mobile application with an aim to delivers food (fast food, wazwaan, Chinese, etc.) and grocery items to doorsteps.
“In the delivery/fulfillment service model, we’ve come a long way and hit big milestones early on,” he said adding “It wasn’t easy, and we did face a lot of difficulties and obstacles, but we learned and improved a lot from failures and setbacks.”
The app is presently operational in Sopore town, but he wants to expand it across Kashmir. The app is available in the Google Play store for all Android phones and the App Store for iPhone users.
A software engineer by profession with solid experience in Data Science (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning), Farooq has traveled to different countries across the globe and worked in various countries like England, Japan, Thailand, Singapore, and Dubai.
“Saalas is one of my first initiatives through which I can serve the people of my town, and further, my aim is to digitalize Kashmir by bringing some tech solutions,” he said.
This initiative has become a source of employment for 11 persons, from delivery boys to office assistants.
Hailing from Arampora, Farooq has a well-defined vision for the year 2023. “Among the many objectives, we are planning to create a series of cloud kitchens and dark stores in Baramulla, Sopore, Bandipora, Kupwara, Srinagar and other parts of the valley,” he said, adding “I have a team working on the ground and studying the very minute details about cloud kitchens and dark stores setups.”
“We are currently raising money and have already succeeded in our first round of investments,” Farooq said.
The 32-year-old entrepreneur has done MS Software Systems from Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani.
Farooq has proved that with hard work and determination, anyone can be successful in life and considers his elder brother, as an inspiration.
