Growthpond’s Dukaan app restored on Google Play Store

Growthpond-owned Dukaan app has been restored by Google on its Play Store 50 days after it was removed due to Growthpond’s legal battle with Khatabook. 

The development comes soon after both companies reached an out of court settlement. The companies had jointly announced that they have resolved their issues concerning the Dukaan app and as part of the overall settlement, Khatabook would get a nominal equity in Growthpond’s Dukaan app.

The legal battle between the companies was initiated in mid-August when Growthpond’s Dukaan app served Khatabook a notice over plagiarism and infringement of copyright.

However, Khatabook managed to get an interim relief from Karnataka High Court after filing a writ petition. The court barred Suumit Shah, founder of Growthpond, to distribute the Dukaan app and Google removed the app from its Play Store on October 2. The app was also blocked from being downloaded as an android application package or APK.

During the period, Khatabook rechristened its app from Dukaan by Khatabook to MyStore by Khatabook.

While none of them had revealed anything further on the settlement, Entrackr’s sources said that Lightspeed and Sequoia, the common investors, had mediated the agreement between the companies.

Even after being locked in a legal battle, Growthpond's Dukaan managed to corner $6 million seed round from Lightspeed and Matrix at a valuation of $22.5 million. Since its launch, the app has garnered over 3 million downloads on the Play Store.

"Despite being down from the PlayStore for over 50 days, we are still holding the market leader position in terms of the active userbase and this stickiness shows what we are building is getting crazy love from the users," said Shah in a response to Entrackr's queries.

"We are desperately waiting to push new updates/features that we've been working on while the legal battle was ongoing - which should push Dukaan to the next level," he added.

Meanwhile, Khatabook launched a separate staff management app Pagarkhata. Along with Khatabook, another Lightspeed-backed company OkCredit also launched a similar app called OkStaff.

Both Pagarkhata and OkStaff will compete with Sequoia-backed Pagarbook. Entrackr’s sources emphasised that Growthpond’s Dukaan may also counter Pagarbook’s forte with a separate app.