Draft:Manoj Adithya

Manoj Adithya
Manoj Adithya is an Indian millionaire entrepreneur based in Amsterdam, The Netherlands,.. best known for co-founding Roam.ai, a developer platform for location tracking technologies. In 2024, he began hosting a video podcast titled "Unravel with Manoj Adithya"

Early life
In 1995, Adithya was born in Tamil Nadu, India and raised in Bengaluru, often referred to as the Silicon Valley of India. At the age of 17, he taught himself how to code when he was asked to build a website for his family's business. This project sparked his interest in design, leading him to learn Sketch and later Swift to build iOS apps. He later moved to Amsterdam in 2017 to participate in a startup accelerator program and has been living there ever since.

Spoonfed
In 2014, Adithya co-founded Spoonfed.in with Sudir Narisetty, whom he met during his Indian Institute of Technology entrance exam preparation in Kota, Rajasthan, in 2011. Spoonfed was a food delivery startup that aimed to offer a premium delivery experience by providing restaurants with custom-branded packaging tailored to their specific needs. Despite its innovative approach, Spoonfed struggled to secure funding in India's highly competitive food delivery market. As a result, the company ceased operations in India and relocated to Dubai, after raising $2 million in funding. By the time of the move, Adithya had already exited the company. Eventually, Spoonfed.ae was acqui-hired by Noon.com, a prominent e-commerce company based in Dubai.

Roam.ai
In 2016, Adithya co-founded Hifi, a location-based messaging app, with Jothi Priyadharahan Ramakrishnan. During an accelerator program in Amsterdam around September 2017, Hifi evolved into GeoSpark, a developer-focused location tracking and intelligence platform. GeoSpark developed advanced location SDKs (Software Development Kits) for iOS, Android, React Native, and Flutter, along with APIs for geofencing, trips, and location insights. The company was backed by notable Dutch venture capital investors, including Rockstart and Airbridge Equity Partners, raising €100K and €500K, respectively. Roam.ai further secured €1 million in follow-on funding from undisclosed investors. In 2021, GeoSpark rebranded to Roam.ai as part of its enterprise-focused strategy and introduction of new, improved technologies. Roam.ai's high-accuracy and battery-efficient technology made it a strong contender in the location technology space, attracting prominent customers such as STC Pay, Menzis, and Hugo App. Roam was also recognized by the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, securing the 29th spot in the Chamber of Commerce Innovation Top 100 for 2020.

In December 2023, it was announced that Roam.ai had been acquired by the French geospatial data provider Echo Analytics for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition aims to develop a comprehensive 360-degree location platform

Unravel Podcast
After the acquisition, Adithya launched his own video podcast, where he interviews entrepreneurs and venture capitalists about their journeys, discussing how they achieved success and the lessons they've learned along the way. So far, Adithya has interviewed notable guests such as; Reza Sardeha, founder of Dan.com (Acquired by Godaddy) and Johan van Mil, founder of the Dutch venture capital firm Peak (€150 million fund)

Awards & Recognitions
In 2019 Adithya was honored by fd.nl as one of the top 50 talents in the Netherlands