DAZL

DAZL was a hardware technology company that developed a connected device focused on women's safety. Founded in 2015 by the mother-daughter team Aditi Chadha and Anu Chadha, the Gurgaon, India-based startup aimed to build confidence and fearlessness in women. The inspiration came from founder Aditi Chadha's own experience as an international student in the US, where personal safety was a primary concern for her and her family. Before DAZL, Aditi spent over a decade in the US, working in mergers and acquisitions and financial audits for firms like Deloitte and Grant Thornton after becoming a licensed Certified Public Accountant. She liquidated her 401K to provide the initial funds for product development. Her mother and co-founder, Anu Chadha, is a serial entrepreneur with a background in design, manufacturing, and supply chain management.

The company's core product was a small, modular IoT device that could be attached to a keychain, handbag, or worn as a pendant. Its main function was to provide a way for users to signal for help in an emergency without needing to access their phone. Pressing a button on the device triggered an SOS alert, sending the user's GPS location to pre-selected family and friends. The device could also emit a loud alarm to deter a potential attacker and create a distraction. Beyond its primary safety features, the DAZL device included secondary functionalities such as a smartphone and keychain finder, a selfie button, and the ability to receive filtered notifications for calls and messages via haptic alerts. The business model involved direct-to-consumer online sales and plans to partner with existing jewelry companies.

DAZL participated in several accelerator programs, receiving seed funding from entities including Vodafone, the Government of India, and Zone Startups India. In 2017, the company joined the HAX hardware accelerator in San Francisco, securing investment from SOSV. Aditi Chadha was recognized with a merit scholarship for MIT's Global Entrepreneurship Bootcamp and delivered a TEDx talk in 2018 about her journey with the startup. Despite these milestones and having a product ready for mass production, PitchBook lists the company as out of business as of February 2020.

Keywords: personal safety device, women's safety, IoT wearable, Aditi Chadha, Anu Chadha, SOS alert device, location sharing, smart jewelry, HAX accelerator, SOSV, wearable technology, emergency alert, connected device, keychain finder, personal alarm, safety accessory, Gurgaon startup, hardware startup, female founder, mother-daughter team