founded 2007 founders uday challu vishal dhar headquarters gurgaon haryana india area served north america europe australia india uae key people uday challu ceo vishal dhar president of marketing services technical support website www.iyogi.com iyogi is a remote technical support firm based in gurgaon india with customers in the united states the united kingdom the united arab emirates australia canada and india . iyogi provides subscription based technical support for personal computers connected devices and peripherals and software applications . iyogi has been frequently described by tech writers as perpetrating a form of technical support scam . as of april 2016 update the company was being sued by the us state of washington and six or more companies with allegations of scamming customers into buying unneeded software falsely claiming affiliation with major companies such as microsoft apple and hp non payment and non fulfilment of service contracts . 1 2 3 contents 1 history 2 location and partnerships 3 performance 4 reports of misconduct and legal action 5 references 6 external links history edit iyogi was co founded by uday challu and vishal dhar in 2007 . 4 sequoia capital 5 draper fisher jurvetson 6 canaan partners 7 sap ventures 8 and svb india capital partners 9 are the venture capital firms that have invested in the company . in 2009 the firm acquired utah based clean machine inc. 10 11 and appointed its founder larry gordon as president global channel sales . 12 in 2010 iyogi raised us 30 million in series d round of funding led by sequoia capital 13 with follow on investment from existing investors . earlier in the same year the company had secured investment of 15 million from draper fisher jurvetson and others . 14 in july 2014 the axon partners and madison india capital invested 28 million into the company . 15 location and partnerships edit iyogi is headquartered in gurgaon india and also has an office in new york us . 16 in 2010 iyogi and infinite computer solutions india limited entered into a joint agreement enabling the former to operate a service delivery center in bangalore . 17 in feb 2010 ibm signed a data center agreement with iyogi and followed it up with another partnership aimed at supporting the tech support firm s expansion plans in several countries . 18 iyogi launched its operations in india on march 7 2013 targeting small and medium businesses and consumers . 19 on july 9 2015 iyogi partnered with the argo marketing group of lewiston maine for its first call center in north america . the company said that it would create 300 jobs . 20 the partnership ended in october 2015 when argo marketing terminated the contract and filed a lawsuit against iyogi to collect about us 72 000 ; argo ceo jason levesque said that after taking on 30 employees it had been paid about half of what it was owed . he said he decided to terminate the agreement because of a myriad of factors and that argo was not interested in further partnerships with iyogi . 21 performance edit the service was reviewed by michael muchmore 22 for pc mag in april 2014 and was awarded two stars out of five . the review praised the service s low cost polite staff and privacy warnings but found it performed poorly with limited tools and cleanup remarking that iyogi was once the value leader but other services were now preferable in light of its lackluster performance . 23 in april 2016 hindustan times published an article saying that the company was fast losing customers . iyogi employees were reported to have complained about not being paid for over a year and multiple months and had said that over 2 500 of the 4 000 employees had left in consequence ; iyogi said the number was smaller . iyogi ceo challu spoke of a cash flow crisis and a difficult time in the business cycle but that the company would get over it and that people quitting jobs is normal in the industry that has 50 60 % attrition rate . 24 iyogi lost a lot of money into failed ventures such as iot platform on microsoft azure and then ran out of funds amid low sales due to rising complaints by customers whom they exploited completely iyogi was then not able to pay its own running expenses that lead to employees leaving and the employee base shrinking from 5 500 approx to between 1 100 now . the company and it s leaders including uday challu vishal dhar kr ranjith vp finance deepak maheshwari cfo shruti dwivedi sr. vp ops ravi neb vp business dev . and product and many others have gone silent on any queries whether from employees or external parties . additionally it has been said at multiple sources that as of date iyogi owes well over inr 1cr of amount to its ex employees ranging from junior level to senior executives . reports of misconduct and legal action edit iyogi s sales tactics have been criticised . infoworld in 2012 published articles under the byline of robert x. cringely used by several infoworld writers about people who called computer support lines thinking they were getting free or under warranty support from their suppliers but were in fact talking to iyogi . attempts were made to sell them subscriptions for us170 per year and people were told untruthfully that their computers had severe problems . brian krebs formerly a writer for the washington post and later a blogger on security called iyogi and concluded that the company was indeed trying to scare users into subscribing . after this information was first published other people contacted the author to report similar experiences . dave mello a vice president of support and services for kaspersky lab reported regular complaints from customers who had been under the impression that they were receiving authorized kaspersky lab support . 25 cringely said about iyogi how it goes about selling support however is not unlike how the mob markets protection through fear and intimidation . 26 in march 2012 antivirus software company avast severed its ties with iyogi . 27 under an agreement that lasted a little more than two years iyogi had provided online support to avast users free of cost . avast accused iyogi of forcefully selling its online support plans to avast users ; which the antivirus supplier characterised as unnecessary and expensive . avast accused iyogi of at best misconduct . 28 29 reports of misleading conduct continued in 2015 . nuance communications on hearing that iyogi was selling technical support for their dragon naturallyspeaking in april 2015 clarified that iyogi was not certified by nuance suggested not using the support site for iyogi and be sure that you are using nuance s technical support . 30 a false advertising class action lawsuit 31 was filed in new york against iyogi inc. in 2013 32 and was continuing as of october 2015 update . 32 33 the complaint alleged that iyogi deceptively offered free pc diagnostics and a phone consultation with a tech expert who will identify and solve computer problems although there is no credible diagnostic testing and virtually every potential customer receives the same warning about problems that need resolving by iyogi . 32 33 nearly 200 000 of iyogi s existing and previous subscribers alleged that iyogi had violated the us telephone consumer protection act tcpa by aggressive sales tactics including calling people who had asked to be taken off of the call list . in october 2015 a federal court approved a deal including 40 payments to each of about 189 000 iyogi subscribers if they submit a claim form a total of about 7.5 m only 8 % of the available damages under the tcpa . 34 it was reported on 16 december 2015 that washington state us together with microsoft and aarp 35 had filed a lawsuit alleging deceptive business practices under the state consumer protection act and violations of the state computer spyware statute . the state attorney general said that hundreds if not thousands of washington residents had been scammed by iyogi . 1 iyogi announced before responding formally that the lawsuit was without merit and that they would have clarified the issues if they had been consulted . 36 in december 2015 infinite computer solutions sued iyogi for non payment of invoices worth 6.7 million . according to a court filing of may 12 2016 iyogi indicated that it would make a settlement offer but was not at the time in a financial position to do so . 37 in march 2016 tata communications bankers warranty group onecall sued iyogi for breach of contract non payment and other issues . iyogi filed a notice of appearance in the washington state case in late march and had 60 days from that submission to respond formally . 38 tata communications was awarded 1.24 m as part of a default judgment against iyogi reported on 21 september 2016 . 39 besides this multiple other ex employees have initiated legal noticies and lawsuits against the company in hope of recovering their dues . references edit a b johnson gene december 16 2015 . washington state sues firm alleges tech support scam . associated press . retrieved march 21 2016 . joe panettiere 27 april 2016 . synnex division pursues lawsuit vs. iyogi . channele2e . retrieved 28 april 2016 . iyogi lawsuits archives . channele2e . updated frequently meeting on a flight sequoia capital dfj portfolio canaan partners leads 3 million investment in iyogi . silicon valley bank . 25 april 2007 . retrieved 15 may 2016 . sap ventures portfolio iyogi secures 9.5 m in series b funding led by sap ventures . silicon valley bank . july 24 2008 . retrieved nov 10 2012 . in 2007 with the introduction of tyrone lodrick iyogi gained more market value than any other in the market . iyogi acquires clean machine inc . business standard . may 12 2009 . retrieved dec 9 2012 . acquisition of clean machine inc. larry gordon on iyogi web site adrianne jeffries . ny based iyogi strikes a bubble pose raises 30 m. teases ipo . the new york observer . jared kushner dec 13 2010 . retrieved dec 9 2012 . robin wauters . remote tech support company iyogi gets a 15 million boost from dfj others . techcrunch . aol jan 6 2010 . retrieved dec 9 2012 . e com pharma attract lion s share of pe funds . business standard . july 2 2014 . retrieved august 1 2014 . http www.crunchbase.com company iyogi infinite to set up iyogi support centre in bangalore ibm iyogi ink deal for state of the art data centre lison joseph . iyogi turns to india after us success ; company targeting at least 15 % of the local market . the economic times . the times group 07 march 2013 . retrieved 13 march 2013 . iyogi picks lewiston company for customer service center press david sharp . lewiston call center deal with indian company iyogi falls apart . the portland press herald . the associated . retrieved march 9 2016 . pc mag michael muchmore pc mag iyogi 22 april 2014 accessed 24 april 2015 lal sruthin 15 april 2016 . unpaid salaries pink slips the story of lesser known indian bpos . hindustan times . retrieved 2016 04 15 . cringely robert x. 28 march 2010 . the downward dog spiral iyogi exposed . archived from the original on 20 november 2014 . retrieved 21 january 2015 . cringely robert x. 22 march 2010 . tech support or extortion you be the judge remote support company iyogi was caught using scare tactics to sell its services to naive customers . can it win back our trust . retrieved 21 january 2015 . steckler vincent 15 march