A College Project That Became a Used-Book Marketplace for 25,000 Students

Who built it, and what they built

Nitesh Garg is a computer science engineer based in Bathinda, India, who founded Clankart, an online marketplace built for students. The platform lets students sell their used books to other students anywhere in India at no cost to list.

What began as a college project became a startup after students responded strongly. Clankart now counts more than 25,000+ registered students from across the country.

Where the idea came from

The idea came from Nitesh's own college experience. Many colleges sit on the outskirts of cities, so students face travel hassles, high prices, and poor availability when buying books each semester.

Course books are typically needed for only one or two semesters, after which they sit unused while junior students need those same books. Students usually sold old books to scrap dealers by weight, shelved them, or sold to booksellers who paid around 25 to 40 percent of the actual price and resold at 55 to 65 percent.

Nitesh saw that cutting out the middleman would benefit both sides of the transaction, and Clankart was built to do exactly that.

How they built the first version