PTI
 
London, May 8: Two cousins of Indian origin at the University of Oxford have overnight become millionaires after a free online service they started for students was sold for 2.5 million pounds within months after its launch.

Kulveer Taggar, 24, and Harjeet Taggar, 22, started their company 'Auctomatic' as a free online service while studying and working in the university’s student society Oxford Entrepreneurs.

Things actually began when they set up their first company, internet auction site 'boso.com' (Buy Or Sell Online), as undergraduates which was supported by Oxfords Sad Business School.

The site was a big success and the pair went on to receive major financial backing to move to Silicon Valley.

They then built on their experience to launch 'Auctomatic', a service helping businesses manage selling on online sites like eBay, in October last year.

Kulveer and Harjeet returned to Oxford for the Silicon Valley Comes to Oxford event at the Sad Business School in November 2007.

Two days later, they were approached by a buyer. As 'Auctomatic' was just launched, Kulveer and Harjeet were still in negotiations regarding funding and so were struggling to make ends meet.

After the event, though, Auctomatic became part of a bidding war between three companies before it was sold to Live Current Media.

Kulveer, former president of Oxford Entrepreneurs, said: "The approach came as a surprise. Any entrepreneur is inherently confident, but we never imagined being so lucky that we'd sell our company within a year of launching."