ITV

Tag: Intel Capital

  • MaxIQ plugs in AI ace Sastry Malladi as CTO to power up its next big leap

    MaxIQ plugs in AI ace Sastry Malladi as CTO to power up its next big leap

    MUMBAI: MaxIQ didn’t just hire a CTO; it summoned a Silicon Valley warlock. With three decades of engineering sorcery under his belt, Sastry Malladi has joined the AI startup as chief technology officer—and he’s not here to play nice with traditional revenue models. Backed by Dell Technologies Capital and Intel Capital, MaxIQ just added a whole lot of firepower to its AI engine.

    The appointment of Malladi comes at a time when MaxIQ is gearing up for hypergrowth. He will lead the company’s product and engineering teams as they expand their Revenue AI platform—a brainy beast designed to help B2B SaaS teams turn messy sales pipelines into clean, predictable growth machines.

    Malladi is no stranger to the startup trenches. He co-founded FogHorn Systems (later snapped up by Johnson Controls), built large-scale platforms at eBay and Oracle, and holds the kind of AI chops that make recruiters weep with envy. Now, he’s bringing that playbook to MaxIQ.

    “I’m thrilled to join the leadership team at MaxIQ during this pivotal growth phase. Today’s revenue teams are operating in silos—disconnected tools for sales and success lead to inaccurate forecasts, missed handoffs, and lost opportunities. With Revenue AI, we have the chance to change the game. I’m excited to build the platform that brings it all together,” said Malladi.

    At MaxIQ, he’ll lead the development of its Agentic AI capabilities. That includes forecasting, onboarding, product adoption, and revenue expansion—all in one unified dashboard that’s less spreadsheet, more smart rocket.

    His arrival follows MaxIQ’s recent $7.8 million seed round, led by Dell Technologies Capital and supported by Intel Capital. With fresh funding and a battle-tested CTO in place, the company is ready to turbocharge its R&D roadmap and hire globally.

    CEO Matt Hickey didn’t hold back on the praise. “Sastry’s track record of technical excellence and entrepreneurial success speaks for itself. He’s the right leader to help us scale the next-generation platform that today’s GTM teams have been waiting for.”

    As B2B SaaS companies scramble to align sales, customer success, and RevOps, MaxIQ is rolling out the AI red carpet. From deal qualification to onboarding and renewals, it’s offering a one-stop revenue command centre—and with Malladi now at the helm, the platform is only getting sharper.

  • Hungama raises $25 MN in funding round led by Xiaomi along with 3 investors

    Hungama raises $25 MN in funding round led by Xiaomi along with 3 investors

    MUMBAI:  Hungama has raised an investment of US$25M, led by smartphone company Xiaomi, along with existing investors Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and ace financial investor and Indian billionaire, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.

    The company has constantly innovated and delivered differentiated, premium audio and video content to its consumers across web and mobile platforms, fuellng the company’s growth to becoming the largest overall digital platform in India. Hungama has over 65 million (6.5 crore) monthly active users across all its platforms, consuming a content base of over 3.5mn premium digital units across audio and video. 

    With this round of funding, Hungama will expand its content library and further invest in world class technology on its mobile app platforms Hungama Music for music and Hungama Play for premium video including movies, television and original series. Hungama will soon add over 1,500 hours of television content along with original content to its current Hungama Play offering of over 8,000 movies in English and 12 Indian languages.

    Speaking about the funding round,  Hungama Digital Media Entertainment founder and CEO Neeraj Roy said,  “India is adding 8 million (80 lakh) new consumers to the Internet each month with 90 per cent of digital consumption being driven by mobile. Young Indians love their music and movies and the mobile will be the most used screen for this generation. Content will drive the next phase of Digital India and we are delighted to partner with Xiaomi as we prepare to bring premium and original digital entertainment to a 100 million (10 crore) Indians before the end of this year.”

    Xiaomi vice president Hugo Barra said, “We think of smartphones as a platform for us to deliver Internet services, and this includes content. We are investing in Hungama not only to start integrating content into our smartphones, but also to grow together with them and deepen our understanding of the content sector in India. We have carefully selected Hungama because of what they are doing in terms of aggregating large amounts of content and delivering an amazing user experience.”

    Hungama Digital Media Entertainment chairman Rakesh Jhunjhunwala said, “I have been invested into Hungama for several years and participated in this new capital raise as I believe they have built an unique leadership position with the most compelling music and movie OTT service for South Asians globally that is ripe for growth as India will embrace broadband and 4G. We welcome Xiaomi as one of our partners.”

    Bessemer Venture Partners managing director Vishal Gupta said,  “We are excited about the leadership position that Hungama has built as being the one stop OTT platform across music, videos and movies. We are delighted to have Xiaomi as our partners and will accelerate our growth and leadership.”

  • Hungama raises $25 MN in funding round led by Xiaomi along with 3 investors

    Hungama raises $25 MN in funding round led by Xiaomi along with 3 investors

    MUMBAI:  Hungama has raised an investment of US$25M, led by smartphone company Xiaomi, along with existing investors Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners and ace financial investor and Indian billionaire, Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.

    The company has constantly innovated and delivered differentiated, premium audio and video content to its consumers across web and mobile platforms, fuellng the company’s growth to becoming the largest overall digital platform in India. Hungama has over 65 million (6.5 crore) monthly active users across all its platforms, consuming a content base of over 3.5mn premium digital units across audio and video. 

    With this round of funding, Hungama will expand its content library and further invest in world class technology on its mobile app platforms Hungama Music for music and Hungama Play for premium video including movies, television and original series. Hungama will soon add over 1,500 hours of television content along with original content to its current Hungama Play offering of over 8,000 movies in English and 12 Indian languages.

    Speaking about the funding round,  Hungama Digital Media Entertainment founder and CEO Neeraj Roy said,  “India is adding 8 million (80 lakh) new consumers to the Internet each month with 90 per cent of digital consumption being driven by mobile. Young Indians love their music and movies and the mobile will be the most used screen for this generation. Content will drive the next phase of Digital India and we are delighted to partner with Xiaomi as we prepare to bring premium and original digital entertainment to a 100 million (10 crore) Indians before the end of this year.”

    Xiaomi vice president Hugo Barra said, “We think of smartphones as a platform for us to deliver Internet services, and this includes content. We are investing in Hungama not only to start integrating content into our smartphones, but also to grow together with them and deepen our understanding of the content sector in India. We have carefully selected Hungama because of what they are doing in terms of aggregating large amounts of content and delivering an amazing user experience.”

    Hungama Digital Media Entertainment chairman Rakesh Jhunjhunwala said, “I have been invested into Hungama for several years and participated in this new capital raise as I believe they have built an unique leadership position with the most compelling music and movie OTT service for South Asians globally that is ripe for growth as India will embrace broadband and 4G. We welcome Xiaomi as one of our partners.”

    Bessemer Venture Partners managing director Vishal Gupta said,  “We are excited about the leadership position that Hungama has built as being the one stop OTT platform across music, videos and movies. We are delighted to have Xiaomi as our partners and will accelerate our growth and leadership.”

  • IndiaMART ropes in Prateek Chandra as CFO

    IndiaMART ropes in Prateek Chandra as CFO

    MUMBAI: IndiaMART has appointed Prateek Chandra as its chief finance officer. In his new role, Chandra will be responsible for managing the company’s financial growth, driving key business initiatives and playing an integral role in ensuring the organisation’s success.

     

    IndiaMART founder & CEO Dinesh Agarwal said, “Prateek brings with himself an in-depth technology and media industry experience, along with immense knowledge of capital markets and financial and strategic planning. We are confident that he would be an outstanding addition to our leadership team and would help us implement our near-term operational goals, as we plan to scale up our marketplace to newer highs. It is my privilege to welcome him to the team and I wish him all the best in his role.”

     

    Chandra added, “I am pleased to be a part of the country’s leading online marketplace which has been growing significantly over the past, and also has an ambitious vision for future growth. IndiaMART is at a juncture of momentous growth and being a part of this inspiring journey will be elating.”

     

    Formerly, Chandra was HT Media CFO, radio business (104 FM), heading responsibility of finance and related operational aspects of the business. He holds over 14 years of experience in building business strategy, financial planning, M&A’s and managing investor relations in Indian and International markets. 

  • mFormation plans expansion in India

    mFormation plans expansion in India

    BANGALORE: mFormation Technologies Inc, the provider of mobile device management solutions, has announced the opening of its new facility in Bangalore which will also serve as the company’s headquarters.

    It will be one of mFormation’s three main hubs for product development and will provide professional services and support for customers across the globe.

    The Bangalore office has also setup a global Interoperability test centre and enabled device vendors to test their devices against the mFormation product for OMA standards compliance. mFormation is on course to grow the India team to 200 people over the next few years. Moving into the new facility is part of mFormation’s growth strategy to expand it’s human capital to meet growing global customer demands, states an official release.

    mFormation Technologies Inc. CEO Mark Edwards says, “Mobile communication devices and networks are no longer exclusive for simple voice calls. They have grown from e-mailing & gaming to become a full fledged corporate computing device. It’s imperative for mobile operators to adopt cutting edge technology to streamline their data services strategy and secure incremental revenues.”

    mFormation has drawn in a total investment of about $50 million, after closing a Series D round of $24.5 million in April 2006. In the initial series D funding, the company had raised $15.3 million from the same investors. Existing investors Alex Brown Venture Partners, Battery Ventures, Carmel Ventures, Intel Capital and North Bridge Venture Partners participated in this financing, adds the release.

    mFormation Technologies Inc. is a provider of mobile device management software, offering a solution that enables mobile operators to rapidly accelerate their data revenues and reduce support costs. mFormation’s market-leading mFormation Sevice Manager Suite is a comprehensive over-the-air device management software solution in the industry.A modular solution, the suite enables mobile operators to remotely configure settings and new services, diagnose faults, update firmware and software, monitor customer experience and secure device content throughout the subscriber lifecycle.

  • Intel Capital invests Rs 300 million in Real Image Media

    Intel Capital invests Rs 300 million in Real Image Media

    MUMBAI: Intel Capital, the venture capital investment arm of Intel Corporation, is investing around Rs 300 million in Chennai-based Real Image Media Technologies Pvt Ltd, say market sources.

    The funds will be mainly used for meeting the research and development and international marketing expansion plans of the company. Real Image is a company which specialises on digital entertainment technology in the film, video, audio and animation industries worldwide.

    Real Image had received its first round of venture capital (VC) funding from Street Edge and Novastar in 2004. With Intel’s investment, the company’s total dilution to VCs is a little above 30 per cent, sources say. Neither Intel nor Real Image executives wanted to comment on the investments and the shareholding details.

    Intel had set up a $250 million Intel Capital Technology Fund in December 2005. The investment in Real Image is made through this fund. “This latest investment, together with earlier announced funding in Maya Entertainment, Mauj, Mobiapps Holdings and Persistent Systems, aims at driving Indian innovation in wireless connectivity, digital media content and consumer internet,” Intel says in an official release.

    Real Media is targeting installation of its digital systems in theatres overseas. Besides, the company is eyeing digital theatres in India. Real image has solutions which can adopt to any format including MPEG-2, JPEC-2000 and Windows Media Player 9 series.

    The company offers Qube Cinema, a digital cinema solution. QMedia is an out-of-home digital advertising solutions for products to exploit and reach out to their target audience while QJam networked digital jukeboxes is used in movie theatres as QCine digital cinema advertising solutions and in shopping malls as QSign digital signage solutions.

    Intel’s latest deal was announced in the 7th Intel Capital CEO summit currently underway in Mumbai. Intel Capital made its first strategic investment in India in 1998 and since then has invested in more than 40 companies across seven cities in India.

    “This latest investment underscores Intel Capital’s commitment to fostering technology innovation and growth in India.” says Intel Capital president Arvind Sodhani. “Intel Capital has announced investment funds in India and other locations around the world and we will continue to work proactively with portfolio companies to make them more successful.”

  • Intel Capital exteds Wimax investments worldwide

    Intel Capital exteds Wimax investments worldwide

    BANGALORE: Intel Capital, the venture capital investment arm of Intel Corporation, announced new Wimax (Wireless Interoperability for Microwave Access) investments today in Orascom Telecom Wimax Limited. Both deals underscore Intel Capital’s continuing support for the deployment of low cost broadband internet access through Wimax networks around the world.

    Orascom Telecom Wimax Limited is also the first investment from the Intel Capital Middle East and Turkey fund announced in November of 2005.

    Both deals are collaborations between Intel Capital and established telecommunications companies which will bring significant experience of network deployment, marketing and operations to the newly formed joint ventures. Orascom Telecom Wimax Limited will focus its efforts on working with governments and companies throughout the Middle East and parts of Asia to obtain suitable spectrum licenses for the deployment of Wimax services.

    Enertel Wimax N.V. is targeting the deployment of Wimax services in the Netherlands. In addition to funding and personnel, Enertel is also contributing an existing 3.5 GHz spectrum license to support this new joint venture.

    Both new companies will be majority owned by Orascom Telecom and Enertel respectively, with Intel Capital as the lead investor. Intel Capital will also provide access to the significant technical and marketing resources of Intel Corporation.

    “Intel Capital is a leader in promoting the deployment of low cost Wimax based internet access” said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital. “These latest agreements build on the foundation of existing Intel Capital investments to bring the benefits of low cost, high bandwidth internet access to consumers around the world and support the vision of a World Ahead that Intel CEO Paul Otellini outlined earlier this month at the World Congress on Information Technology”

    Over the past year, Intel Capital has announced investments in a number of Wimax and wireless broadband service providers around the world including: PIPEX Wireless in the UK, DBD in Germany, Unwired Australia, Neovia in Brazil, and MVSNet in Mexico. Intel Capital has also been active in supporting Wimax infrastructure through investments in Navini, a provider of Wimax base stations and modems and Beceem, a provider of mobile Wimax chipsets.

    “We see the creation of this new wireless service provider as an incredible opportunity to provide new services to major cities in the Netherlands,” says Enertel executive chairman Cees Meeuwis. “Enertel Wimax N.V.will offer wireless access and services through a wholesale relationship with a number of resale channels. This wireless broadband access service will uniquely complement the existing fixed line Broadband Access services already offered in the Netherlands.”

    “Orascom Telecom Wimax Limited is an exciting first step towards bringing the advantages and opportunity of internet connectivity to the people of the Middle East, and beyond, many of whom have never had such an opportunity before” says Orascom CEO Franco Grimaldi. “Together with Intel Capital, we will work closely with governments and companies in the Middle East and Asia to make this vision a reality.”