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Tag: Investment

  • HK-based Lamplight raises $1.49 million to drive social analytics in Asia

    HK-based Lamplight raises $1.49 million to drive social analytics in Asia

    MUMBAI: Lamplight Analytics, a Hong Kong based social media analytics startup, has completed a seed funding round of $1.49 million, led by venture capital fund Vectr Ventures.

     

    The investment is currently one of Hong Kong’s largest seed investment rounds ever. Other participants in the investment round included local and international firms, friends and family. The company plans to use the capital to accelerate its growth in Asia while further developing its proprietary technology.

     

    Vectr Ventures’ Alan Chan says, “We invested in Lamplight because of their incredibly diverse and dynamic team. Their combined skills are perfect for tapping into this rapidly evolving, exponentially growing, demand driven market.”

     

    Lamplight Analytics was founded by Sam Olsen (CEO), Fergus Clarke (COO) and Nathan Pacey (CTO) in 2014, after their experience in Asia revealed a lack of specialised tools designed to navigate Asia’s social media landscape. They created the Lamplight tool to address the complexities of social media analysis in Asia, stemming from language, culture, variety in social platforms, and geography, among other factors. 

     

    In less than a year, Lamplight Analytics has grown to over 15 staff at its Kennedy Town office and is currently working with numerous multinational and regional clients, including Live Nation, the world’s largest live music company.

     

    Olsen said, “Lamplight helps our clients listen with a local ear, which provides enormous commercial advantage. Our tool allows you to understand what your customers and markets are really saying, helping you identify growth opportunities, set effective campaign goals, manage your online reputation, the applications are endless.”

     

    Clarke added, “Bringing realtime insight to businesses on their target markets is incredibly useful in a region as diverse as ours. The investment ensures Hong Kong will be at the forefront of advances in this technology.”

     

    Social analytics tools like Lamplight are using latest technologies to uncover value from the continuous conversation found on social media. Millions of social sources and data can now be aggregated and transformed to provide important brand and market insights such as brand sentiment, demographics, top influencers and other actionable insights, allowing brands to make quick and informed decisions, factors crucial in today’s fast paced business environment.

     

    Major investments by both investors and brands into the social analytics are transforming the once niche industry. A study by global market research and consultancy Marketsandmarkets shows the social marketing analytics sector is projected to be worth at least $2.75 billion by 2019, growing at 35 per cent a year, with Asia second only to North America in terms of market size.

  • Snapdeal raises $500 million investment from Alibaba, SoftBank & Foxconn

    Snapdeal raises $500 million investment from Alibaba, SoftBank & Foxconn

    MUMBAI: Snapdeal has secured an investment of $500 million led by Alibaba Group, Foxconn and SoftBank to power its digital commerce ecosystem.

     

    Existing investors Temasek, BlackRock, Myriad and Premji Invest also participated in this round.

     

    Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl said, “We see this milestone as a significant endorsement of Snapdeal’s strategy and commitment to creating life changing experiences for millions of small businesses and consumers in India. With global leaders like Alibaba, Foxconn and SoftBank, in addition to our other existing partners, supporting us, our efforts towards building India’s most impactful digital commerce ecosystem will be propelled further, enabling us to contribute towards creating a Digital India.”

     

  • BedBathMore.com plans $20 mn investment in 18 months; to raise $10 mn

    BedBathMore.com plans $20 mn investment in 18 months; to raise $10 mn

    MUMBAI: Social commerce platform BedBathmore.com will be investing close to $20 million as part of its expansion plans over the next 18 months. The company is already in talks with investors from the retail trade sector as well as VCs to raise an initial round of about $7-10 million over the next couple of months.

     

    BedBathMore.com, currently funded internally and via Blume Ventures, is likely to close the first round of investment over the next 90 days.

     

    The company, which recently re-aligned its business from a pure-play commerce model to a content-community-commerce model, will invest the funds to build its product offering as well as technology. The company will also be doubling its team size, increasing from the current 100-member team to over 250 by the end of the current fiscal.

     

    Over the next 18 months, the company will focus on extending the current value-propositions it offers to its users. Key amongst these will be increasing the community of architects and designers on its platform from the current 3500 to 10,000 by December this year. BedbathMore will also begin development of several industry first features to its platform that will appeal to users looking to style their homes. 

     

    BedBathMore founder and CEO Amit Dalmia said, “BedBathMore.com will be a platform to combine content, community and commerce, in a simple yet intelligent manner. We don’t want to be viewed just as a commerce company but as a discovery based company. BedBathMore.com will be a disruptive and an integral part of bridging the gaps, currently not being looked at in the market. As a part of this journey, we are looking for partners who can associate with us to realize this vision.”

     

    Over the past few months, BedBathMore has made key acquisitions of Homado.com, an online community of architects and CrudeArea, an art based start-up focused on the discovery of graphic art.

  • Best Foodworks invests in online fresh food store iOrderFresh

    Best Foodworks invests in online fresh food store iOrderFresh

    MUMBAI: iOrderFresh, the mobile-first, fresh food and grocery retail brand from Supply Chain Analytics and Technologies has received a strategic investment of an undisclosed amount from Best Foodworks. 

     

    Brainchild of Nitin Sawhney, iOrderFresh currently operates in the Delhi-NCR region with a key proposition of ‘Fresh Produce from Farm to Kitchen’. Sawhney, who is the former COO of India Today Group’s lifestyle marketplace BagItToday.com, had successfully mobilised strategic funding from Axel Springer AG for the BagIt venture in 2010. 

     

    Best Foodworks is founded by Alkesh Tandon, who is the executive director of Nelson India, a reputed corporate design firm providing architecture, interior planning and space management solutions. Following this investment, Tandon will join the Board of iOrderFresh and provide strategic guidance to grow the business exponentially.

     

    Tandon said, “The smartphone is ubiquitous in modern India and slated for tremendous growth. We are seeing how online shopping has shifted from a trend to a lifestyle. The m-Commerce tide is yet to sweep the country and we are certain that grocery shopping will be on top of the list, given our fast-paced lives. We are excited to partner with iOrderFresh, which we believe will redefine the food consumption supply chain of NCR and progressively across India. At Best Foodworks, we are constantly looking at opportunities which are aligned to the consumption story of the Indian economy.”  

     

    Sawhney added, “Online grocery though still nascent, is at a sunrise stage in India. In the past three months alone we have seen volumes double with negligible marketing spends. We are committed to delivering the best quality Fresh Produce to our customers day after day. Our action plan is to emerge as the leading player in the NCR region and then expand to other cities. We will be expanding our product offerings with the inclusion of new categories very soon. The money raised in this round will be invested in bolstering our technology, supply-chain, customer acquisition and services.”

  • AngelPrime invests Rs 3.2 crore in marketing tech start-up Vidgyor

    AngelPrime invests Rs 3.2 crore in marketing tech start-up Vidgyor

    MUMBAI: Seed-stage venture capital fund (VCF) AngelPrime has invested approximately Rs 3.2 crore ($500,000) in Vidgyor – a targeted video advertisement platform for Internet TV.

     

    The Bangalore-based start-up enables broadcasters to monetize live TV streaming on the Internet by replacing standard TV advertisements with personalized video ads. The funding will help Vidgyor to expand their target user base, increase marketing efforts and further develop their technology.

     

    Internet TV is gaining popularity in India with many viewers watching live news and TV. The proliferation of mobile devices, availability of low–cost Internet and changing lifestyles has fueled the growth of Internet TV in India. The Indian diaspora is also a huge market for the broadcasters with people wanting to stay connected with their country and its TV channels. Currently, Internet TV features the same ads, which run on broadcast TV. Video publishers are unable to monetize live TV streams delivered over Internet, as the advertiser has not paid for showing them online. On the other hand, advertisers are unable to reach out to the online audience who prefer watching TV over Internet through a mobile device.

     

    Vidgyor started a year back with the vision of enabling broadcasters and content distributors to monetize live TV streams delivered over internet by auto-detecting original broadcast TV ads and replacing them with different set of targeted mid-roll ads. The organization has developed a technology platform that can effectively provide incremental revenue through deployment of mid rolls.

     

    Vidgyor enables personalized ad targeting and provides high quality user experience to the end user. Advertisers also benefit more from this model, as they will now be able to reach out to the right audience and user base. The Vidgyor platform can integrate with any VAST compliant video ad network and also provides a dashboard to track revenue and manage campaigns in real-time.

     

    AngelPrime managing partner Bala Parthasarathy said, “Personalized advertising for live TV over Internet has largely been an untapped market in the country. Broadcasters, so far, have been unable to monetize live streaming through Internet and Vidgyor aims to help them address this effectively. We see a huge potential for start-ups such as Vidgyor in the ad-tech solution space. We are excited to partner with them and support them in their growth.”

     

    IndiaTV vice president – digital Anushrav Gulati added, “Vidgyor’s innovative solution has enabled IndiaTV to generate revenue from our Live TV streams. We are exploring synergies to use the solution with our global content distributors.”

     

    Vidgyor co-founder Mahaboob Khan said, “We are very happy to partner with AngelPrime and are sure this partnership will boost our growth. The AngelPrime team is known for its expertise in mentoring seed –stage startups and we hope to benefit from their collective experience. We have already signed up with leading broadcasters and aim to achieve a positive growth in the near future.”

  • Vodafone invests Rs 1000+ crore in Maharashtra and Goa circles

    Vodafone invests Rs 1000+ crore in Maharashtra and Goa circles

    NEW DELHI: Vodafone India has invested over Rs 1050 crore on ramping its network and distribution and retail presence in Maharashtra and Goa circle over the past 12 months (April 2014-March 2015) in line with its policy of ‘Customer First’ approach.

     

    According to an announcement made in Pune today, Vodafone has been focusing on closer engagement and enhancing customer experience in an endeavour to be future ready, claiming to be one of the preferred mobile services providers in terms of subscriber base, revenue, market share and retail touch points.

     

    Pursuing an accelerated growth strategy since April 2014, Vodafone has expanded its network footprint by adding over 3000 new 3G and 2G sites across Maharashtra in the last financial year. During this period, Vodafone also increased its exclusive retail footprint by rolling out 17 Vodafone Stores and 200 Vodafone Mini Stores.

     

    Vodafone India business head – Maharashtra and Goa Ashish Chandra said, “Gaining the trust of our customers and winning the distinction of being one of the most preferred mobile services provider in Maharashtra and Goa circle is not incidental. We have won the hearts of our customers by pursuing a continued and consistent customer centric strategy to bring the best connectivity solutions to our valued customers. It is their trust and support that has enabled us to further strengthen our position in Maharashtra and Goa across key parameters – Network, Subscriber base, Retail footprint and Revenue Market Share. We remain committed to continue investing in bringing the best in class, innovative, relevant products and services to win customer delight in the years to come.”

     

    Having set up one of the largest networks in the circle, Vodafone claims to have has 5000+ 3G sites in Maharashtra and Goa. Specifically to spread awareness and increase adoption of mobile internet, Vodafone has been hand holding customers through on ground engagement and education initiatives. 3G has shown tremendous uptake and has been growing at 100 per cent YoY. Overall data contribution to circle service revenues is 18 per cent.

     

    Presently, Vodafone has more than 900 retail outlets (largest and exclusive) in Maharashtra and Goa. Over the past 12 months, Vodafone has launched 22 Global Design Stores in Maharashtra and Goa.

     

    Vodafone M-Pesa, which was launched in October 2013 in Maharashtra and Goa, currently has 7115 + agents in these states, and a customer base of over 2.96 lakh. 

  • Amitabh Bachchan & family invest $71 million in Ziddu.com

    Amitabh Bachchan & family invest $71 million in Ziddu.com

    MUMBAI: Amitabh Bachchan along with his family have made their first significant equity investment in an overseas company. The Bachchans have invested $71 million (approx Rs 450 crore) in acquiring a minority stake in Singapore’s Meridian Tech Pte Ltd, which owns Ziddu.com.

     

    Ziddu.com is a free cloud storage, global wallet, social commerce and social gaming platform startup. 

     

    The firm, which also offers a micro payment platform, was founded five years ago by Venkata Srinivas Meenavalli. 

     

    “Mr Amitabh Bachchan and his family have invested in Ziddu.com at a valuation of around $71 million,” said Meenavalli.

     

    “I’m very happy and excited that they have reposed confidence and trust in Ziddu.com,” he added. 

     

    According to Google Analytics, Ziddu is among the top five file-sharing sites across the world, generating 1.2 billion page views with visitors from more than 225 countries. The company logged revenues of $20 million in calendar year 2014. 

     

    The deal was executed on 18 May, 2015.

  • Abu Dhabi restructures film industry; to invest $100+ million

    Abu Dhabi restructures film industry; to invest $100+ million

    MUMBAI: Abu Dhabi’s Media Zone Authority is restructuring its film business and has set aside a corpus of over $100 million (AED 400 million) for the next five years for the same.

     

    The money will be used for film and TV production in Abu Dhabi. Additionally it is also shutting down the Abu Dhabi Film Festival to make way in order to focus on for future targeted initiatives to further support local and Arab filmmakers and attract more film productions to Abu Dhabi in the region via the Sanad Fund. The move marks the next phase in the Abu Dhabi’s maturing film industry. 

     

    The Media Zone Authority will continue its efforts in supporting Emirati and Arab filmmakers through the Sanad Fund, which provides financial support for film projects during their development and post-production stages. The Fund enables filmmakers to develop and complete feature narrative or documentary films. Details of the next session of submissions for Sanad will be announced soon. Additionally, twofour54’s creative lab will continue its role in supporting local talent in the UAE.

     

    Going forward, the Media Zone Authority will focus on promoting Abu Dhabi and the UAE as a regional hub for film and TV productions through Abu Dhabi Film Commission’s 30 per cent cash-back rebate on all qualifying spend of films and projects shot in Abu Dhabi.

     

    Media Zone Authority CEO Noura Al Kaabi said, “Over the last few years we have built a strong foundation for a self-sustaining film and television industry. It is now the right time to deepen our commitment and further develop programmes to take the local industry to the next level. We attracted several major international and regional productions to shoot in the Emirate over the past two years alone, which brought large-scale investment, further built the film industry infrastructure in the region, and created significant opportunities for local talent. These projects include Universal Pictures’ Fast and Furious 7 and Disney’s Star Wars: Episode VII, as well as regional productions Al Ikhwa, Iftah Ya SimSim and ET Bil Arabi.”

     

    Al Kaabi also noted that the UAE is represented at international film festivals through Dubai International Film Festival and Sharjah International Children’s Film Festival.

     

    Image Nation Abu Dhabi chairman Mohamed Al Mubarak added, “Now that Image Nation Abu Dhabi has become part of the Media Zone Authority, our efforts towards building the media sector can be more coordinated and effective. Image Nation’s combination of Hollywood film relationships and its local talent and production knowledge is uniquely valuable to this new phase of our industry.”

     

    Image Nation Abu Dhabi invested approximately AED 30 million ($8.2 million) towards local production last year. Over the next five years, the Media Zone Authority partner anticipates injecting over AED 400 million ($108 million) into the UAE economy through direct spending in the country on film and television production and jobs creation.

     

    Local feature film production has hit a new stride with an impressive and aggressive slate. From A to B, directed by Ali Mostafa and co-produced by twofour54 and Image Nation, topped iTunes charts across the Middle East last week and is set to release theatrically in the UK and Italy this year. And Zinzana, helmed by Emirati first-time feature director Majid Al Ansari, is currently in post-production with a launch in the UAE planned later this year.

     

    twofour54 upgraded its post-production centre this month – the most advanced facility in the region with the latest editing, audio and colour correction capabilities. This first one-stop-shop for post-production will further enhance the industry ecosystem in Abu Dhabi.

     

    Training and development programs continue to expand for Emirati and regional filmmakers. In its fourth year, Arab Film Studio now includes both documentary and narrative programmes, and a new programme for Emirati high school students launches this summer at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

  • SoftBank invests $627 million in Snapdeal

    SoftBank invests $627 million in Snapdeal

    MUMBAI:  Seeking to tap into the growing e-commerce market in India, the Japanese telecom giant SoftBank announced a $627 million investment in the home-grown retailer Snapdeal, becoming the largest investor in the company.

     

    This is the largest investment made by a single investor in an e-commerce company in India.  Other existing investors have also participated in this round with a significant undisclosed investment.

     

    Through this strategic investment and partnership with Snapdeal, the telecom group aims at strengthening its presence in India and leveraging synergies with its network of Internet companies around the world, according to the press release issued by the e-tailer.

     

    While on the other hand, Snapdeal, will use the investments in expanding its chain of fulfillment centres. It will also look to make 3-4 strategic acquisitions in the coming few months specifically in the area of mobile technology and is planning to set up an incubation centre to hone and harness start-up businesses in the mobile technology space within next six months.

     

    Talking about the investment, SoftBank chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son said, “Since SoftBank’s foundation, our mission has been to contribute to people’s lives through the Information Revolution. We believe India is at a turning point in its development and have confidence that India will grow strongly over the next decade. As part of this belief, we intend to deploy significant capital in India over the next few years to support development of the market.”

     

    Adding to that, SoftBank’s vice chairman Nikesh Arora reckoned, “India has the third-largest Internet user base in the world, but a relatively small online market currently. This situation means India has, with better, faster and cheaper Internet access, a big growth potential. With today’s announcement SoftBank is contributing to the development of the infrastructure for the digital future of India. We want to support the leaders and entrepreneurs of the digital future; Kunal and Rohit are two such great leaders.”

     

    Nikesh Arora will also be joining the board of Snapdeal as part of this strategic investment by the SoftBank Group.

     

    Morrison & Foerster LLP acted as legal advisor to advising SoftBank on India law matters.

     

     “Our entire team at Snapdeal is thrilled and honoured to have SoftBank as a strategic partner. With the support of Son-san and Nikesh, we are confident we will further strengthen our promise to consumers and create life changing experiences for 1 million small businesses in India,” said Snapdeal co-founder and CEO Kunal Bahl.

     

    Founded in 2010, the company also claims to have more than 25 million registered users and more than 50,000 business sellers. Earlier this year, Snapdeal had raised $133.77 million in a round led by eBay and $105 million from institutional investors including Temasek, Myriad, Tybourne, Blackrock Inc. and Premji Invest. Tata Sons Chairman Emeritus Ratan Tata also made a personal investment into the company. 

  • Siti Cable promoters pump in Rs 102.75 crore

    Siti Cable promoters pump in Rs 102.75 crore

    MUMBAI: India’s leading multi system operator (MSO) Siti Cable today announced to the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) that it had received an injection of Rs 102.75 crore from its promoters. This is the second tranche after the Rs 81 crore its promoters had pumped in March 2013.

     

    The announcement to the BSE states that “as per the terms of the 16.2 crore warrants issued on 19 March 2013 on preferential basis the allotment committee of the board of directors has upon receipt of the balance of 75 per cent consideration aggregating to Rs 102.75 crore approved allotment of 6.85 crore equity shares upon conversion of equal number of warrants at an issue price of Rs 20 per share to the allottees – Essel Media Ventures and Essel International.”

     

    Sources within Siti Cable point out that the promoters led by Zee and Essel group chairman Subhash Chandra is extremely bullish on the MSO’s prospects post completion of cable TV digitisation  nationally.

     

    The company’s CFO Sanjay Goyal confirms to indiantelevision.com that “the company had received clearances in March 2013 to bring in Rs 324 crore from the promoters in four tranches. As part of that Rs 81 crore flowed in that month itself. Though the promoter group had until September 2014 to bring in the rest, they plan on infusing the remainder of the money before 31 March 2014 to speed up the digitisation push.”

     

    The company’s CEO VD Wadhwa had in an interview to indiantelevision.com in January 2014 said that “Phases III and IV of digitisation has a total universe of about 90 million. Of these, we are targeting 6 to 7 million homes. At a gross level, we will require an investment of Rs 1200 crore. On a net basis, we are expecting an investment to the tune of Rs 600 crore. The funding of Phase III will be largely done through warrants’ funding of Rs 243 crore, which is likely to be invested by promoters before March 2014. Balance funding requirement will be met through internal accruals and raising of further equity, as may be required.”

     

    In September 2012, when the company had announced that it was raising Rs 324 crore via warrants to promoter firms, it was reported that after completion of the entire exercise, he total promoter shareholding will rise to 73.08 per cent from 63.43 per cent and that of the public will drop to 26.92 per cent from 36.57 per cent.

     

    Also read:

    Siti Cable gets Rs 810 mn first tranche from promoters

    WWIL to raise Rs 3.24 bn via warrants to promoter firms