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Tag: OnMobile

  • Koo onboards Sunil Kamath as chief business officer

    Koo onboards Sunil Kamath as chief business officer

    Mumbai: Indian multilingual social media platform Koo has announced the appointment of Sunil Kamath as chief business officer. Kamath will lead growth strategies, marketing, business partnerships, monetisation and expansion at Koo – which is poised to empower over a billion voices with the freedom to share thoughts and opinions in a native language.

    He brings in a wealth of experience to Koo, having spent over two decades across various verticals of business development at high-growth companies. Prior to Koo, Sunil has worked in leadership capacities with ShareChat, Opera, OnMobile and Obopay, and was recently Play Magnus as regional VP Asia Pacific. An angel investor and advisor to several start-ups, he has been instrumental in building sustainable businesses and has domain expertise in consumer internet startups.

    Koo co-founder and CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna said, “We are pleased to welcome Sunil Kamath as our chief business officer. Having taken businesses from India to global markets, Sunil has the right experience and proven expertise in scaling and consolidating platforms. With our aligned vision, we will continue to grow Koo as a multilingual platform from India to the world.”

    Newly appointed Kamath said, “I am excited to be a part of the leadership at Koo, at this phase of hyper-growth as more users join in expressing themselves in a native language, create hyperlocal content and discover language communities. I look forward to contributing in Koo’s journey to become the multilingual platform of choice for language speakers from across the world.”

  • OnMobile leads $13 million funding in Chingari app

    OnMobile leads $13 million funding in Chingari app

    MUMBAI: Bengaluru-based OnMobile has led a $13 million (Rs 98.7 crore) funding round in short video platform Chingari. The company believes that this investment will allow Chingari to accelerate its growth from 56 million users to over 100 million users. 

    Following this investment, OnMobile will soon integrate and distribute Onmo, the company's direct-to-customer gaming platform on the Chingari app. In a recent statement, the company also revealed its plans to collaborate on other product integrations in the future. 

    "The Chingari team has built a terrific product with great user retention and growth. Onmo gaming’s short format challenges and Chingari's short-form videos complement each other well," said OnMobile CEO Krish Seshadri. 

    Investors who participated in this round include Republic Labs US, Astarc Ventures,  White Star Capital, India Tv (Rajat Sharma), JPIN Venture Catalysts Ltd, ProfitBoard Ventures, Raghunandan G of Zolve (Co-Founder,Taxi4sure) and some large family office funds from the UK. 

    Chingari co-founder and CEO Sumit Gosh asserted that Chingari will soon become a content super media app for a billion Indians. 

    "We couldn't have hoped for a better partner than OnMobile and Krish to help Chingari embody its vision and become a content super media app for Bharat, and help engage the billion Indians. With our visions aligned, this partnership promises to be a winning collaboration," added Gosh. 

    Last year, Chingari had raised $1.4 million from a series of Angels, including Jasminder Gulati,  FJ Labs (Fabrice Grinda), Angelist, Utsav Somani’s iSeed, Village Global, and Blume Founders Fund. 

    OnMobile executive chairman François-Charles Sirois remarked, ''We are very excited about this investment and partnership bringing millions of users to the new ONMO gaming service while providing immediate business value and increased user reach for both companies.''

  • ONMOBILE takes 25% equity in AI-powered visual retention firm ROB0

    ONMOBILE takes 25% equity in AI-powered visual retention firm ROB0

    MUMBAI: Mobile entertainment company OnMobile Global Ltd has acquired 25 per cent equity stake in rob0, through its subsidiary Onmobile Global Solutions Canada Ltd, in exchange for an investment of CAD 1000,000.

    Bangalore-based OnMobile offers a wide array of products such as videos, tones, games and contests. It has an addressable base of more than 1.68 billion mobile users and over 100 million active subscribers across several geographies. rob0 is an AI-powered visual retention analytics service created by and for video game developers. This innovative Plug&play SaaS shows precisely when and why players leave from day 1.

    This transaction will allow rob0 to accelerate its growth as the most innovative AI-powered visual retention analytics solution for video game developers.

    This investment reaffirms the importance of OnMobile's strategy to become a leader in the mobile gaming market. In addition to its current subscription-based offering of premium games and kids apps, available to more than 50 carriers in over 30 countries, this transaction sets the table for OnMobile to soon introduce a one-of-a-kind gaming offering. Amongst the various synergies, OnMobile will be able to leverage the vast gaming knowhow of the rob0 team, which brings several years of experience in the industry, having played key roles for some of the most prominent games behemoths like Electronic Arts, Gameloft and Twitch.

    With its Plug & Play SaaS, rob0 is a pioneer in the gaming industry. Its AI-powered visual retention technology allows game developers to detect the exact moment in gameplay where users stop playing, saving them hundreds of hours of observation time and minimizing significantly their go-to-market risks.

    “We are very excited about this strategic investment. The combination of OnMobile and rob0 will provide immediate business value and will be the springboard to our enriched mobile gaming offering. Furthermore, it will bring tremendous value to game developers wanting to make their games highly engaging to end-users.”, said OnMobile Global chairman-CEO François-Charles Sirois.

    “We couldn't have hoped for a better partner than OnMobile to help rob0 embody its vision and become an essential solution for game developers. We are thrilled to bring our expertise and participate in the success of OnMobile's new gaming offer,” said Technologies rob0 Inc co-Founder and CEO Richard Rispoli. 

  • OnMobile to hive off speech recognition technology assets to Voicebox

    OnMobile to hive off speech recognition technology assets to Voicebox

    BENGALURU: OnMobile SA, a wholly owned subsidiary of OnMobile Global, has entered into an agreement with Voicebox Technologies France S.A.S., for the divestment of certain speech technology assets for a consideration of €650,000, subject to adjustments, escrows and other conditions. The deal is contingent upon certain approvals and events.

     

    OnMobile SA managing director Florent Stroppa said, “This divestiture is in line with the company’s plan to concentrate its energy and resources on strategic initiatives. The speech recognition technology that OnMobile acquired through Telisma in 2008 has served its business needs well, but is no longer imperative for OnMobile’s new offerings, which are focused on smartphone apps. We expect the transaction to close by 31 January, 2016.”

     

    OnMobile acquired 100 per cent of the European speech recognition company, Telisma, on 1 July, 2008. The company had then said that the addition of Telisma’s standards compliant speech recognition products and expertise would enable it to accelerate its penetration into fast growing emerging markets by developing new speech recognition language models. At that time, OnMobile said that Telisma’s technology enables quick and easy access to mobile applications and content and also strengthened OnMobile’s mobile applications product suite.

  • Q2-2016: OnMobile YoY revenue flat: EBIDTA up 41.7%

    Q2-2016: OnMobile YoY revenue flat: EBIDTA up 41.7%

    BENGALURU: Mobile music play service company OnMobile Global Limited (OnMobile) reported almost flat (decline of 0.2 per cent) consolidated revenue or Income from Operations (TIO) for the quarter ended 30 September, 2015 (Q2-2016, current quarter) at Rs 206.98 crore as compared to the Rs 207.45 crore in Q2-2015. TIO for the current quarter grew 2.6 per cent as compared to the Rs 201.82 crore in the immediate trailing quarter.

     

    Note: 100,00,000 = 100 Lakhs = 10 million = 1 crore

     

    The company’s EBIDTA in the current quarter grew 41.7 per cent to Rs 39.34 crore (19 per cent margin) as compared to the Rs 27.77 crore (13.4 per cent margin) in the corresponding year ago quarter and was 12 per cent more than the Rs 35.12 crore (17.4 per cent margin) in the immediate trailing quarter.

     

    OnMobile reported profit after tax (PAT) of Rs 1.26 crore (0.6 per cent margin) in Q2-2016 as compared to a loss of Rs 1.21 crore in Q2-2015 and a loss of Rs 0.16 crore in Q1-2016.

     

    Business Performance

     

    OnMobile says that its International revenue grew by eight per cent YoY and 2.8 per cent QoQ. Europe recorded a revenue growth of 49.2 per cent YoY and 4.4 per cent QoQ, while in Other Emerging Markets, revenue grew by 6.7 per cent YoY and seven per cent QoQ to Rs 37.3 crore (18 per cent of TIO). 

     

    Its Latin America revenue was down by 1.5 per cent QoQ and 23.9 per cent YoY respectively. However, Latin America revenue grew by five per cent QoQ, excluding the forex impact of fluctuations in local currencies.

     

    India Business

     

    OnMobile’s India revenue was Rs 45.1 crore (21.8 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2016, a growth of 1.7 per cent QoQ and reduction of 21.6 per cent YoY. It says that it has won western circles from Airtel for Ring Back Tone business to become the largest Ring Back Tone partner for Airtel in India. OnMobile says that this win increases its reach in Airtel from over six crore subscribers to over 11.5 crore subscribers.

     

    The company says that CVAS, a direct to consumer product, has been launched in a large operator in India.

     

    Let us look at some of the other numbers reported by OnMobile

     

    Total Expenditure (TE) in the current quarter declined 5.2 per cent to Rs 204.74 crore (98.9 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 215.92 crore (104.1 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2015, but was 0.4 per cent more than the Rs 203.97 crore (101.1 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2016.

     

    A major expense head for the company is Content Fee and Royalty (CFR). OnMobile paid 41.3 per cent higher CFR in the current quarter at Rs 67.55 crore (32.6 per cent of TIO) as compared to the Rs 47.79 crore (23 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2015 and 5.9 per cent more than the Rs 63.76 crore (31.6 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2016.

     

    The company’s Other sales and services cost declined 52.5 per cent to Rs 9.72 crore (4.7 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2016 as compared to the Rs 20.46 crore (9.9 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2015 and was 15.6 per cent lower than the Rs 11.52 crore (5.7 per cent of TIO) in the previous quarter.

     

    OnMobile says that it has done a ‘Headcount optimization’ during the last financial year and quarter, which has resulted in a reduction of manpower cost. It says that its employee base at the end of Q2-2016 was 1,075. The company’s Employee Benefits Expense (EBE) in the current quarter declined 23.6 per cent to Rs 55.47 crore (26.8 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2016 as compared to the Rs 72.63 crore (35 per cent of TIO) in Q2-2015 and was 3.9 per cent less than the Rs 57.70 crore (28.6 per cent of TIO) in Q1-2016.

  • OnMobile wins HR Best Practice award at HR Showcase 2015

    OnMobile wins HR Best Practice award at HR Showcase 2015

    MUMBAI: OnMobile Global has won the HR Best Practice award for its “Developing capability from within – OnMobile Learning Academy” initiative, at the HR Showcase 2015 organized by National Human Resource Development Network, Bangalore.

     

    The HR team at OnMobile works on a mission “To make motivated talent available for the organization.” In order to fulfil this mission, the company launched a unique initiative called OnMobile Learning Academy (OLA), which addresses the need for organisational productivity as well as people’s professional development and employability.

     

    Adoption of this new approach has already started paying dividends for OnMobile. Over the last year employee productivity as defined by ratio of revenue to manpower cost, has gone up by 20 per cent, along with a 16 per cent increase in employee satisfaction scores.

     

    OnMobile CEO and MD Rajiv Pancholy said, “I am delighted that we have won the HR Best Practice Award for OnMobile Learning Academy. Our endeavour has been to lead the company through a journey of cultural transformation while focusing on capability building and productivity enhancement. This award bears testimony to the progress we have made in this direction. We will continue to invest in our employees and build their capabilities while we pursue plans to grow OnMobile.

  • OnMobile, Madison World float JV for mobile marketing

    OnMobile, Madison World float JV for mobile marketing

    MUMBAI: India‘s leading telecom VAS provider OnMobile Global Limited and Madison World are floating a joint venture mobile marketing company where both will have equal stake.

    The new company, Kabuza Marketing, will aim at tapping into the rapidly growing mobile marketing opportunities in India and the Indian sub-continent.

    Says OnMobile CEO, chairman and co-founder Arvind Rao, “This joint venture is one of its kind and has the potential to revolutionise both the mobile VAS and the traditional marketing functions. With the onset of 3G, this venture will open up even newer opportunities for more impactful marketing campaigns. It will successfully leverage the mobile reach, installed infrastructure and telecom operator relationships of OnMobile and the marketing and advertising capabilities, client base and market presence of Madison World.”

    The joint venture will open up new direct sales and revenue channels for marketers using mobile. It will focus on leveraging the OnMobile multi-channel advertising & marketing platform which uses various channels including AdRBT, SMS, USSD, WAP, Video, and Audio. Madison World, on the other hand, is a diversified communications group that has specialist units in advertising, media, Out-of-Home, PR, retail, entertainment, mobile and sports.

    Says Madison World chairman and managing director Sam Balsara, “What excites me about mobile is its interactive, personalised and always-on attributes accompanied by unbelievable reach in numbers (600 million+). So far we have thought of mobile as an advertising medium given its high reach but the total advertising market in India is restricted to about Rs. 20,000 crores, where as the potential opportunity to sell products and services and conduct commerce through mobile is Rs. 200,000 crores and our attempt is to tap into this opportunity which should provide top marketers a cost effective distribution channel, bring in a lot of long tail businesses, in addition to large marketers, into the gamut and provide consumers a convenient option to order and pay for products and services through the comfort and convenience of their very own mobile”.

    The venture will involve the blending of OnMobile‘s mobile platforms, software, operational expertise and knowledge in the mobile marketing realm with Madison‘s marketing insights, relevant client base and innovative offerings.

    The JV hopes to get a jump-start in building up a vibrant marketing base to serve merchants, advertisers, corporate clients and telecom operators while providing consumers with valuable deals and discount offers and an opportunity to buy conveniently.

     

     

     

  • PayMate partners OnMobile to allow consumers to pay bills via mobile phones

    PayMate partners OnMobile to allow consumers to pay bills via mobile phones

    MUMBAI: In the era of digital services the mobile phone can well be referred as man’s best friend for the umpteen tasks it performs. Extending the benefits of this little gadget, mobile commerce solutions company PayMate has recently partnered with OnMobile, a value added services provider, to allow consumers to pay bills via mobile for services available on OnMobile powered voice portals and WAP sites such as Hutch, Airtel, Idea, Reliance, Tata, Fame Cinemas, Adlabs Multiplexes and the 505 platform.

    Paymate customers will be able to pay via mobile while shopping, gifting, movie ticketing, airline ticketing and making bill payments on OnMobile powered WAP sites or voice portals. A user selects a product and proceeds to the payment menu wherein PayMate is offered as a mode of payment. The user then has to enter his PayMate PIN and complete the payment process. The user receives an SMS confirming the successful purchase of the product, states an official release.

    “PayMate is extremely convenient, easy to use and compatible across all mobile handsets and operators. Most merchants have difficulty in accepting remote payments since customers are apprehensive about sharing credit/ debit card details online or over the phone. This makes PayMate an ideal solution for accepting payments online, over the phone or even at a counter since customers do not have to divulge any credit or debit card details at any time.” says PayMate founder & MD Ajay Adiseshann.

    “OnMobile has enabled Paymate to offer its innovative and secure payment service via OnMobile IVR and WAP products to more than 100 million telecom subscribers in India. We will continue to offer more payment options for telecom subscribers” says OnMobile head-mobile commerce Balachandran Unni.

    The company is also in the process of tying up with several offline merchants such as telco’s, utilities, insurance companies, cable and broadband services, tele-shopping etc and will be announcing its tie-ups in a phased manner, adds the release.

    PayMate is currently being offered to Citibank bank credit card and banking customers and will roll out services with other banks shortly. To use PayMate, Citibank customers need to sign up for this service free with the bank by simply sending “PayMate” as an SMS to 2484. The customer will then be called and registered for the service following which they can pay at any of PayMate’s accredited merchants via a single SMS.

    On receiving this SMS, the bank will verify the user’s mobile number with the account and on confirmation will debit the account accordingly. The merchant and the customer will receive a confirmation message from the bank approving the transaction. The entire transaction takes place at the cost of a single premium SMS.

    The company ensures a secure payment solution as no credit/debit card information is ever disclosed during the transaction process. The trust model is based on the recommendations by Ernst & Young; which provides the security measures for both the bank as well as the customer.

    PayMate is accepted at over 2500 online portals including travel, astrology, electronics, education, jobs, NGOs, apparels, matrimony, entertainment and healthcare etc. PayMate has also announced its tie-ups with Tele-brands, Big Tree (cinema ticketing), Mumbai Gold Cabs, Planet M, CRS Health, Seijo and the Soul Dish, VSNL, Future Bazaar among others.