BlueRun Ventures (previously the corporate venture arm of mobile handset maker Nokia) has been lying low in India for a while. It may change in the coming months with the Silicon Valley based fund appointing a full-time senior investment professional in Mumbai, and keenly looking at sectors like clean tech, gaming, and education for potential [...]
IDG Ventures India, the Bangalore-based early stage technology venture capital fund, has announced its investment of $3 million in Aujas Networks Pvt Ltd, a digital security services start up in the city. Aujas was spun off from IDG Venture’s Entreprenuer-in-Residence programme. Aujas is addressing a global security services market of $17 billion in size and [...]
Reliance Technology Ventures Limited (RTVL), the corporate venture capital arm of the Reliance ADA Group, continues with its investments in foreign telecom startups. In its latest deal, RTVL has made an undisclosed investment in Sequans Communications, a France and US based company that provides WiMax chips. RTVL has made this investment along with SwissCom and [...]
Mistral Solutions Pvt. Ltd, a product realisation company in the embedded space, has raised $6.5 million in its second round of venture funding from Nexus India Capital and JAFCO Asia. The investment will help accelerate the company’s global expansion and also facilitate its Product and IP development initiatives, a release said.
Naren Gupta, co-founder of Nexus [...]
Gulf is known for everything not so green - such as depleting oil resources, fast cars which consume gallons of petrol that are sold at 1/5 of the Indian prices, large concrete buildings (probably built without any environmental planning) and so on. That perception may change. Abu Dhabi, one of the seven states of the [...]
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the Indian telecom regulator, has proposed allowing 74 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in mobile television services, and has recommended bidding for allocation of licences for this service. This decision is helpful in getting foreign funding into the business. Mobile television allows the consumers to watch live as [...]
Microsoft Corp has started its venture capital activities in India. The software giant has picked up a 35 per cent stake in Gurgaon (Haryana)-based electronic prepaid payment solutions company Oxigen Services India, for an undisclosed amount, according to Business Standard.
According to Oxigen’s website, it’s an electronic virtual distributor of airtime and bill payment solutions. It’s [...]
Scrabulous, the Indians founded free online scrabble game application on Facebook, may be sold or may have to give up its independent status. Scrabulous is facing legal challenges with Hasbro Inc, the copyright holder for Scrabble, asking the social networking website to pull down the application since it involved an infringement of the IPR of [...]
Here is good news for early stage companies in the technology space who are looking for funding. The IT industry body Nasscom and ICICI Knowledge Park kicked off its $25 million (Rs 100 crore) fund on Friday to invest in innovative technology companies.
The investors in the fund - christened The Nasscom-ICICI Knowledge Park Innovation Fund [...]
Is jobs portal Monster.com up for grabs? Rumours are doing the round that NewsCorp is interested in buying the leading global jobs classified website. Apparently Rupert Murdoch has sent a letter to Monster board offering $4.8 billion for the company. If that is true, Murdoch is likely to end up with the company no matter [...]
(See the update below): PubMatic, an ad optimisation service for online publishers worldwide, has announced funding of $7 million in a round led by India’s Nexus India Capital, along with return backers Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Helion Ventures. PubMatic is founded by Amar Goel and others, who also run Komli, an online ad network, and [...]
Mobile phone manufacturer Motorola, Inc. has acquired India-founded digital music service provider Soundbuzz Pte. Ltd. The terms of the transaction are not disclosed. The acquisition is expected to close in the first quarter of 2008. Soundbuzz, headquartered in Singapore, was started in 1999 by Sudhanshu Sarronwala, a former MTV Asia executive.
The acquisition of Soundbuzz will [...]
The IPO of Delhi-based Emaar MGF Land Ltd is awaiting the approval of the stock market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India even after the company had filed its draft red herring prospectus in September, reports Mint. The company is apparently answering several questions asked by SEBI. Although the nature of the questions is [...]
Online education firm TutorVista plans to raise another $15 million to bankroll its India expansion plans, reports Business Standard. The company started with a focus on serving the Westerns markets like the US and Europe. Now it’s looking at India too as a market. TutorVista, founded by serial entrepreneur K Ganesh, has already raised $15.25 [...]
Some of you must be using Plaxo, a service that keeps your address book updated. The company is said to be up for sale, New York Times has reported. Plaxo, started in 2001, is one of the earliest social networking tools, but it lost a lot of its charm after the advent of Linked In [...]
