Startups India

Nimbuzz tie-up with StudiVZ - German Social Network

2008-11-11T23:37:00.002+05:30

Nimbuzz - a VoIP, IM and Mobile Communication startup has announced that it will power StudiVZ, the faceBook of GErmany and the largest German speaking social networking site. This will enable StudiVZ users for real time web and mobile communication.

The Nimbuzz powered web and mobile clients is live today for StudiVZ members. The full mobile Nimbuzz portfolio including voice calls, chat, file sharing across popular IM communities will also be available and a link to a bespoke download page will be promoted across the StudiVZ network.

Nimbuzz has entered into a revenue sharing agreement with StudiVZ with income generated from advertisements. Nimbuzz offers a social interaction service combining presence, IM, and VoIP. The free application is available for mobile, PC and Web, enabling calling, instant messaging, file/location sharing across popular IM communities and 23 social networks including Facebook.

Subsidized Microsoft Software for Startups

2008-11-06T07:03:00.002+05:30

Just last week we saw VCs most successful businessman - John Doerr asking Startups his company has funded to be careful about expenses. Today Microsoft has announced Microsoft BizSpark initiative where in Startups less than 3 years old with less than $1 mn in revenues can join the program and avail almost FREE Microsoft Software for production use.

Startups will have almost FREE access to Windows Client and Server operating system with Microsoft Visual Studio - Programing Language and Tools. They can also use SQL-Server, Exchange Server for e-mails and unified communication development. Additionally they can also avail Microsoft Office suite along with Share Point and Biz Talk Servers.

Enrollmenti s FREE and once you are 3 year old or your revenues cross $1 mn , you pay a $100 exit fee. More details here. Finally the Redmond Giant has woken to competition from Open Source and Free Software Foundation :-)

John Doerr on Suriving the DownTurn

2008-10-30T21:54:00.002+05:30

Johen Doerr, Valley's most successful VC and board member of Google Inc has 10 tips for startup founders on how they can survive the downturn. John's 10 commandments are,

Act now
Protect core of your business
Have 18 months or more of cash
Don't spend on PC and expensive software and use Web based Services [Maybe Open Source ?]
Negotiate with clients , terms contacts etc
Everybody in the company should be selling including receptionist - SELL the product should be the underlying tone
Stop cash bonus and salaries - reward with equities
Keep you cash in most secure instruments - US Treasury not Money Market
Revenues of 90 days in Advance
Over communicate to everybody that mater to your business

Courtesy: AllThingsDigital

Rediff + Ticketvala for Bus Ticket Booking

2008-09-24T19:11:00.002+05:30

Ticketvala the online bus reservation platform has opened its interface to Rediff so that Rediff users can book bus tickets online.

Rediff Bus FareSearch - powered by AJAX lets you search through the Ticketvala database for buses and then buy the same online. We are not sure how much Rediff gets paid by Ticketvala for the arrangement :-)

I tried purchasing a Bus Ticket during for one of the long weekends and I would say that the experience of buying it exceeded my expectations. Ticketvala also has a dedicated call center to resolve any issues.

One of the best features is you can book the ticket for any of your relatives residing at any other place. All they will need after the booking is a PNR Number through which they can View and Print it for their journey.

Redbus is another competing service for online bus ticket reservations.

Investments Mobile Value Added Services

2008-07-12T00:21:00.002+05:30

The India Mobile Value Added Services market is going pretty strongly. Here is how the investment is being made into the sector by Venture Capitalists and private Equity funds.

Mauj Telecom $ 10 mn by West Bridge Capital partners and Sequoia Capital
Nazara Terchnologies $ 1.5 mn by West Bridge
Bubble Motion $ 10 mn by Sequoia Capital India
Paymate $ 5 mn by Kleiner and Sherpalo
IMI Mobile $ 10 mn by Pequot Ventures
Indiagames $ 15 mn by UTV Software
mGinger $2mn by Draper Fisher Jurvetson and NEA-IndoUS Ventures
Enable M undisclosed sum by Salora Group
One97 $ 8-10 mn by SAIF Partners & Silicon Valley bank
Obopay $20 mn by Essar Communications Holdings, Promethean
India, Richmond mgmt, Others
Sai Advantium $20 mn by MPM Capital
On Mobile $ 27.8 mn by Deutsche bank, Goldman Sachs and Polygon
Investment partners. The company has also raised money in an IPO on Dalal Street.

Please feel free to add the ones we have missed.

Snapfish acquires Merasnap

2008-05-24T10:51:00.002+05:30

HP's Online Photo sharing and printing company Snapfish has acquired Indian startup Merasnap in an all cash deal. The amount was not disclosed. Merasnap had 100,000 customers and their accounts will be migrated to Snapfish very soon.

As a part of the acquisition, Merasnap customers will get FREE print for 30 snaps and thereafter Rs 2.95 / snap. Zoom.In and Picsquare are the other two leading players in this vertical in India.

Online DVD Rental Company War Hots Up

2008-05-14T18:02:00.002+05:30

The Online Movie rental business kicked off in India almost 2 years ago and only now the competition seems to be hotting up. Delhi based Moviemart.in has borrowed some lessons from Pizza delivery guys. If your Pizza isn't at your doorstep in the promised time, you win a freebie. So also Moviemart is promising delivery of Movie within 10-120 minutes of order.

Mr Rahul.M, CEO of Moviemart said,

We are pitching our home delivery at anything between 10-120 minutes in Delhi. We look forward to extend the same to other regions where we operate.

Another content company, Nimbus has entered this market with presence in 69 cities and promises to deliver within 30 minutes flat. Reliance ADAG's Big Flicks and SeventyMM are unable to compete Nimbus and Moviemart and are sticking to 24 hour delivery model.

SeventyMM has 67,000 customers while Moviemart has 7,000 subscribers.

AdMagnet - One More Ad Network

2008-04-28T12:28:00.004+05:30

Google set the online advertising market on fire and since then everybody wants a slice of the market. However, what many failed to realize is that Google succeeded in the online advertising market because of their bleeding edge technology and encouraging Small and Medium Businesses to advertise on their platform. Microsoft, eBay and Yahoo are trying to develop competing platforms for over 4 years now but with very little luck.

However, in the context of India, the scenario is lot different. With pathetic 32 million active Internet users in India [Dec-2007] and lack of awareness amongst SMEs about online advertisement, many startups have adopted and offline marketing approach to SMEs including limited such offering from Google.

Today, Interactive Avenues Marketing Solutions has also launched their online advertising initiative - AdMagnet. Their offerings include Media (planning and buying), Campaign Management, Search (SEM and SEO), Web Design & Creatives, and Interactive Marketing.

The modus operandi of these companies is to have SME clients and market on their behalf on other networks such as Google [SEM and AdSense] and Yahoo! Here is a list of Online Advertising & Marketing companies in India.

Internet / Online Advertising Companies

2008-04-20T12:48:00.000+05:30

We have compiled the list of Internet / Online Advertising companies in India. The list maybe partial, please feel free to add via comment any companies or startups you know about.

AdChakra.com
AdWinks.com
bcwebwise.com
communicate2.com
dgm-india
id8labs.com
Komli.com
PayPod.com
PinStorm.com
position2.com
Tyroo.com [In association with Yahoo]
WebChutney.com

National Entrepreneurship Network

2008-02-03T08:54:00.000+05:30

Aspiring entrepreneurs of India can now connect on National Entrepreneurship Network. The goal is to develop more skills on being successful by seeking guidance and studying various case studies. You can also seek funding to nourish your idea.

The goal is to bring to light street-smart small town Entrepreneurs to connect with enterprises. techTribe is another such community specifically targeted at the IT community in India. Personally, I don't find the site so appealing because of the content on entrepreneursip being too meager and some obsolete. If you are a Tech entrepreneur, then GigaOmniMedia's FoundRead is one of the best sources of startup education. FoundRead has lot of contributors, really especially startup founders or star developers who have actually ventured on their own.

Kindly weigh before you pitch your ideas in the public domain because you can hardly think of knocking the doors of justice with IP protection.

Make Me Over Game attracting Western Girls

2008-01-18T16:06:00.000+05:30

The Royal Wedding Celebrations of India turned into games is fast catching attention of European and American girls. In a surprise development, Games2Win, the developer of Make Me Over has reported millions of teenage girls from around the world are logging into gaming portals hosted in India.

Alok Kejriwal, CEO of Games2Win said,

As many as 16 lakh foreigners visit us every month, of which 10 lakh are women. I am not completely amazed considering American girls are the world’s biggest customers of online games.

It would be nice to know if these Gamers are Kids of Indian origin or are they genuinely native girls :-)

Big Private Equity + VC Deals in 2007

2008-01-17T11:47:00.000+05:30

Here is a list of Indian Satrtups that raised big money from PE or VCs in 2007. Name of the Startup + Name of the Funding Companies

Intelenet Global Services - Blackstone
Infotech Enterprises - General Atlantic
IBS Software Services - General Atlantic
ICSA India - Goldman Sachs
Telsima Communication - New Part Ventures, JAFCO Asia, CMEA, Ventures NEA
Spanco Telesystems - Chrys Capital, UTI Ventures
CSS Group - Goldman Sachs
ISGN Technologies - NEA, NEA IUV
Infrasoft Technologies IT Services - Barring India
Tejas Network Communication- Goldman Sachs
Fino IT Services - IFC,Intel Capitla, Legatum Capital, IFMR Trust
Adventity BPO - Norwest, CIBC Capital, DA Capital
Adayana BPO -Kubera Partners
Lifetree Convergence - IFC
Venture Infotek - Kubera Cross Border Fund
Just Dial Online - Tiger Capital
Make My Trip - Saif, Sierra Ventures, Tiger Capital, Helion Ventures
Air Tight Networks - Walden international, Blueprint ventures, Granite Ventures, Trident Capital, CMEA Ventures, Siemens Venture Capital
Mindworks Global - Helion Ventures
Time Broadband - Dubai Holdings

Some deals that didn't get directly reported to us maybe missing in the list. So if you are a startup and looking to be funded, you know whom to choose. Most ethical VCs don't invest in a company that is going to compete with their existing investments.

Hottest Areas for VC Funding in 2008

2008-01-07T08:57:00.000+05:30

In a survey conducted by VentureWoods, Mobile Data Services emerged as the Hottest area for VCs looking to fund startups in India this year. Here is the break-up of Hot Favorites in percentage according to the poll,

Mobile Data Services - 13%
Online Education - 12%
E-commerce/M-Commerce - 12%
Online Financial Services - 11%
Digital Entertainment - 11%
Gaming - 8%
Local Language Web Content - 8%
Search - 7%
Advertising Networks - 6%
Enterprise Tech - 5%
Social Networking - 4%
Online Travel - 3%
BPO/KPO - 1%
Others - 1%

Social Networking startups now have no other choice but to depend on Advertising Networks to stay in business. Not quite sure why they are letting down Enterprise computing as it is supposed to make a comeback in 2008.

Arzoo's Mobile offer to US Travellers

2007-11-27T14:06:00.000+05:30

Sabeer Bhatia promoted Arzoo has come up with a special offer to passengers travelling to the US and Booking tickets through Arzoo.com. You will receive a mobile phone to makes unlimited calls within the US for a daily rental of Rs 99 [Its Indian Rupees and NOT USD]. However, you have to return the phone in good condition upon your departure from the US.

Details of the offer are available here.

Internships - Finally for the deserving Indian Students

2007-10-11T16:32:00.000+05:30

The Indian student had been long deprived of internships while he is still in college. Not any more. With a vibrant job market, companies are willing to hire pre-final and final-year graduate students as interns during summer or even during college days if they are local and can manage their class work and office work.

This is a great step in exposing the Indian youth to the competitive world while he is still in college. This will also help them understand What they want to do in Life ? What are they passionate about and hence make better careers. HelloIntern.com is platform to bring the Indian student and Companies on a common platform. The company website says,

....connecting the internship needs of the students in professional courses to the requirements for interns and apprentices by companies, both nationally and abroad.

So what are you entrepreneurs waiting for, just fill in the gaps that exist in the Indian Economy and Society. This is the best time to realize your Startup Dream. Go Start your company now. Contact feedback @ broadbandindia.com

RupeeMail - Get Paid to Read E-mails

2007-09-24T14:30:00.000+05:30

Anil Lakhwara and his team have setup Rupeemail, an e-mail service, filled with advertisements. You basically get paid to read your e-mails. You earn money by opening and reading the contents of RupeeMail. Senders are known and verified who are paying you to read their e-mails.

The money will be paid after you accumulate Rs 200 or you can donate to charity. What a Joke ? In the aftermath of National Do Not Call registry going live in India, I am seeing increasing number of Advertisements in my Rediffmail Inbox. Not to forget, there are these SMS startup companies who are willing to pay users to read SMS based Advertisements.

I fail to understand that there are so many P.hds on the board of OIVMail, prmoter of RupeeMail who are re-testing the Dot Com Bust business model. Who in the world would want to read junk, spam and advertisements ?

SeventyMM Movie Downloads + Tier-II City Plans

2007-09-12T23:35:00.000+05:30

NetFlix clone in India SeventyMM, plans to expand into Tier-II cities and also offer Movie Downloads. Unclear if Movie Download is for the Indian or the Overseas market to compete with Rajashri and BigFlicks.

Mr. Sarkar of SeventyMM said,

In terms of growth rates among various entertainment segments, home video shows the maximum potential with the market poised to grow to Rs 2,500 crore by 2011, from the present Rs 650 crore. Owing to this, the film industry may move towards revenue-sharing deals, and we are waiting for the industry to take trajectory towards this.

Seventymm currently has a presence in six cities - Bangalore, Mumbai and Chennai. They got a footprint in Delhi NCR and Chandigarh by virtue of acquiring Madhouse media and they launched in Hyderabad today.

Other players in the DVD Rental Business in India are - CatchFlix, MovieMart and CineSprite. MoserBaer and T-series will remain as DVD movie retailers and Reliance is expected to join them instead of being into rental business.

Info Edge to Network Indian Students

2007-09-10T23:46:00.000+05:30

Info Edge India, promoter company of India's famous job site Naukri is planning to setup an online social network for the Indian students. All the current sites are focused on everything apart from Education and Studies. Hopefully, this new network will complement the existing ones as they plan to launch a new website for the education space and make it a knowledge interchange platform.

We had done a survey of some parents, whose kids attend elite schools in North India. Most of them were concerned about exposing their kids to Web Junk. Parents didn't mind spending more on broadband or for the content if networks offer learning and interaction opportunity to students which will enhance their skills and help them shape their career.

If you really want to kick off with your own Social Networking site, then just have a look at KickApps which might come in handy to test this idea of networking smart and intelligent Indian kids for education.

Deploy your own Social Network on KickApps

2007-08-22T17:16:00.000+05:30

You feel that you have a great Web 2.0 Idea but no money or Web Development experience ? Don't worry, now you can just deploy any Web 2.0 Applications such as Blog, Photos , Networking Tools, Video, Audio, etc using KickApps.

KickApps, a NY based company is precisely providing all the Web 2.0 tools as hosted infrastructure for FREE to test your Web 2.0 idea. If you have a terrific response on your beta site, then you can always approach angel investor for seed funding. KickApps monetizes your web property by Google Adsense. You can get rid of the Ads if you are willing to pay them.

Startup Gurus have always advised to focus on deliverables from day one. Never BUY expensive servers as you can always rent or lease one. Now you don't even have to hire Developers as you already have Web/Software infrastructure ready on KickApps. Good Luck and do let us know via Feedback @ BroadbandIndia.com if you deploy KickApps.

Orkut Leads + FaceBook Grows + Campus18 Debuts

2007-08-13T22:47:00.000+05:30

Orkut from Google is the leader in the Indian social networking space with 7.2 Million unique visitors in June and Facebook attracted 785,000 unique visitors according to comScore.

Web18, has also thrown its hat in the social networking space by unveiling Campus18 to compete with Reliance ADAG's BigAdda. Web18 is a subsidiary of Television Eighteen. It really makes sense for Web18 to venture into this space to encash on its high Advertising inventory. However, the problem with Web18 portals is they are horribly planned and designed with terrible user experience.

MingleBox, a social networking site that was in controversy for being funded by MingleBox CEO's [Kavita Iyer] husband [Mr. Sandeep Singhal] at Sequoia Capital has got some relief from Sequoia's MD Mr. Chadha, who said

We have been very active and early investors in internet in India, we are investors in Shaadi.com, which has Fropper.com as one of its sites. We are also investors in mingle box, we are also investors in travelguru, guruji.com. So, we have been very active investors across that sector. We do not back competitors, so we look at these properties even that they may appear from the outside to be competitive - they have very different focuses, very different user bases and we are seeing a lot of growth in that sector.

Almost all the Indian social networking startups are operating on heard mentality and none have any innovative practices so far. If one starts campus recruiting all of them jump into the same bandwagon and none of them have ever thought of localization. Orkut is the only one that is growing organically but has too much spam on its communities.

Minekey raises $3 Million from NEA IndoUS Ventures

2007-08-04T08:36:00.000+05:30

Minekey - Blog recommendation Widget company has raised first round of funding of $3 Million from NEA Indo US Ventures.

Minekey is a Valley based company with development centre at New Delhi and R&D centre located at IIT Kharagpur. The company is founded by Delip Andra, who founded Euclid and sold to e4e. Dr. Sudeshna Sarkar is the Chief Scientist and leads the company's R&D center.

Minekey's widgets allow you to be placed on your blog or site where it will recommend 5 more stories to visitors. The recommendation is not mere processing of RSS feeds. They have lot of Algorithms to analyze which stories to recommend. The appearance of the Widget can be customized but not to a very great extent. After having reviewed the Widget, i am wondering how are they going to make money ? Place a Text Link Ad or small Ad inside the Widget ? Your thoughts ?

ibIbo launches Opinions

2007-08-01T14:07:00.000+05:30

MIH Internet owned iBiBo which was the first company in India to throw away money to Blog has now started Opinions on iBiBo.

It is basically writing your review in black and white about something you like it or hate it or share your user experience. It can vary as widely as from your Mobile, Cars, Airlines, Hotels, Books, Music Players, laptops etc.

However in the current Web 2.0 world, we need a search engine to search for Opinions. For instance, you can find tons of user Opinions about Reliance Broadband on this blog. Their are more than a thousand people writing Product Reviews. So in the context of Web 2.0, we need a specialized engine to read Opinions.

Google to Fund Your Dream Projects

2007-06-29T08:29:00.000+05:30

If you are a Web 2.0 startup and building services around the Google Platform or something that's really cool, then their is Good news waiting for you. Google just a while ago announced - Google Gadget Ventures.

Through this venture, Google proposes to write a check of $5,000 for every gadget a developer submits and that gets more than 250,000 unique page views. Additionally, you have the option to write a business proposal and raise seed money of $100,000 to work on your dream project. Check out for more details.

So it is not just Googlers who get funded for their pet projects, any developer from around the world who can build creative products around Google will be funded. This is a natural extension to its massively popular Open Source initiative - Google Summer of Code.

OnYoMo - Local Search on WAP

2007-06-28T21:45:00.000+05:30

The next time if you are lost looking for a Pizza Corner or a ICICI Bank in a new neighborhood, just think of OnYoMo - On Your Mobile. The local directory search engine of India and probably the best has unveiled a WAP portal.

You can access OnYoMo's WAP Portal at OWAP.in from your Mobile handset. The service is currently available to residents of Bangalore / Bengalooru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkatta, Mumbai and Pune.

Why should you use OWAP.in and not those expensive Rs 3 SMS services ? Because most of us subscribe for WAP access at mere Rs 100 / Month. Also you have the choice to look for more locations when you are surfing the WAP enabled portal instead of relying on SMS sent by those premium services which limits the data.

Update:
We tested the service and it is really cool, though still in Beta. Some of the shortcomings are - the Call & Save feature doesn't work. Also OnYoMo needs to improve on search because the result set was too big.

Harry Potter + Big Discount Offer on IndiaPlaza

2007-06-19T13:40:00.000+05:30

IndiaPlaza, a.k.a Fabmall is running a super discount offer if you pre-order the book Harry Potter And The Deadly Hallows.

The book is scheduled to be released world-wide on 21st July,2007 and IndiaPlaza guarantees that you will have the book in your hand on the same day in Metros :-)

The cost of the book in India is Rs 635.

Within 15 days, IndiaPlaza will also e-mail you a gift voucher worth Rs 635 to shop you on IndiaPlaza. [To avail this, you have to shop over Rs 2,500]
You will also get Free Club Membership of IndiaPlaza for 6 Months where you receive 25% of on all books purchased.
A Gaming DVD worth Rs 499 is also yours.

This deal is worth looking at if you spend a lot on Books and provided their are no other hidden messages and charges.