Saturday, May 2, 2009

Sequoia, Silicon Valley buy stake in web ad co

Venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India and Silicon Valley Bank have together picked up a minority stake in web-based advertising company Ideacts Innovations for an undisclosed amount. For Sequoia, this is the second round of investment in the Mumbai-based firm. In 2007, it had picked up a minority stake in the company for $5 million. Although the exact quantum of this year’s investment could not be ascertained, it is believed to be $5-9 million, said a person with direct knowledge of the development. When contacted by ET, Ideacts Innovations co-founder & CEO Rudrajeet Desai confirmed the second round of funding and said: “Sequoia is our first investor who funded us in 2007. The corpus raised this year will help us expand our operations in India.” Sequoia Capital India MD Mohit Bhatnagar added: “We have reinvested in Ideacts because of the consistency it has shown in growth.” Ideacts is an internet media venture founded in March 2007 by three entrepreneurs — Rudrajeet Desai, Maninder Gill and Saurabh Khullar. Its first product CLINCK is an active desktop application, which creates a default interface for users to access Internet. The firm is currently looking at ramping up its operation and deploying CLINCK in tier II and tier III cities across the country. It is also developing an accounting software application.

Source: Economic Times

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