Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, May 03, 2007
ePaper
Business Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, May 03, 2007 ePaper |
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Info-Tech
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Venture Capital Minglebox gets $7 m from Sequoia Our Bureau
Bangalore May 2 Those moments in the canteen, the college gossip, the contagious enthusiasm of fests and the `gang' that made it special — all can now be captured and relived on the online site Minglebox. This site plans to also add corporate communities soon, targeting IT and BPO employees to begin with. Minglebox.com has received $7-million funding from Sequoia Capital. The funding will go into product development, technology innovation and expansion of market reach. The site caters to 18-25 year olds. "Youth and new media is a huge opportunity that this site addresses," said Mr R. Ramaraj, Co-founder and till recently the CEO of Sify, also associated as a venture partner at Sequoia Capital, who has joined the board of Minglebox.
Sharing content
On the site, over 50,000 photos have been shared and 5,000 blogs have sprouted. The site expects to have a million users in a few months. Users of Minglebox.com average a session time of 29 minutes, compared to the 11-12 minutes on other sites, said Ms Kavita Iyer, CEO and co-founder, Minglebox.com.
Indianness
"Our glue is Indianness," said Ms Iyer on the differentiating factor from other social networking sites. Privacy of user content and security in the form of password encryption is being maintained. The site is currently hosted in the US due to bandwidth reasons and will shift to India in three-six months. "We have scanned the marketplace," said Mr Mohit Bhatnagar, Operating Partner, Sequoia Capital India. "The investment will be in a phased manner," he added. "Sequoia Capital has invested in 35 companies till date, of which 10 are in the Internet scene, while 6-7 are in the wireless domain." Sequoia has also invested a substantial sum in Guruji,com, an Indian search engine.
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