Early to growth stage fund launched for MVAS firms in India

One97 Communications Limited (One97) today announced the launch of a joint initiative with SAIF Partners (SAIF), its largest institutional investor to invest in seed & early to growth stage companies in the Mobile Value Added Services (MVAS) space in India.

With a flexible investment range of USD 500K to 5 million from a total planned allocation of USD 100 million, both One97 and SAIF will invest in companies that leverage mobile as a key service & content delivery medium for mobile consumers and enterprises.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Managing Director of One97 said, "India's telecom market is witnessing an influx of growth in mobile value added services. 3G, BWA and large subscriber base of mobile consumers provides a great opportunity for entrepreneurs to create new, innovative high growth mobile VAS companies that can serve such large mobile subscriber base."

"This underlines the commitment of One97 and SAIF towards enhancing go-to-market opportunities for all the MVAS stakeholders and fast-forwarding their growth. Through our joint initiative, we will not only be able to provide necessary capital but offer our much required support in form of experience, expertise, relationships and resources for these companies," he added.

One97 has successfully used this model and invested in a mobile advertising and analytics space company (Oorja Mobile Services Private Limited) and a remote device management & security service (WaveSecure developed by TenCube Pte Ltd. of Singapore).

Ravi Adusumalli, General Partner, SAIF said, "We are extremely excited to be part of the collaboration with One97. We sincerely believe that One97 and SAIF can add tremendous value to the mobile space and support game changing companies."

The opportunities in the sector are bound to grow with trends like fast penetration of Smartphones, technologies like 3G and mobile phone becoming the go-to-device for entertainment, information and transaction needs across the board. Creation of services is a huge potential growth area, which One97 and SAIF wish to support and grow.

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