Building India’s First Billion Dollar Tech Company: InMobi Co-Founder Amit Gupta (Part 6)

Sramana: Given the growth you have been describing and the model you had for expansion, I imagine that everybody was willing to give you money. Who did you select and why?

Amit Gupta: Yes. For our next round, we spoke with a lot of potential firms but we ended up taking money from SoftBank. They are a Japanese company that invested $200 million. There is a big reason for selecting SoftBank. We liked their control and understanding of the Chinese, Japanese, and Korean markets. We felt they could assist us in those markets.

Sramana: What is your revenue split amongst the markets?

Amit Gupta: Our revenue split is very diverse now. In 2013, North America represented almost 35% of our revenue. EMEA and GPAC split the remaining revenue equally. We call ourselves a global company now and I believe our revenue splits back up that claim. >>>

Thought Leaders in Online Education: Mike Pellerin, Director, Enterasys University (Extreme Networks) (Part 7)

Sramana Mitra: Well, it can be looked at differently as vocational training. For example, there are plenty of jobs in computer networking. We live in a networked world. Somebody who is trained in computer networking and has a good theoretical understanding can deal with equipment and so forth. This is a very nice vocation even if they don’t go to the university. It could be a decent career path, which is why the community college angle is very interesting.

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Harvard Business Review: How To Fund Indian Start-Ups

Harvard Business Review has published Sramana Mitra’s piece How To Fund Indian Start-Ups. You can read the entire article here.

New Book – Seed India: How To Navigate The Seed Capital Gap In India

While tremendous interest in entrepreneurship in India continues to surge, there is a troubling and corresponding shortage of seed capital to help get these entrepreneurs’ ventures off the ground.

Sramana Mitra, one of the most highly regarded writers on the Indian startup scene, analyzes the current state of the startup eco-system in India in the latest addition to her acclaimed Entrepreneur Journeys book series, Seed India: How To Navigate The Seed Capital Gap In India (December 2013; Amazon Kindle). Mitra proposes ways of navigating the rest of the decade, such that a robust pipeline of entrepreneurs can survive the current malaise, and thrive, while the eco-system develops and matures in parallel.
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Seed Capital: Inventus Capital Partners

1M/1M ambassador Irina Patterson talks with Parag Dhol of Inventus Capital Partners.

Irina Patterson: Please tell us briefly about your personal background and about your fund.

Parag Dhol: Inventus Capital Partners is a U.S.–India venture firm managed by successful entrepreneurs and industry operating veterans who have backed over 100 entrepreneurs with operations in India and/or Silicon Valley. Inventus backs entrepreneurs first and foremost. The companies financed by Inventus include redBus (acquired by MIH/Naspers and our biggest success), Vizury, Credit Sesame, Savaari, PoshMark, Power2sme, Policybazaar and eDreams, among others. Inventus started investing out of Fund-II earlier this year. >>>

1Mby1M Deal Radar 2013: Sapience Analytics, Pune, India

Sapience Analytics is the creator of an enterprise-class solution designed to increase productivity and create “automated work visibility” across the enterprise hierarchy – with no added managerial responsibility. Within two years of its release, Sapience has crossed $1 million in annual revenue and has scaled to more than 50 installations and 50,000 users. Sapience has recently been selected by NASSCOM as India’s Top 10 Emerge Product company for 2013. It has also been recognized as one of India’s fastest growing enterprise software products by IDG Channel World (50 Hot Companies, 2013); NASSCOM (Lead 10, 2013); and Red Herring (Asia Top 100 technology start-up, 2011).

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1Mby1M Incubation Radar 2013: Invention Labs, Chennai, India

Invention Labs develops augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) solutions like Avaz that help children with speech disabilities develop communication and language skills. Avaz represents ideas visually, as picture symbols that can then be sequenced together to create sentences that are spoken out. Unlike its competitors, Avaz is not English-specific and not only helps in communication but also in building language skills. >>>

Acquiring Deadpool Technology to Leapfrog a Services Company into Products: Canara CEO Steve Cotton (Part 5)

Sramana: Once you brought the new technology to the market, how did it do? How long did it take for it to find its stride?

Steve Cotton: The impact was immediate. Our expectations were very conservative, but within two quarters our entire customer based flipped over to our product as opposed to the other products we were selling. We did well because we were the trusted advisor. The box was the trusted enabler of the service.

Sramana: What is the revenue growth from 2009 to 2013?

Steve Cotton: We grew in that phase and burst through the $10 million point. Last year we did a $22 million private equity deal with Columbia Capital, and our revenues were close to the size of that deal. We basically bootstrapped to that point. >>>