Sequoia Capital India has been busy again this week. The firm has just funded a Hyderabad-based company called SatNav Technologies — $7 million for an undisclosed stake. SatNav calls itself an IT products company and, interestingly, was spun-out of Satyam Computer in 2004 (the logo has a Satyam touch to it).
It was earlier known as Satyam Navigation, launched in 2000, and operated as the information technology services firm’s GIS (geographic information systems) venture. The company’s founder, managing director and CEO, Amit Prasad, led the outfit within Satyam before the spin-off. Not surprisingly, most of the senior management team is ex-Satyam and Satyam itself does not hold any equity in the company. This the company’s first round of venture funding.
Since we’re on Sequoia, they’ve also funded a Delhi-based fashion house called Genesis Colors, that hawks among others, the Satya Paul brand. The firm, co-investing with Mayfield Fund (which seems to be having a busy week as well) and Silicon Valley Bank, has bought a minority stake for Rs 110 crore says the Economic Times.
What others are saying about the deal
- Sequoia invests Rs 30 crore in Satnav (Financial Express)
- Satnav raises $7 million from Sequoia (Medianama)
- Satnav gest $7 million from Sequoia (Business Line)
SatNav is a part of BCCLs Private Treaty portfolio, so I’m wondering if they’ve exited to Sequoia. I would be surprised if they have. In some way, KPCB and Sherpalo validated the GIS space with MapMyIndia (CE Infosystems). Not sure if you’ve noticed, but Nokia’s been pushing the GPS app and MapMyIndia’s been pushing the GPS device. With location based services currently in the process of building up hype, would be interesting to see if SatNav just sells their data for others to build on, or builds something for themselves. Hmm…this comment could be a post
Willdo.