StartupCentral

MobStac, the mobile publishing platform developed by Bangalore-based MobileMotion Technologies, is growing up. A couple of weeks ago, the Accel Partners-backed startup announced the launch of its 360-degree mobile publishing platform, which allows online publishers to seamlessly adapt content to any kind of mobile device, including tablets. The new platform also brings along some key changes to the business model and the need for fresh funding. The company plans to start raising its Series B round around June, though it is yet to decide on the size of the round.

The 360-degree platform, powered by HTML5, has been work-in-progress at the company through most of last year. “The objective was to try and create something that would enable us to scale beyond being just a mobile-enabling site. An integrated solution differentiates us from the rest,” says co-founder and CEO Sharat Potharaju. A former investment banker with Merrill Lynch in New York, Potharaju and school buddy Ravi Pratap M teamed up in 2010 to start MobStac. Pratap, the company’s chief technology officer, earlier worked at US-based technology startup Hillcrest Labs and with Morgan Stanley’s technology group in New York.

One of the key business model changes, following the new platform, is that the basic MobStac version will no longer be available free. The basic plan is typically used by blogs and other small digital publishers. Such users will now be charged $5 per month. The company is currently offering a 30-day free trial on the basic plan and the founders are hopeful that most users will migrate to the paid plan. “We’d be happy to see 200 paid users by the end of the quarter. It would validate that we are on the right path,” says Potharaju.

The company also plans to expand more aggressively into overseas markets such as continental Europe and Latin America. It intends to set up an office in New York this summer. The fresh funding it plans to raise in June will chiefly aid these expansion plans. The Series B could be as small as $1 million or larger. “We really don’t know at this point,” says Potharaju. In November last year, MobStac raised its Series A round from Accel Partners and Mumbai Angels. The amount was not disclosed, though sources close to the deal say that it was in the region of $500,000.

Disclosure: StartupCentral’s mobile site is powered by MobStac

Serial entrepreneur Meena Ganesh and Accel Partners have teamed up to make a $5 million Series A round investment in BlueStone, an online jewellery and accessories store, said a press release. This is the first of a slew of ecommerce investments that will be formally announced by Bangalore-based serial entrepreneur couple Meena Ganesh and Krishnan Ganesh over the next few weeks. Apart from BlueStone, the duo is reportedly also investing in e-grocer BigBasket, online bookstore BookAdda and travel planning site Must See India.

Bangalore-based BlueStone was founded late last year by Vidya Nataraj and Gaurav Singh Kushwaha. Prior to BlueStone, Nataraj was a strategy consultant at PricewaterhouseCoopers and also managed her family business at books retail chain Landmark. Kushwaha was earlier co-founder and CEO of online entertainment portal Chakpak. BlueStone offers third-party laboratory certification for all its products and a 30-day money-back guarantee. Most of the designs on offer are make-to-order. Payments can be made online or via demand drafts, cheques or money orders.

Following the investment, Accel Partners’ Prashanth Prakash and Meena Ganesh have joined the BlueStone board. Ganesh brings over a decade of experience in building successful startups and corporate organizations to the table. After setting up and scaling UK grocery chain Tesco’s operations in India, she teamed up with her husband K Ganesh to start online tutoring company TutorVista in 2005. The company was acquired by UK-based publishing group Pearson in late 2010 for Rs 577 crore (over $100 million) and Meena Ganesh now heads Pearson Education Services in India. Earlier the entrepreneur couple also co-founded and successfully sold call center firm CustomerAsset.

Data analytics startup Mu Sigma has raised a $108 million in a Series D round of funding led by General Atlantic Partners, says a press release issued by the company. The stake acquired by General Atlantic has not been disclosed. Existing investor Sequoia Capital has also participated in the current round, raising its stake in the company. The latest round of funding takes the total venture capital raised by Mu Sigma till date to a little over $163 million. The company’s revenues are not public, though it claims to be profitable.

This is the second time in six months that the Chicago-based company has raised significant funding. In June, it raised a $25 million Series C round from Sequoia for an undisclosed stake. The fresh round of funds will be used to accelerate its growth and purchase some of the shares held by existing shareholders, said the press release. The company’s other venture capital shareholders include Accel Partners and FTV Capital. It is not clear yet whether these investors intend to sell part of its stakes in the company.

Accel was the first venture capital investor to enter Mu Sigma, shortly after the company was founded in 2004. The venture capital firm reportedly picked up a 10 per cent stake in the company for an investment of under $500,000 as part of a Series A round. Founder Dhiraj C Rajaram, a former Booz Allen Hamilton strategy consultant, reached out to Accel’s Bangalore-based partners Subrata Mitra and Prashanth Prakash through common friends and a deal was struck within three months. The company’s development center in Bangalore, which now employs 15,000 analytics professionals, was initially incubated at Accel’s office. FTV Capital, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm that manages $1 billion across three funds, invested a reported $30 million in Mu Sigma in 2008, as part of the company’s Series B round of fund-raising.

What others are saying about the deal

• Mu Sigma raises $108 million from General Atlantic (The Economic Times)
• Mu Sigma raises $108 million to grow its big data services (VentureBeat)

Accel Partners’ much awaited second India fund is finally in the bag. The Palo Alto, California-based venture capital firm announced the closing of the $155 million Accel India III fund. The new fund will invest in seed and early stage companies here, said a press release. The latest fund takes the total dedicated corpus managed by Accel for India to $225 million.

In 2008, it launched a $60 million maiden fund following the acquisition of local seed investment firm Erasmic Venture Fund. Prior to the acquisition, Erasmic invested from a $10 million fund (now dubbed Accel India I) backed by Google and a group of angel investors. Its early investments included business analytics startup Mu Sigma and ecommerce company Myntra.

Accel India III comes amidst speculation in the media about portfolio company Flipkart raising a $150-200 million Series C round of funding from private equity investors. The deal could result in Accel’s first blockbuster exit in this market. Startupcentral earlier learned from sources close to the firm that Accel is looking to net $25 million from the sale of a 2 per cent stake in Flipkart (the total stake held is not known). It had invested $1 million in the Bangalore-based ecommerce company in 2009.

Partners Mahendran Balachandran, Shekhar Kirani, Subrata Mitra and Prasanth Prakash lead the 11-member Accel team in India. The firm has invested in 34 companies till date and notable investments, apart from Flipkart, include mobile value-added services startup Kirusa, ecommerce company Exclusively and healthcare devices company Perfint. The new fund, says the press release, will focus on deals in digital media, software-as-a-service, mobile, healthcare, education and Accel’s pet sector, the Internet.

Palo Alto, California-based Accel Partners is spreading its wings in India. The venture and growth investor, which manages a $6 billion global capital pool, has hired Neeraj Bharadwaj to steer its growth investments here. Bharadwaj moves from private equity major Apax Partners after an eleven year stint, which included leading the firm’s India investments from late 2006. In a press statement, announcing his new assignment, he says that high-growth sectors such as media, technology and retail will be among his areas of focus.

Accel will invest between $10 million and $50 million in mid-sized companies, as part of its growth investing strategy, said the press statement. It is the latest in a growing line of venture capital investors who want to straddle early stage and growth opportunities here with equal focus. Read the full story