STARTUPCENTRAL » Sequoia Capital

Knowlarity Raises $6.75 Million From Sequoia Capital

StartupCentral — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 11:53:33 +0000

Gurgaon-based cloud telephony solutions startups Knowlarity Communications has raised a $6.75 million round of funding from Sequoia Capital. This appears to be the company’s first round of venture capital funding. The money will be used to strengthen research and development activities and expand marketing operations. The company also plans to extend its presence to other global markets, after establishing its presence in India and Indonesia, said a press release.

Knowlarity was founded in 2009 by IIT Kanpur alumni Ambarish Gupta and Pallav Pandey. Gupta earlier developed go-to-market strategies for global technology and insurance companies at McKinsey & Co. Pandey founded Viplav Communications, a political consulting company, in 2003. The top leadership team is completed by Bipul Parua, also an alumni of IIT Kanpur, who earlier worked in the US with Cisco Systems among other technology companies.

The company started with the objective of enabling small and medium enterprises with telephony solutions. It claims to have more 40,000 customers now and the client list includes Makemytrip and Adani Group. The company’s flagship solution is a cloud telephony platform called Knowlus. Its product range includes SuperFax, SuperReceptionist, SuperConference and SuperCaller. For larger enterprises the company provides hosted IVR solutions integrated with their existing IT Systems. The three-year old company already has over 100 people on board.

HealthKart Raises $5.2 Million From Sequoia, Omidyar

StartupCentral — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:21:58 +0000

Gurgaon-based online health store HealthKart has raised $5.2 million (Rs 27 crore) as part of a Series A round of funding from Sequoia Capital and Omidyar Networks, reports VCCircle. The company had earlier raised over $1 million from KAE Capital and Sequoia in seed funds.

Founded in March 2011, the startup was reportedly in the market to raise $10 million, chiefly to expand its portfolio and launch an online magazine. It started business with products in categories such as diabetes, home medical and baby products and intends to expand into elderly care, nutrition, personal care chronic care, vision and skin care. The company takes orders online, over telephone and via email. Orders that exceed Rs 500 are eligible for free delivery and the company also offers customers the cash-on-delivery option.

The 11-month old ecommerce startup, founded by IIT Delhi alumni Prashant Tandon and Sameer Maheshwari, also retails services such as health-checkups, fitness packages at gyms and spa treatment packages. The leadership team, apart from Tandon and Maheshwari, includes Animesh Jain, founder of online gifting startup iTasveer, who now heads marketing for HealthKart.

SKS IPO: Sequoia’s Home Run?

Snigdha Sengupta — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:31:30 +0000

Update: SKS Microfinance today announced Rs 850-Rs 985 per share as the price band for its upcoming IPO, which opens on Wednesday — read the Bloomberg report. At the upper price band, it can expect to raise as much as Rs 1.65 crore (about $344 million) says the report. VCCircle reports that Sequoia Capital could make 16 times its money when it sells part of its shares in the company. Sequoia had picked up shares in SKS at Rs 61.18 per share and Rs 137.53 per share over separate transactions, said the report.

Sequoia Capital portfolio company SKS Microfinance is scheduled to go public on July 28 with an offering of 16.8 million shares.The public offer includes an issue of 7.44 million shares in fresh equity and an offer for sale of 9.34 million shares by existing investors, including Sequoia Capital. SKS hopes to raise over Rs 1,000 crore, according to various media reports. Founder and chairman Vikram Akula (seen here engaged in a loan collection and disbursal meeting at the Munipalli centre in Sadashivpet, on the outskirts of Hyderabad) kicked off the road show for the IPO in Mumbai on Monday.

Sequoia is currently the largest shareholder in SKS with a 21.8 per cent stake. Post-issue it will hold 14 per cent. It entered the Hyderabad-based microfinance company in 2007 and has invested Rs 125 crore till date. The investments were made from Sequoia Capital India Fund II and Sequoia Capital India Growth Fund I. The firm is betting big on this exit. In fact, it expects SKS alone to return most of the $200 million Sequoia Capital India Fund II corpus — read an Outlook Business story here. The IPO price band is being speculated at Rs 600-700 per share. Incidentally, VCCircle reports that George Soros’ Quantum picked up a 0.4 per cent stake yesterday at Rs 636 per share.

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