Ideas|Products|Startups|VCs

Komli Media, Asia Pacific’s leading digital media network, has raised $15 million in funding led by Norwest Venture Partners (NVP). Existing investors, Nexus Venture Partners and Helion Venture Partners, also participated in this round but DFJ hasn’t. The additional capital will be used to fuel aggressive expansion throughout India and across its key markets in Asia Pacific. The Company will further invest in its two core businesses – the Digital Media Network and the Audience Measurement unit – which are experiencing significant growth.

This is the company’s third round of financing – the first was in January 2008, when it raised $7 million, and the second in July 2010, when it raised $6 million.

Last year, Komli Media began its expansion across Asia Pacific by acquiring PostClick, Australia’s leading site representation firm. In October the Company further expanded to international ethnic markets with its acquisition of Indoor Media. With capabilities across brand solutions and performance marketing, Komli Media is Asia Pacific’s leading digital media network.

Amar Goel, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Komli Media, said, “We were drawn to NVP because it is a global, top tier investment firm with deep domain knowledge in the online advertising sector. Furthermore, NVP’s powerful network of relationships in India and abroad will be of great value to Komli Media as we expand our offerings and services to other markets. We look forward to closely partnering with NVP to take our company to the next level.”

Komli Media’s digital media network represents more than 2,000 websites today, including sites such as Facebook, Babycenter and Bloomberg, reaching more than 45 million unique users across a number of categories and regions. The company also owns and operates ViziSense, India’s first and leading online audience and ad measurement platform. ViziSense is now being launched in Australia to tap the growing needs for cutting edge audience measurement from digital marketers and publishers.

Niren Shah, Managing Director, NVP India, joins Komli Media’s board of directors as part of today’s announcement. He commented, “NVP is excited about the potential of early and late stage Internet investments in India, and Komli is the perfect addition to our robust global Internet portfolio. Komli Media’s highly experienced management team, significant level of technical expertise, and strong operational and financial performance made our decision to invest in the company an easy one. We look forward to working with Komli Media and supporting the team as it innovates in unique ways that will cement its position as a market leader in the rapidly evolving Indian and Asia Pacific digital market.”

Prashant Mehta, Chief Operating Officer of Komli Media added, “As Komli Media expands its core operations in the fast growing Asia Pacific markets with a digital market size of more than USD 3 billion, we plan to leverage this funding to double our investment in our key products and platforms as well as scale our organization across sales and marketing.” He further added, “As we make these investments, we look forward to thought leadership and strategic guidance from the NVP team.”

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

iYogi, a remote technical support company raises $30M in series D round and it was led by Industry major Sequoia Capital with participation from existing investors Canaan Partners , SVB Capital Partners , SAP Ventures and Draper Fisher Jurvetson.

Since its inception in 2006, the Gurgaon-based company has raised $27 million in three earlier rounds and is targeting an eventual public listing of shares in the coming year as its need for expansion capital rises.

“We are seeing a four-fold increase in revenues and are raising growth equity to expand across Middle East and Europe as well as launch our services in India by the second quarter of 2011,” said Udai Challu, co-founder and chief executive officer, iYogi, which offers online technical support to over 2.5 lakh retail customers across the UK, the US, Australia and Canada.

iYogi provides technical support through its various products. Its products include iYogi Smart PC Scan, iYogi Support Dock, iYogi Green PC and iYogi PC Optimization.

This year in January, iYogi raised $15 Mn form DFJ, in its series-C round of funding.  It had raised $12.6 Mn VC funding from  Canaan Partners, SAP Ventures and SVB India Capital Partners in its earlier round of funding.

iYogi is currently present in the US, United Kingdom, Canada and Australia. It now plans to launch its services in Europe and emerging markets such as the Middle-East and India next year.

iYogi delivers most of the services from India, and has plans to set up a facility in the Philippines by March 2011. iYogi which currently services PC users running Windows and related consumer devices, is also planning to offer support around other devices, including desktop and mobile products from Apple, mobile phones running the Symbian operating system, and BlackBerry devices.

The company currently has 350,000 subscribers, in addition to some customers who approach iYogi for incident-based support. Earlier in May’09, iYogi acquired Utah based Clean Machine Inc, a personal computer security and performance management service provider, for an undisclosed amount.

Surely raining $ for iYogi.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

“The proposed fund would be in the range of $100-$150M, “Mr.Mohanjit Jolly, Executive Director, DFJ told Business Line on the sidelines of Carbon Forum Asia 2010 in Singapore last week.

DFJ which invests in early to mid-stage companies, would earmark about a fourth of its India-specific fund to invest in clean technology companies. DFJ, which has a total portfolio of 20 investments in India, recently exited from Reva Electric, which was acquired by Mahindra and Mahindra. The VC firm has so far made some five investments in clean tech in Indian companies including Husk Power Systems, Deeya Energy, D.light Design, Attero Recycling among others.

“The India story has been pretty strong – growing from an experiment to reality. Our Limited Partners (those who invest in a fund) are bullish on the India story. Moreover, with the recent exit, we have completed a full cycle in India,” Mr Jolly said.

Further, Mr Jolly said the company was currently evaluating two more proposals in the clean tech segment. In the current $350-million fund raised in July, DFJ has earmarked about $50 million to invest in the Indian market in the next two to three years, Mr Jolly added.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

Attero, Noida based e waste recycle management company has secured series B fund of Rs. 15Cr led by Granite Hill India Opportunities Fund(Mauritius), existing investors DFJ and Indo US Ventures also participated in this round.

Attero Recycling is the only environmentally conscious end-to-end e-waste management solution provider in India and is one of the few such recyclers globally. Attero is also the only integrated e-waste recycler in India to be awarded the Recycling Registration for Environmentally Sound Recycling of Hazardous Waste by the Central Pollution Control Board, Ministry of Forest & Environment.

Incorporated in 2008, Attero Recycling was successful in attracting a series A funding of $6.3 million from top tier venture capital firms IndoUS Venture Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson in 2008. It has a highly automated facility for integrated e-waste recycling at Roorkee, Uttrakhand. The company has a first-of-its kind indigenous metallurgical process developed in its R&D division and a close technical collaboration with a leading US company for mechanical separation. Attero Recycling has more than 165 clients which include Wipro, HCL, Tata Tele, Google to name a few.

Here is the Press release:

Attero Recycling, India’s only integrated end-to-end electronic waste recycling company based in Noida, has attracted Series B investment from Granite Hill India Opportunities Fund (Mauritius). Both, IndoUS Venture Partners and Draper Fisher Jurveston who were Series A investors, enthusiastically participated in the current round. Attero Recycling is the only end to end recycler in the country with the capacity to recycle 36, 000 tonnes of e-waste per annum. Attero has developed India’s first technology for extracting metals from e-waste and plans to use the funds to further enhance the technology of their plant and strengthen their collection system

Mr. Sameet S. Mehta, will join the Board of Attero as a Director on behalf of Granite ill. Commenting on Attero, Mr. Mehta said, “We have partnered with Attero after realizing their potential and looking at their remarkable progress in the last two years. Attero has indeed established itself as the pioneer of the e-waste recycling industry. Growing e-waste is a major problem across nations and we hope to continue working with Attero towards eradication of this problem”

On the occasion, Mr. Nitin Gupta, CEO, Attero Recycling said- “We are pleased that Granite Hill has decided to back us and we hope to benefit from the experience of their General Partners. With this funding, we are confident of setting new benchmarks in safe and environmentally friendly processing of e-waste and strengthening our commitment to the environment. We hope that this funding round will enable us to strengthen our connect with the corporate sector and motivate them to give their e-waste to us for safe recycling.”

After successfully commissioning the metal extraction unit at Roorkee, Attero plans to expand the existing capacity to process most of the mixed metal e-waste generated in India. The amount of e-waste being generated in India today is staggering and most of it is being treated in the unorganized sector in a hazardous manner. Attero is addressing this growing environmental hazard with it’s a state-of-the-art plant operational in Roorkee, Uttarkhand to recycle e-waste in an environmentally safe and sound manner.

Komli media an online Indian ad network has raised $6M from existing investors – Nexus Venture Partners, Helion Venture partners and DFJ.   The funding will be used to accelerate the company’s overall growth including its expansion across Asia Pacific.

In 2007 Komli has raised $7m from the above mentioned VC firms.

The funding will aid the company to continue investments in the following core businesses:

• Premium Brand Solutions - Komli Media will continue to build on its already strong set of exclusive high quality publisher relationships across the region.  The company will also invest in bringing the next generation of video, mobile and brand measurement solutions to the market

• Performance Marketing – The company will invest further in its core performance optimization platform to help improve ROI for marketers and increase yields for publishers

• Audience Measurement – The company will continue to increase its panel size and bring more audience measurement solutions that will deliver significantly greater data and insights to marketers and agencies

“With India’s Internet user base growing over 50 million and increasing broadband penetration, we see an acceleration of growth in the digital advertising market. The largest brand advertisers in India are now demanding a much higher share of digital and social media in their overall marketing plans. We will continue to make India a top priority of our growth plans”, said Prashant Mehta, Chief Operating Officer of Komli Media.

Komli last month acquired Australia based PostClick a leading site representation firm, covered here.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com

D.light Design, a global company that designs and manufactures solar powered consumer products for families without access to reliable electricity, today announced that it has secured USD5.5 million in Series B financing. The round is led by new investor Omidyar Network and includes all major Series A investors, including Acumen Fund, Nexus Venture Partners, Gray Matters Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Garage Technology Ventures.

“We are thrilled to have Omidyar Network on board as an investor. We appreciate the perspective they bring—they understand how social enterprise can solve problems and improve lives in emerging economies,” said Sam Goldman, CEO of D.light.  “Their investment will allow us to scale rapidly to reach millions of people around the world who lack access to electricity, offering them affordable products that meet vital daily needs.”

In its first three years of operation, D.light has expanded distribution to over 30 countries and positively impacted the lives of over 1.25 million people worldwide. The new funding will support plans to bring economical products to more than 100 million customers by 2020. Specifically, D.light will rapidly increase distribution throughout Africa and Asia as well as expand its product line beyond solar lighting.

Omidyar Network, now D.light’s largest investor, was drawn to the company’s innovative product design, strong business model, and scalable approach to meeting the urgent needs of people in emerging markets. In geographies such as India and sub-Saharan Africa, D.light’s solar lanterns typically replace toxic kerosene lamps, providing life-changing improvements in personal health and security, as well as enhanced productivity and access to information.

Jayant Sinha, Managing Director of Omidyar Network India, will join D.light’s Board of Directors. Sinha brings 20 years of investing and strategy consulting experience to his role, as well as deep expertise advising businesses in emerging markets.

“Omidyar Network believes that D.light is at a critical inflection point on its path to massive social impact,” said Sinha. “Our investment enables D.light to scale its pursuit of customer-focused design with extreme affordability, a combination poised to unleash greater opportunity for millions.“

Hitesh, vcBytes.com

Leading early-stage global venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and Cisco today announced the 16 finalists in their second co-sponsored Global Business Plan Competition for university and business school students. The teams’ business plans address a diverse group of issues from sleep optimization and visual search to disk drive efficiency, energy-efficient microcontrollers and aquaculture. The finalists will be competing from their respective geographic areas via Cisco TelePresence(TM) suites on June 29, 2010, and the winning team will receive a minimum seed investment of $250,000.

“For the past 25 years we have invested in passionate entrepreneurs who want to change the world, and it is wonderful to see the Silicon Valley entrepreneurial spirit spreading to universities around the globe,” said Tim Draper, founder and managing director, DFJ. “We are thrilled by the quality of our finalists, and we are excited to meet these extraordinary individuals from all over the world through Cisco TelePresence conferences. We were also very pleased to discover that four of our finalist teams have female CEOs. DFJ has had a strong track record in investing in women CEOs, and the trend we’re seeing here may just be the start of a whole new era.”

The plans of the 16 finalists, nearly all of which won local university competitions, were selected from thousands of eligible business plans in 17 countries across the globe (Brazil, China, Finland, France, Japan, India, Ireland, Israel, Korea, Luxembourg, Mexico, Russia, Singapore, Spain, Uruguay, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.). Selection criteria included the quality of the management team, technical innovation, the addressable market size, competitive positioning, barriers, capital efficiency, and financial projections. Most of the finalists are still in the seed or early stages of business or technical development. In addition to the financial investment awarded to the winner, both DFJ and Cisco will assist the winner and finalists in leading the next wave of disruptive technologies by providing mentorship and professional assessments regarding their submissions.

“These 16 dynamic teams from around the world embody the entrepreneurial spirit of our global business plan competition,” said Hilton Romanski, vice president of corporate development at Cisco. “They are taking on interesting challenges and tackling tough issues with thoughtful and creative solutions, and we look forward to meeting them via Cisco TelePresence suites and learning more about their business plans next week.”

The competition will use Cisco TelePresence suites to allow the finalists to present their business plans to a San Jose-based panel of seasoned investors from DFJ, the DFJ Global Network of Partner Funds and Cisco. Cisco TelePresence technology enables collaboration through a live, face-to-face network communications experience where participants feel as though they are sitting in the same room even though they may be located thousands of miles apart.

Competitors and the media will be invited to view the competition via simulcast beginning at 8 a.m. PDT on June 29, and the winner will be announced at 5 a.m. PDT on July 1, 2010.

Please contact Kristin Carvell at Cisco if you are a member of the media interested in attending the competition or viewing it via a live webcast.

Finalists hail from 18 schools in seven countries. The complete list is as follows:

Name of Company Company  University      Business Plan Summary
                Location

Ambiq Micro     US       University of   Leads the way to ubiquitous
                         Michigan        computing with the world's most
                                         energy-efficient microcontroller
                                         (MCU).

Cambridge       UK       University of   Provides unique high-energy
Nanotubes                Cambridge       materials capable of increasing
                                         battery life for laptops and cell
                                         phones by up to 100%.

CellTV          Israel   Ariel           Enables multiple HD channel
                         University      broadcasts to an unlimited number
                         Center          of clients without decreasing the
                                         throughput of Wi-Fi networks.

Commuter        US       DePaul          Creates and sells relevant and
Advertising              University and  entertaining 10-second audio
                         University of   sponsorships inside trains and
                         Dayton          buses that are geo-coded and played
                                         at specific times; shares revenue
                                         with public transit agencies.

Deli Worm       China    Sun Yat-sen     Uses automation systems to mass
                         University      produce live organic worms to
                                         substitute current fish meals and
                                         mitigate the depletion of fish
                                         stock.

Digital Proctor US       University of   Creates enterprise online security
                         Texas-Austin    company with first market vertical
                                         in distance education.

Epythia         Russia   Higher School   Enables context-aware planning
                         of Economics    service with alerting and
                                         rescheduling based on a user's
                                         current and planned location.

F.A.N. MEDIA    China    Peking          Provides free printing service to
                         University      consumers that places targeted
                                         advertisements on one side of the
                                         free F.A.N. MEDIA printing paper
                                         and allows consumers to use the
                                         blank side for printing documents
                                         or photographs.

FayShine        China/US University of   Provides next-gen image-recognition
                         Illinois at     technology for comprehensive
                         Urbana-         shopping guidance.
                         Champaign

GlucaGo         US       Purdue          Provides revolutionary drug
                         University and  injector that is easy to use and
                         Indiana         low cost, and has been designed to
                         University      fit in existing filling lines for
                                         freeze-dried products, allowing
                                         unstable drugs or vaccines to
                                         maintain their stability at room
                                         temperature

IOS Financial   US       Northwestern    Enables online marketplace that, in
                         University      a targeted and value-added way,
                                         matches banks seeking to grow with
                                         small businesses seeking commercial
                                         loans

Lark            US       MIT             Provides compelling nonmedical
Technologies                             solutions around optimizing sleep
                                         via smart phones.

MicroMed        India    IIT Kharagpur   Provides microfluidics technology
                                         for use in pathological detection
                                         that requires minimal human
                                         intervention, reduces costs, and
                                         improves efficiency in India health
                                         care markets.

Nanodyne        US       UC Davis        Increases hard disk drive capacity
                                         by 800% through a process that
                                         utilizes metal-organic-silicon thin
                                         film, or MOSTF (code-named
                                         HyperDrive).

OsComp Systems  US       Harvard and MIT Commercializes a breakthrough
                                         patent-pending compression
                                         technology that will revolutionize
                                         the natural gas industry.

Silicon Reef    Brazil   Federal         Designs high-efficiency power
                         University of   converters and power management
                         Pernambuco      circuits for handling the energy-
                                         harvesting process.

Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) and Cisco will jointly hold its second global business plan competition for students aimed at fostering innovation and entrepreneurship.

The competition is designed to find new technology-oriented ideas from aspiring college and university student entrepreneurs around the world. Fourteen finalists will be announced on June 21, 2010.

The winner, who will be announced on June 29, 2010, will receive a minimum of $250,000 se ed money.

The winner will also receive professional feedback and mentorship from both DFJ and Cisco. DFJ India is searching for the top 5 teams to represent India.

Teams must meet the following criteria:

Eligibility:

1. Team Composition Teams may comprise of one or more people. At least one-third (1/3) of the presenting team members must be students. At least one student team member must deliver a substantive portion of the company presentation. Students may be undergraduate, masters or PhD candidates who are matriculated in a full time, part time or executive degree granting program during the June 2009-June 2010 period. If the team members have formed a corporation, the team does not need to include all of the employees and managers of the corporation.

2. Student Involvement Student(s) must hold a key leadership role in the formation and operation of the business.

3. Funding Status Teams that have already formed entities that have accepted a preferred equity investment from an institutional investor or have received more than US$1,000,000 in financing may not apply.

4. Faculty Involvement Student teams are encouraged to seek faculty support. However, faculty support is not a requisite.

5. Judging The judges will be representatives from DFJ and CISCO who will judge all teams on the same day.

6. Competition Criteria The judges will consider management, addressable market size, competitive positioning, barriers, capital efficiency, financial projections, and achievements to date in selecting participants and winners.

To participate in this event,

please email your executive summary and powerpoint presentation to Anurakt Jain at anurakt@dfj.com

If you have questions regarding the final event, please email Marta Bulaich at marta@dfj.com.

Important Dates:

June 4, 2010: Deadline for India teams to apply to be in the top 5

June 7, 2010: Top 5 India teams notified

June 11, 2010 5:00 PM PST: Deadline for Finalists submission

June 21, 2010: Global Finalists Announced

June 29, 2010: Global Competition

iYogi raises $15M in series C round funding led by DFJ, existing investors SAP Ventures, Canaan Partners and SVB India Capital Partners also participated in this funding process.iYogi provides online technical support for personal computers to small business and individuals across the world. iYogi headquartered in Gurgaon is founded by serial entrepreneurs Challu and Vishal Dhar.

iYogi’s Award winning Global Delivery Platform, iMantra,  documents every problem, solution and relevant hardware and software specs, while capturing each customer’s demographic information and creates a behavioral profile. All of this information is at the fingertips of iYogi’s Global Tech Experts, combining a powerful knowledge base with a comprehensive set of tools, and technology expertise, that can be accessed on demand to deliver great tech support.

iYogi’s prominent clients include Amazon.com and Walmart.

-Hitesh, vcbytes.com