Canaan Expands Global and Digital Media Portfolio with Mobile
Entertainment Provider in India and South-East Asia
Menlo Park, CA (PRWEB) August 21, 2007 -- Canaan Partners, a $2.4 billion global venture capital firm, today announced it has led a $5.25 million, Series A investment in Cellcast Asia Holdings (a subsidiary of UK based Cellcast Plc (AIM: CLTV), one of the world's leading, global, interactive digital broadcasters. Cellcast develops, produces and distributes participative digital content throughout Asia, excluding China. The investment will accelerate Cellcast's growth and customer acquisition in India. Alok Mittal, Canaan's managing director in India, and Maha Ibrahim, general partner at Canaan, will join the board of directors of Cellcast Asia Holdings.
Canaan continues to expand its global portfolio, including early-stage investments in India, and strengthen its expertise in digital media. Canaan's recent investments in India include Bharat Matrimony, the largest online matrimonial service in India, iYogi, a provider of high-quality, remote desktop support and techTribe, a career networking portal based on the referral model.
"There is huge and growing consumer demand throughout the world for interactive mobile entertainment," said Maha Ibrahim, general partner at Canaan. "Cellcast is poised to address this need throughout Asia and we are thrilled to help the company realize a new level of success. At Canaan, we are committed to helping innovative companies across the globe realize their growth potential and we are excited to add Cellcast to our portfolio as our first mobile entertainment investment in India."
"The use of mobile phones is evolving and they are increasingly used as a personal entertainment device," said Pankaj Thakar, CEO at Cellcast Asia Holdings. "At Cellcast, we strive to match the needs of broadcasters and end consumers by producing live, interactive, pay-to-play programming, aggregating and distributing an extensive portfolio of mobile and participative TV applications. Our partnership with Canaan Partners will enable us to accelerate our growth by investing in new TV formats and applications and by fueling regional initiatives."
About Canaan Partners
Canaan Partners invests in visionary entrepreneurs and provides them the networks, insights and operational guidance required to build high-performance technology and healthcare companies. For 20 years, they have taken an active and committed role in the companies in which they invest, and have completed more than 67 mergers and acquisitions and 51 IPOs. With $2.3 billion under management and a worldwide footprint, the firm's technology team is committed to catalyzing the growth of innovative companies in the digital media, communications & mobility, enterprise and clean tech industries. Among its successes are DoubleClick, the leading online advertising solution, Match.com, the most popular online dating site in the world, and Acme Packet, one of the top ten performing IPOs of 2006. Other Canaan technology investments include SuccessFactors, The Active Network, Blurb, Dexterra, GroundWorks and ID Analytics. Canaan has offices in California, Connecticut, India and Israel. For more information visit: www.canaan.com
About Cellcast Asia Holdings /India Interactive Private Limited
Cellcast Asia Holding is a new vehicle established by Cellcast Plc for pan Asian regional distribution of its interactive products and services. Cellcast Plc has inject 100% of its shares in Cellcast India and the entirety of its 50% holding in its SE Asian based Joint Venture. Cellcast India was established in November 2005 as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cellcast plc., and launched its first programme in mid-2006. The company is a pioneer in developing integrated participation content to address the entertainment demands of India's 105 million TV households and 70 million mobile phone subscribers. The company recently extended its operations to Sri Lanka.
Cellcast plc
Cellcast plc (AIM: CLTV) is a leading international provider of participation television applications and interactive mobile content in the fast-growing multi-platform digital entertainment sector. Headquartered in London, with associated operations in Paris, Beirut, Mumbai, Hong Kong and Sao Paolo, Cellcast's applications and programming are distributed on the Sky Digital and Freeview platforms in the UK, and the company is partnered with broadcasters and telecom networks in Europe, the Middle East, India, South-East Asia, China, and South America.
Cellcast plc joined the AIM market of the London Stock Exchange in 2005.
Contact
Erin McMahon-Lyman
Marketing Alchemist
Phone (510) 649-1390
Gina Vakili
Canaan Partners
Phone (650) 854-8092
###
Trackback URL: http://www.prweb.com/pingpr.php/U3F1YS1TcXVhLUZhbHUtSGFsZi1UaGlyLVplcm8=
|
