Mobile application and distribution firm, Onward Mobility Solution Private Limited has raised Rs.18 Cr series A funding from IndoUS Venture Partners and Qualcomm Ventures.

The funds will be used to expand product offering, retail distribution and for hiring.

Consort Capital acted as the sole advisor to Onward Mobility.

Last year, the company raised over $1 Mn in two rounds from Mumbai Angels.

Transaction Reference: India Infoline

Founded in 2010, Onward Mobility designs and develops mobile applications. The company markets its products through strategic partners in countries such as Australia, Bangladesh, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Sri Lanka, Qatar, UAE, UK and US.

Its products under the brand name MOBI, like MobiCop, MobiRecord, MobiSecret, among others, are already present in eight states in India.

The company has unique offline, direct to consumer, distribution model.

Onward Mobility has also entered into strategic partnerships with many content publishers and intends to roll out their partner's products like games, entertainment, music, education and other content in the next few months.

For FY2010, it posted revenue of Rs.3.58 Cr with PAT of Rs.11 lakhs.

Mostly companies operating in mobile application space sell their products through online channels like applications stores. There are different distribution channels for mobile applications which includes app stores, pre loads, optimize search discovery and many more.

According to market research firm Bharat Book Bureau, about 6.4 Bn (free, paid, and ad-supported) application downloads were made globally in 2009 alone generating revenues of $4.5 Bn in the same year.

Few untransacted private companies operating in Mobile Application Space

Source: SmartTechie

Recently Spice Digital, a subsidiary of the Spice Global group, which offers services across Voice, IVR, SMS, USSD, WAP, 3G & Mobile Application was planning to raise $20 Mn from Taiwan’s Meditek Inc; Bangalore based mobile application developer - Sourcebits Technologies Pvt Ltd has raised $10 Mn Series-A funding from Sequoia Capital and IDG Ventures.

Apalya Techologies has raised funds $8.27 Mn from Qualcomm Ventures, IndoUs Ventures and IDG Ventures. The revenue of the company has grown from Rs.41 lakhs in 2008 to Rs.3.28 Cr in 2010.

Other Indian mobile application developers such as VerSe Innovation, Mobiquest Mobile Technologies, Onward Technology have raised PE/VC funding in the past couple of years.

Qualcomm Ventures is a venture capital investment arm of Qualcomm Inc. Its portfolio includes investments in Tessolve Services, Capillary Technologies among others.

IndoUS Ventures has recently invested in Snapdeal along with Bessemer Venture Partners and Nexus Venture Partners. It portfolio includes Myntra.com, VenSat, Visionary RCM, Gradatim, Seventymm, Pressmart among others.

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KVEZAR VIEW

  DEAL TRACKER FOR

Date	Transaction	Type	Buyer	Size ($mn)
18/08/11	Onward Mobility - IndoUS Ventures, Qualcomm	Venture Capital	Qualcomm Ventures	3.95
30/12/10	Onward Mobility - Mumbai Angels	Venture Capital	Mumbai Angels	0.50
29/03/10	Onward Mobility - Mumbai Angels	Venture Capital	Mumbai Angels	0.66

 

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21/05/12	Venture Capital	Blume Ventures	Serendipity Infolabs Private Limited	-	Completed
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  Profiles

Fund
Name	Corpus	Target Sector	Website	KeyContact
IndoUS Capital Advisors Private Limited (NEA-IndoUS Ventures)		Cleantech IT/ITES/Technology	www.iuvp.com	Sumit JainVinod K DhamVinod Kumar Dham
Qualcomm Ventures	500	IT/ITES/Technology	www.qualcomm.com/ventures	Kashyap NagrajQuinn LiJack YoungKeith MuhartPatrick EggenAlbert WangRichard TapalagaGil DemeterPaul E JacobsKarthee MadasmyJing WangRoberto Padovani

Company
Name	Promoters	Office	Competitor	Website
Onward Mobility Solution Private Limited	Ajay Kumar Menon Arun Kumar Menon Sendhil Kumar	D/3136-39, Oberoi Garden Estates,Chandivali Farm Road, Andheri East		www.onwardmobility.com

  Advisor

Consort Capital Services Private Limited