NEW DELHI, India, July 24, 2008 - Intel Capital, Intel Corporation's global investment organization today announced its plans to invest US$17 million in three Indian companies – Yatra.com, a leading online travel portal, BuzzInTown.com, an events-oriented social network extensible across web and mobile platforms and Emnet Samsara Media Pvt. Ltd., an out-of-home (OOH) advertising company focusing on the Indian public transportation market. The funding will come from the $250M Intel Capital India Technology fund.
"Since starting in India in 1998, Intel Capital has invested in approximately fifty companies across eight cities", said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel Executive Vice President. "Intel Capital places a great deal of importance on encouraging entrepreneurship and technology innovation in India and our latest investments in Yatra.com, BuzzInTown.com and Emnet Samsara are proof of that."
"Intel Capital continues to demonstrate the stage-agnostic nature of our investing style by supporting any lucrative technology companies in various and any stages of their growth and examples of these are Yatra which is a late stage deal, BuzzInTown.com which is an early stage deal and Emnet Samsara which is in a strong position with product roll-out and increasing customer traction" said Sudheer Kuppam, Managing Director, Intel Capital, India, Japan, South East Asia and Australasia.
Investment in BuzzInTown
Founded in 2007 by Uday Bellary and Dr. Amitabh Saran, BuzzInTown.com is a premier portal promoted by Wortal Inc. BuzzInTown.com is an entertainment-oriented social network extensible across web and mobile platforms and provides opportunities for viral networking across huge markets such as live events, media, advertising services, sales, and others. Wortal will use Intel Capital funds to expand its affiliations in thirty more cities, enable media and Internet delivery of content, and for increasing site traffic.
Investment in Yatra.com
Yatra.com is a leading travel portal and among the top three providers of business travel management services in India. The company is headed by Dhruv Shringi who is the co-founder and CEO. Yatra will use Intel Capital funds to accelerate business growth, upgrade technology to add new products and features to their website and fund potential acquisition opportunities.
In the long term the travel industry in India is expected to grow at healthy rate, with economic activity expected to drive corporate travel and increasing affluence expected to drive retail leisure and holiday travel. Intel Capital’s investment will be used to help Yatra become a full service provider, gain from increasing volume-based incentives and explore cross sell opportunities in various market segments (corporate travel, leisure, online travel bookings and hotel bookings).
Investment in Emnet Samsara Media Pvt. Ltd.
Emnet Samsara, headed by CEO Suyash Chaini is an out of home (OOH) advertising company focused on creating new media opportunities through innovative value added services. The company considers its core strength to be application of technology to explore advertising potential by creating innovative media platforms to reach target advertising audiences, such as in the field of public transportation where the company targets over 4.8 million passengers every day with its digital signage. Emnet Samsara plans to use the proceeds from the investment to build their business further by reaching out to more buses and bring an interesting mix of content and advertising to them.
The investments in India are part of the US $250 million Intel Capital India Technology Fund, which was founded in December 2005. This fund invests in Indian technology companies to help stimulate local technological innovation and the continued growth of India's Information Technology industry.
About Intel Capital
Intel Capital, Intel's global investment organization makes equity investments in innovative technology start-ups and companies worldwide. Intel Capital invests in a broad range of companies offering hardware, software, and services targeting enterprise, home, mobility, health, consumer Internet, semiconductor manufacturing and cleantech. Since 1991, Intel Capital has invested more than US$7.5 billion in approximately 1,000 companies in 45 countries. In that timeframe, 168 portfolio companies have gone public on various exchanges around the world and 212 were acquired or participated in a merger. Notable exits in India include Rediff, NIIT, Sasken Technlogies, Indiainfoline, Sharekhan and Nipuna. In 2007 Intel Capital invested about US$639 million in 166 deals with approximately 37 percent of funds invested outside the United States. For more information on Intel Capital and its differentiated advantages, visit www.intelcapital.com.
About Yatra.com
Yatra.com is India's leading online travel company for all travel needs including air tickets, hotel rooms, holiday packages and bus and car rentals. Tickets can be booked over the Internet, through the 24x7 customer care centre, Yatra.com Holiday Lounges or by mobile phone. Yatra offers access to travel deals across a myriad of national and international destinations. It is one of the largest consolidators of hotels in India and provides reservation for 3,000 hotels across 250 destinations in India. Yatra also has tie-ups with all the major international airlines and provides real time access to over 90,000 hotels across the world. For more information, please go to www.yatra.com
About BuzzInTown.com
Buzzintown.com is India’s leading Internet portal dedicated to the promotion of events and entertainment, with presence in 10 cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad Jaipur, Lucknow and Bangalore. Through its affiliations with thousands of stakeholders, it covers a wide range of categories and genres of happening events to suit everyone's palette such as cultural programs, concerts, plays, DJ gigs, live bands, business exhibitions, sports, food festivals, social gatherings and more. Of special interest is the category of movies, with special screenings and film festivals as the focus. Tickets for events can be bought online too. For more information, please go to www.buzzintown.com.
About Emnet Samsara Media Pvt. Ltd.
Emnet Samsara Media Pvt. Ltd. is an out of home (OOH) advertising company focusing on creating new media opportunities through innovative value added services. It is headquartered in Mumbai headed by CEO Suyash Chaini. The company’s core strength is application of technology to explore advertising potential by creating innovative media platforms to reach target advertising audiences, such as in the field of public transportation.
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