Mumbai-based Ideacts Innovations, which makes software products targeting cyber cafes, has raised series-B venture capital funding from Sequoia Capital India and Silicon Valley Bank. Rudrajeet Desai, CEO and co-founder of Ideacts Innovations, confirmed this development to VCCircle.
Ideacts raised $5 million from Sequoia Capital in 2007. The amount raised in second round is higher than first, Desai said. Economic Times reported that the firm has raised between $5-9 million. The company was formed in March 2007 and it's other co-founders are Maninder Gill and Saurabh Khullar.
Ideacts is expecting a break-even in next four to five months, Desai said. The company is currently planning several new product launches to be rolled out in coming months. Desai believes his company will not require another round of funding.
Rapid Growth
Ideacts has now partnered with 3,700 cafes from 625 cafes, since it announced funding in July 2008. Number of terminals have also increased from 2,000 to 21,000 in the same period. The company has a stronghold in 19 cities and has an additional footprint in 57 cities, said Desai. The company now plans to expand and deploy its flagship product CLINCK in tier II and tier III cities, aiming to reach 10,000 cafes in next 12 months.
Since its launch last year, Ideacts claims its revenues have grown by 200% month on month. Ideacts revenue streams are purely based on advertising. But the slowdown hasn't had a much of an impact on Ideacts. "Honestly, I haven't seen any kind of slowdown," said Desai. Advertiser accounts at Ideacts have grown every month, claims Desai. But he adds that advertisers have been pushing for lower rates. The major advertisers with Ideacts are Samsung, Pepsi, McDowells, etc. The company also promotes content for Yahoo and is advertising for Indian Premier League (IPL).
New Initiatives
Besides expanding the reach of its flagship product, Ideacts is also planning to roll out some new products. Ints planning to launch a software application product in July that helps cyber cafe owners in areas like accounting and management.
Another product it's looking to launch is in area of cyber crime. "We are creating a cyber crime abiding security features in cafes," said Desai. Ideacts is working with cyber crime cells on this product and with new round has also appointed an expert on its board, who was a cyber crime cop.
