AppsDaily raises INR 1 Billionfrom Zodius Technology Fund and other
investors
·
Zodius Leads Funding Round
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Funds to fuel:
o Product
development
o Expanding
market reach
o Attracting
fresh talent
AppsDaily Solutions Private Limited, India’s
leading Mobile application development and Distribution Companyhas raised INR 1
Billion in a Series C round of funding from Zodius Technology, Ru-Net Ltd, Indo
US Venture Partners (IUVP), and Qualcomm Ventures. This round was led by Zodius
Technology Fund. Mumbai Angel investors have partially exited with multi-bagger
returns in this round.
AppsDaily,
a Digital Company was founded by Arun Menon and Ajay Menon in 2009. AppsDaily has set-up a
first-of-its-kindIndia-wide retail distribution network to sell Mobile Apps and
Services to smart phone customers. AppsDaily has more than 3 million satisfied
and paidcustomers through its 7000 strong retail distribution network that is spread
across 700 cities selling its products. AppsDaily’s current products include Mobile
Anti-Virus, Mobile Insurance, Backup Solutions, Mobile Privacy, SOS, various Mobile
Utilities, mobilegames etc. Based on its huge success with its current bundle
of Mobile Apps the Company is gearing up to launch Apps in the Education and Healthcare
segments. The company has grown 10x in revenues in the last two years with
current year net revenues expected to cross INR 1.3 Billion.
Gautam
Patel of Zodius Technology Fund has joined the Company’s Board of Directors.
The other investor directors on the Board are Vani Kola from IndoUs Venture
Partners, Galina Chifina from Ru-Net and Rajiv Dadlani from the Mumbai Angels,
as well as VarshaTagare from Qualcomm Ventures who serves as an observer on the
Board.
Gautam
Patel, Managing Director, Zodius, said “We are excited to invest in AppsDaily
and back Arun, Ajay and the team. The Company is in a market defining position
providing mobile applications to the fast growing India-wide smart phone
customer. They provide a very important bridge to the Indian digital consumer
who wants access to best in class services but is still grappling with
bandwidth availability and cost issues."
The
investment funds will be primarily used to expand the company’s product
offering, launch its digital platform, further expand its retail distribution
reach and make some key hires to further strengthen its management team.
AppsDaily is one of the only companies in India which is combining the latesttechnologies
and Apps of the digital Internet with existing last-mile retail &
distribution sales reach. AppsDailywill launch a first of its kind hybrid App
platform targeted at the Indiansmart phone customer who is shifting online but
requires handholding, is currently paying in cash and demands the physical
touch point customer experience.
Arun
Menon, Founder & CEO AppsDaily said “We are very excited to have Zodius on
board and look forward to leveraging their extensive operating and investing
experience. This funding allows us to go forward in executing our plans, to
become the largest mobile apps and digital platform in the country. The digital
journey of the country has just begun and with more than billion users still to
buy a smartphone we are with our unique retail reach looking to become the
digital gateway for Indian consumer.“
Ajay
Menon, Founder, AppsDaily said “We have already created the category of Mobile
Protection in the country and we will be using this funding to further our
momentum in this space. We also want to extend our reach to 2,000 cities in the
next 1 year and are also looking at investing in makingAppsDailythe preferred
choice for every Indian consumer who uses the smart phone as his first and only
screen for communication, entertainment, travel, healthcare, and education”
About AppsDaily Solutions Pvt Ltd:
AppsDaily,
founded in 2008, is the largest Mobile App company in India with 1200+
employees across 10 offices with headquarters in Mumbai, India. The company has pioneered the ability to sell
Mobile Apps using more traditional channels like Mobile Phone retail
distribution networks backed by a dedicated salesforce and are sold across 700
cities in 7000 mobile stores. AppsDaily is has grown 10x in revenues in the
last two years and has 3 million paid customers. With access to key data insights about usage
and preferences AppsDaily is positioned extremely well to become the leading
branded “Curated Appstore” to the Indian Smart phone user.
About Zodius Technology Fund:
Zodius
Technology Fund (ZTF) is a partnership between Avendus Capital, a leading
India-based financial services firm and the management team of Zodius, an
investor-operator of India-centric technology companies. The fund investsin
emerging leaders in high growth Digital and SMAC (Social, Mobile, Analytics and
Cloud) based Business Services. The targeted Digital Business investments would
cover both Internet and Mobile, and areas such as Media, Commerce and Consumer
Services. Business Services investments would be focused primarily on SMAC
driven IT/BPO opportunities to build new disrupters, or restructure and
redirect existing companies toward new high growth market segments. The fund is
also invested in, (i) Bigbasket.com (eGrocery), (ii) Culture Machine (Digital
Video Media), (iii) ZyFin (ETF), and (iv) Antuit (Analytics).
About IndoUs Venture Partners
IndoUS
Venture Partners (IUVP) is a leading venture capital firm which provides early
and mid-stage funding to new or growing businesses in India. They are passionate about investing in
entrepreneurs who are poised to be tomorrow's global leaders. They seek
companies that are capturing new markets, providing innovative solutions, and
creating new wealth for India and beyond.
About Ru-Net Technology Partners
Ru-Net
is one of the leading Russian VC fund investing globally in the leading
companies in customer and technology space with a focus on e-commerce,
marketplaces, platforms, SAAS and big data.
Started
in 2000 and making the name with early investments in OZON (largest horizontal
e-commerce in Russia) and Yandex (leading Russian search engine) Ru-Net now
invests out of the third 700 million USD fund and has a portfolio of more than
40 companies spanning across Russia, Europe, Turkey, India, USA and South East
Asia.Ru-Net has offices in Moscow and New York.
About Qualcomm Ventures
Qualcomm
Ventures, the venture investment group of Qualcomm Incorporated, was launched
in the United States in November 2000 with an initial US$500 million
allocation. Qualcomm Ventures’ aim is to support Qualcomm’s mission of enabling
and fostering 3G and wireless industries through investments in privately owned
start-up ventures. These investments include companies focusing on wireless
communication technologies and products serving consumer, enterprise and
vertical segments worldwide.
