Global Takeoff to tap VC for $10 mn:
K Rajani Kanth / Chennai / Hyderabad June 12, 2010, 0:50 IST
Global Takeoff, a city-based provider of converged digital entertainment, communication and advertising, is in the process of raising a $10 million (approx. 46 crores) venture capital fund to take its technologies to the next level.
"We are in talks with with two VCs - one in the US and the other in India - and should be receiving funds in three months from now, which will be primarily used to scale up marketing, acquire premium content such as new movies and expand our R&D to make sure that the technologies are stable and can be extended to any other parts of the world, "Uday Reddy, chairman and CEO, told Business Standard.
Global Takeoff offers two products - Freedocast.com, a portal to LIVE broadcast user - generated and premium content and YuppTv.com that offers LIVE streaming of Indian and international television channels on the internet.
"For YuppTv, we are extremely foucused on the mobile market in India. The penetration of smart phones in the country is increasing and the big bottleneck of GPRS is going to go away with the 3G regime, which will bring in more niche mobile enabled services. Today, GPRS penetration is 20 percent and 3G will add 20 percent to this. There will be a 50 - million target base for such services in the next two years, a big market opportunity for companies like us," Reddy added.
At present, YuppTV offers close to 30 channels and is planning to extend this to 50 by the end of this month in languages like Kannada, Gujarati, Malayalam, Marathi and Hindi and add a bouquet of 10 Tamil channels in July. It currently has a registered database of 500,000 customers, mostly outside of India.
"We are already approached the UGC and the Triumphant Institute of Mangement Education. The new initiatives will take off next month," he said. The company would focus on the expatriate communities in the US, Carribean and Latin American markets for Freedocast.
"Our current revenues are still cash flow positive. Between Freedocast and YuppTv we foresee revenue streams of $150 million (Rs. 690 crores) over a period of three years," he said.
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