Weekly Tech News Round-Up from India

05:00 | Kamla Bhatt | Dec 27th, 2006 4:53pm |

Who will bid and acquire Hutch Essar? That’s the big question in the telecom and mobile service sector in India. Hutch Essar is a joint venture partnership between Hong Kong’s Whampoa Hutchison and the Essar Group of India. Whampoa Hutchison owns 67 percent of the stake and the Essar Group owns a 33 percent stake in the company. In the past two weeks there has been a lot of speculation as to which company will acquire the assets of Hutch Essar.

Tutor Vista, MakeMytrip and Cleartrip received their two rounds of funding earlier this month. Tutor Vista, an online tutorial company, received $10.75 million from investment groups including Lightspeed Ventures, Sequoia Capital India and Silicon Valley Bank.

Makemytrip, an online travel portal, received its second round of funding — $13 million. The investment comes from Helion Ventures, Sierra Ventures and existing investors, SB Asia Infrastructure Fund (SAIF). Cleartrip, an online travel portal received $8 million dollars from DAG Ventures and Sherpalo Ventures.

Matrix Partners India has invested an undisclosed amount in startup 4 Interactive. This stealth mode Bangalore-based group was founded by Kiran Konduri and Shriram Adukoor, both of whom previously worked at Microsoft.

Mumbai-based Zapak Digital Entertainment Limited plans to tap into this growing market. Zapak plans to invest $100 million spread over a three period to expanding its gaming operations, reports The Economic Times. Zapak plans to open gaming retail stores and gaming cafes in different parts of India. Zapak is a Reliance ADA Group venture.

Tags: Hutch Essar, Whampoa Hutchison, Essar Group, Tutor Vista, MakeMytrip, Cleartrip, Lightspeed Ventures, Sequoia Capital India, Silicon Valley Bank, Helion Ventures, Sierra Ventures, SB Asia Infrastructure Fund, Cleartrip, DAG Ventures, Sherpalo Ventures, Matrix Partners, 4 Interactive, Kiran Konduri, Shriram Adukoor, Zapak, Reliance ADA

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 27th, 2006 at 4:53 pm and is filed under PodTech, Enterprise 2.0, India, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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