IndiaPost.com - Consim Info raises $ 11.75 mn from partners

NEW YORK: Consim Info Pvt. Ltd, formerly known as Bharat Matrimony Group, has recently received its second round of investment of $ 11.75 million led by Mayfield Fund and participation from existing investors, Yahoo! and Canaan Partners. Veda Corporate advisor acted as the strategic advisor for the transaction.

The company had earlier raised an initial funding of $ 8.65 million in 2006 from Yahoo! and Canaan Partners. Following this development, Nikhil Khattau will join the Board of Consim as Director and Navin Chaddha of Mayfield Fund will be an observer on the Board. Nikhil Khattau, Mayfield Fund said, "We are excited to participate in the tremendous growth that Consim Info has achieved in their Matrimony and Classified businesses.

We believe India is poised to see exponential growth in the online classifieds market and that Consim is clearly positioned to be the leader in its field." Greg Mrva, Vice President, Corporate Development, Yahoo! Inc., said, "Yahoo! is committed to India, and this investment reaffirms our belief in the Indian internet growth prospects, the strength of Consim in the consumer internet space and our confidence in Consim's management. Alok Mittal, Managing Director, Canaan Partners, India added, "Consim is a leader in the online matrimony business, and we are confident that the additional investment will help it to expand its leadership and range of services.

India is a key market for Canaan Partners and we continue to look at strengthening and creating lasting partnerships with entrepreneurs in the technology space in the coming years Murugavel Janakiraman, Founder & CEO, Consim Info, said, "Receiving investments from global players like Mayfield Fund, Yahoo!, and Canaan Partners is recognition to our company. We plan to leverage this fund to expand our matrimony business in the international markets and to strengthen our other classifieds offerings.

We believe that the global knowledge and experience of our investors will help us scale our business strategically." The company plans to take the online matrimony business to international markets with the launch of country specific & religion based matrimony sites. This funding will help the company to set up operations in US, UK and other countries and also to promote its other verticals.

The group has over 15 million people registered with various portals of the group including BharatMatrimony.com, Clickjobs.com, IndiaProperty.com, IndiaAutomobile.com etc. Mayfield Fund invests in the US, China and India and currently has $2.7 billion under management, while Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Canaan Partners is an early stage venture investor with $2.4 billion capital under management.