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| MobileOne expanding into West Asia, Latin America |
| Ravi Menon / Bangalore Mar 13, 2010, 00:44 IST |
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Mobile application development company MobileOne Infocom is looking to tap venture capital funding of $2 million as part of expansions into West Asia and South American markets this year.
“Expanding in these markets is as an immediate priority and into North America and Europe next year,” said MobileOne managing director Ravi Subramanyam. The company plans to raise $2 million by way of equity dilution to fund the expansion, he said.
While Hyderabad-based MobileOne is yet to carry out a formal valuation of the company, its auditor has helped it put together a valuation based on the company’s current Ebit (earnings before income tax) and future growth projections, Subramanyam said.
The company is currently in talks with prospective investors to fund the expansion capex. “We are in discussions with investors. Exit options are either an IPO in 2013 or being acquired by a larger company in a related domain,” Subramanyam said.
He said MobileOne was open to being acquired by a larger player in the mobile applications business. “The acquiring company should share our vision of growth and let us be part of the same via a cash plus stock deal.”
MobileOne has formed numerous partnerships to carry out research and development of applications across diverse platforms, and to carry out mobile implementation, system integration and support services. Its partners include Bharti Airtel, Tata Indicom, Motorola, Hewlett-Packard, Accenture, IBM and TCS. MobileOne has also engaged with SAP’s Co-Innovation Lab in Bangalore to develop enterprise-oriented mobile applications.
Mobile telephony has witnessed high adoption in the country. The number of mobile Internet users in India was 2 million at the end of 2009, according to the Internet and Mobile Association of India. This is set to quadruple by the end of 2010.
Internet penetration in India was 7 per cent at the end of 2009, with the number of broadband users at 7.6 million. It is believed that since mobile services have a better spread than broadband in India, mobile Internet growth may surpass broadband Internet growth, further opening up the market for new applications and value-added services.
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