Rediff Buys 26% In Footforward.Com

Rediff.com, one of India's biggest portals, has turned into an incubator by picking up a 26 per cent stake in a new portal to be launched today called footforward.com.

According to Santoshi Nadkarni, chief executive officer of the company, Footforward Communications, the alliance with Rediff will be two pronged.

"Firstly, we have received incubator funding from Rediff in exchange for a 26 per cent stake in the company. Secondly, the site will be the women's portal for Rediff and will have a link through it. This is expected to act as a significant promotion initiative for our portal," Nadkarni told Business Standard.

Ajit Balakrishnan, chief executive officer, Rediff.com declined to reveal details on the investment to be made by Rediff. However, he said that Rediff will promote all ideas that will generate content for his portal.

"We cannot reveal financial details of our investment due to various reasons. We have decided that we will act as incubators to generate content which is necessary to run any portal. This will also help us in retaining talented young people," he said.

The portal is expected to go live today. Balakrishnan said that the valuation has been done on the basis of international norms despite the fact that the portal is yet to commence its operations.

Nadkarni said that the portal will be positioned as a community building interactive site. It will cater to issues related to beauty, pregnancy, baby care, career and work towards creating a home-based entrepreneur.