SPARK Ventures, an early stage venture capital investor, has announced that IMImobile, SPARK's largest portfolio investment, has closed a US$13 million round of financing to further develop its global service infrastructure and make selective acquisitions. The financing round was led by Sequoia Capital India and includes participation from existing investor FirstMark Capital.
Sequoia Capital was selected from a number of venture and growth capital providers for their expertise in developing global businesses such as Cisco, Oracle, Google and Apple, as well as for their extensive experience in the Indian market through investments such as SKS Microfinance and Naukri.com.
SPARK did not participate in this round of financing and, following this financing round, SPARK holds a 28% stake in IMImobile, with a book value of £13 million. There is not expected to be a change to SPARK's NAV as a result of this financing round.
IMImobile is a global end-to-end provider of converged mobile and online value-added services for mobile operators, media companies and enterprises, and its services are said to be currently accessible to 500 million subscribers of more than 40 operator customers in 66 countries.
Jay Patel, Director of SPARK and Board member of IMImobile, said: "We are pleased that Sequoia Capital, one of the world's leading VCs, has become a shareholder to help us develop a leading business in the sector. The financing will help the business consolidate a fragmented sector and we hope this will help accelerate strategic acquisitions."
Vishwanath Alluri, Founder and CEO of IMImobile, said: "The new financing will enable us to develop our cloud infrastructure for Tier 1 telecom operators and allow us to expand our customer base and account penetration through acquisitions."