Canaan Partners invests in mobile VAS firm mCarbon

By Madhav A Chanchani (VCCircle.com)

mCarbon was founded by Brijmohan Mahendru and Rajesh Razdan, both ex-employees of Bharti Telesoft.

mCarbon, a Delhi-based mobile value-added services company, has raised an undisclosed amount of series-A funding from Canaan Partners. mCarbon is in the utility and services space and was founded in late 2007. It has a product that helps manage VAS services. mCarbon will help mobile VAS users decide which services they want and gives users maximum flexibility and control.

The company offers it services through telecom operators. Some products include In Call Management, a call management and call control application; Virtual Call Room, which provides control to called Party or calling Party for all its incoming calls and outgoing calls respectively; Channel 99, an audio and video content delivery platform. The first two products come under its flagship platform called Greenroom, which awaiting patent grant.

The company was founded by Brijmohan Mahendru and Rajesh Razdan, both ex-employess of Bharti Telesoft. The company has managed to get good traction in one year. mCarbon's clients include Airtel, Idea Cellular, MTNL, among others. "Most of the proceeds will go to building operational infrastructure of the company," said Razdan. The company plans to increase channels to sell its products to operators and OEM partners. The funds raised should be enough for the firms expansion plans for next two to two and a half years, added Razdan.

"The company is unique in its point of approach to the market. They have come to the market to give services which are genuinely required and there is maximum control to the end user," said Harish Gandhi, Executive Director at Canaan Partners. This is Canaan's second investment in the mobile VAS space. It has also invested $5.25 million in mobile TV firm Cellcast Asia.

Mobile VAS space remains one of the most attractive sectors for venture capitalists. Another company in the VAS space, One97 Communications, raised it second round of between $16-18 million last month from Intel Capital and Silicon Valley Bank.

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