SMS GupShup, India’s largest social
network and group messaging provider, announces today that they have raised $10million
in funding. The company will use the funds to drive product innovation,
increase sales and marketing, and expand globally. Tenaya Capitaljoins existing
investors Globespan Capital Partners, Helion Ventures and Charles River Ventures
in theSeries E round, taking the company’s total fund raise to $47 million.
“SMS GupShup has cemented itself as the
dominant social network in India, demonstrating that the company truly
understands the Indian consumer and their needs. We are also very excited about
the company's opportunity to leverage its innovative product offerings to
expand beyond India into other high growth emerging markets” states Brian Paul,
Managing Director at Tenaya Capital
“SMS GupShup’sambitious vision has enabled
them to build a massive user base, assemble a world-class team and emerge as a
star in the social media universe,” VenkyGanesan, managing director ofGlobespan
Capital, added.
SMS GupShuppioneered social
networkingin India and built its network on mobile messaging.Consumers use it
to connect with their interests, while businesses use it to engage with their
customers and employees. SMS GupShup derives revenues from its mobile marketing
and mobile CRM solutionsfor large and small businesses. Recently, it unveiled
group-messaging services with carriers across Asia.
“We never dreamed four years ago that we would become the leadingcommunication platform in the biggest democracy in the world,”said SMS GupShupco-founder and chief executive BeerudSheth.“Our vision is to connect billions of mobile users worldwide through group messaging.Virtually anyone -whether a consumer, business, government agency or non-profit organization - can benefit from usingour platform.”
SMS GupShup has also added Ravi Sundararajan as VP of Marketing
and Samir Parekh as VP of Human Resource to its senior management team.“The possibilities seems endless for a social networking
platform that supports 50 million members, five million user-generated
communities, 25,000 small businesses and 500 regional and international brands
such as Nokia, Facebook, Pepsi and Sony” said Ravi Sundararajan. “SMS GupShup
is in a great position to execute its aggressive market expansion strategy as
it also has world class technology infrastructure that supports 12% of all
mobile messaging in India”
To learn more about
SMS GupShup, please visit www.smsgupshup.com
About SMS Gupshup
SMS GupShup was
created with the vision to create group messaging for all. The SMS GupShup
platform enables the creation of large Mobile Communities and Reply-All
Chat, a revolutionary product that allows people to use SMS for communication
in smaller groups.
Launched in April
2007, SMS GupShup is a lifeline thatconnects 50 million Asians via mobile
device. The network is a combination of nearly 5 million communities that share
content on topics such as finance, entertainment, lifestyle, health, sports and
technology. Founded by seasoned Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and incubated at
the IIT Bombay Business Incubator, the company is funded by Charles River
Ventures, Helion Ventures, Globespan Capital and Tenaya Capital.
