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MingleBox funding - public reactions

May 7, 2007 · Posted in India Social Networking, India Web 2.0, VC India 

Last week, MingleBox announced that they had received $7 million in funding from Sequoia.

Based on reactions and public comments on some of the leading Indian blogs, I feel that there is a single question on everyone’s mind -

“Why and How did MingleBox manage to get $7 mill. in funding from Sequoia ? “


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9 Responses to “MingleBox funding - public reactions”

  1. Abhinav on May 8th, 2007 3:29 am

    and what will they do with $7 million? :)

  2. lakshmi on May 8th, 2007 9:27 am

    Most responses to the ‘Why?’and ‘How?’ have bordered on the loaded team background or allegations of insider trading.

    While I cannot claim to have great expertise, here’s what my thinking tells me - according to FICCI Price Waterhouse Coopers’2007 report the internet advertising will grow to a size of Rs. 950 cr by 2011 ($230 million). Here’s a link to the online article:
    http://www.ficci.com/news/viewnews1.asp?news_id=1012

    Assuming that Minglebox use that $7 million to build a destination site (with rich content and community) for young indians and assuming that they target to capture a small percentage of that projected advertising market - the business proposition from Sequioa’s perspective is worth taking the risk. I’d say the risk of losing on a market set to happen is far greater.

  3. insider on May 8th, 2007 11:38 am

    Why is it surprising. Minglebox is run by Sequioa’s fund manager’s wife !

  4. MingleBox - Sequoia family affair hits Silicon Valley « Startup Dunia - Indian startups and Entrepreneurship on May 11th, 2007 2:07 am

    [...] Several prominent Silicon Valley bloggers seem to have noticed about the family angle in the MingleBox - Sequoia deal. [...]

  5. arpan on May 11th, 2007 5:55 am

    As someone who understands the investing side a little bit, find the fracas amusing. In this market, everyone has options and the folks in question are too professional to do anything less than the best for their respective businesses.

  6. jake on May 11th, 2007 6:01 am

    Was just curious and checked out the site. Nice web 2.0 execution - maybe one of the first few among Indian sites I think.

  7. andy on May 12th, 2007 2:21 am

    Agree with Lakshmi. Sounds like its a bet on a market waiting to happen and a team with credentials and promise.

  8. Sparsh on September 13th, 2007 9:35 am

    They (Sequoia) are playing a different game here.
    http://www.ekbaat.com/document.php?id=11 here’s how and why.

  9. Balaji on October 29th, 2007 7:03 am

    Tend to agree with Lakshmi….at a time when avenues for investing in start-ups like axpov.com exist; it’s ridiculous for sequoia to sink in $ 7 M in minglebox. The site’s pathetic, with such scant attention being given to aspects like usablity, visual appeal etc.