CANAAN PARTNERS LEADS $5.25 M INVESTMENT IN CELLCAST ASIA

Investment to create Cellcast Asia Holdings, a powerful Asian digital media powerhouse to meet huge consumer demand for interactive digital entertainment in India & South-East Asia.

Canaan Partners, a global venture capital firm specializing in early-stage technology and life sciences companies, today announced an investment of US$ 5.25 million in Cellcast Asia Holdings, a subsidiary of UK based Cellcast Plc (AIM: CLTV), one of the world's leading global interactive digital broadcasters. Cellcast Asia Holdings, an Asian digital media powerhouse with strong financials, research and expertise has been created by Cellcast Plc by injecting 100% holding in Cellcast Interactive India Pvt Limited (“Cellcast India”) and 50% holding in Cellcast SEA Limited (“Cellcast SE Asia”). Alok Mittal, Canaan’s Managing Director, India and Maha Ibrahim, General Partner at Canaan Partners, USA, have been appointed to the board of directors of the newly established Cellcast Asia Holdings.

Cellcast Asia Holdings (CAH) will have the mandate to develop, produce and distribute Participative Digital Content in whole of Asia excluding China. CAH will be using this investment to enhance the use of interactive and 3G content by leveraging TV as a contextual program in a fragmented consumer environment transformed by new media technologies. The investment will accelerate Cellcast’s growth and customer (industry and end users) acquisition in India and will also help to capture the opportunity in a regional market of over 2 billion consumers.

This latest investment in Cellcast further highlights Canaan’s commitment to unique business models and innovative technologies that drive corporate growth. This investment is consistent with Canaan’s approach to provide talented people with the support to build companies and catalyse the next generation of market leaders.

Alok Mittal, Managing Director of India at Canaan Partners said, "With mobile phones quickly becoming a general-purpose, interaction device for nearly two billion consumers worldwide, demand for and use of interactive digital entertainment is on the rise. As one of the leading innovators in this sector, Cellcast has unlimited potential for growth and we are thrilled to help drive the company’s expansion. With a direct presence in India, Canaan is rapidly expanding its early-stage investments in the region and we are thrilled Cellcast is joining our portfolio as our first mobile entertainment investment in India.”

“Cellcast is Canaan Partners’ first investment in the growing trend of value added services in India,” he added.

Pankaj Thakar, CEO of the newly established entity Cellcast Asia Holdings said, “There is an evolving use of mobile phones to provide a personal entertainment experience. We at Cellcast strive to match the needs of broadcasters and end consumers by producing live interactive pay-to-play programming, aggregating and distributing an extensive portfolio of mobile and participative TV applications. This partnership with Canaan Partners will enable us to accelerate growth through investment in new formats and applications and the expansion of our management team to support our regional initiatives. With this venture we will share a common vision of bringing to the Indian & Asian market next generation applications and formats, reaching millions of customers in the fastest growing mobile market in the world.”

Andrew Wilson, CEO of Cellcast said, “The investment by Canaan Partners is a strong endorsement of Cellcast’s market-leading proprietary technology and applications, and a recognition of the proven skills and sector experience of its established Asian-based management team. The establishment of this dedicated regional operation and its independent funding through Canaan Partners, is the most effective way for Cellcast plc to realise its growing Asian ambitions whilst retaining resources for reinvestment in other technological and geographical areas”.

Canaan’s recent investments in India include BharatMatrimony, a premiere online matrimonial service in India, iYogi, a second generation outsourcing startup and techTribe, a career networking portal based on the referral model.

Regards,
Kumar Thirumal.