SMS GupShup is an India-based social network and group-messaging provider that has developed a platform enabling large Mobile Communities and a Reply-All Chat product for smaller groups. Launched in April 2007 and led by co-founder and CEO Beerud Sheth, the company focuses on SMS-based group communication. SMS GupShup raised $10M in a Series E to drive product innovation, increase sales and marketing, and expand globally. Tenaya Capital joined existing investors Globespan Capital Partners, Helion Ventures and Charles River Ventures in the round. The company has expanded its senior management team with Ravi Sundararajan as VP of Marketing and Samir Parekh as VP of Human Resources. Proceeds are intended to accelerate product development, commercial expansion and international growth. SMS GupShup is a mobile social network accessed primarily via SMS, launched in April 2007. It serves 26 million users across India, processes over 480 million messages a month, and accounts for roughly 5% of all texts sent in the country. The service has partnerships—most notably with Facebook—to deliver status updates via text and runs advertising with over 100 advertisers including ICICI Lombard, Puma, Microsoft and Cadbury. The company highlights India's large mobile market (about 550 million mobile users versus 50 million web users) as a key growth driver. The new funding will be used to expand into the Philippines and Indonesia, invest in product development, and hire engineering, advertising and marketing staff. The round brings SMS GupShup's total funding to $37 million. Webaroo is an India-based mobile software provider whose flagship product is SMS GupShup, a group text-messaging platform that lets users blog and form communities on their phones. GupShup currently has about 12 million users and roughly 500 communities across categories such as entertainment and sports. The company plans to capitalize on contextual advertising in the next year. Webaroo will use the new funds to reinforce sales and marketing efforts and to consider geographic expansion. It originally began as an offline search engine competing with Google Gears but appears to be shifting focus toward mobile products. The financing is intended to continue development of its top product.

Total raised

$33M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Series E

Latest activity

Aug 2011