Mumbai-based Vserv raises $15 million from Maverick Capital Ventures

India’s mobile Internet ecosystem is currently at an inflection point. And a unit of Maverick Capital, a 21 year-old US hedge fund, has leveraged this changing situation to enter India after it agreed to invest in Vserv, the smart data platform for mobile marketing in India and South East Asia.

Vserv, which was co-founded in 2010 by Dippak Khurana and Ashay Padwal, has grown to an organisation that employs 200 people in its offices across India and South East Asia.

Matthew Kinsella, managing director, Maverick Capital Ventures, said, “We are highly impressed with the rapid pace of Vserv’s growth, its smart data platform and management team. Vserv is uniquely positioned to drive the mobile Internet ecosystem in India and South East Asia through their exceptional data assets.”

Dippak Khurana, co-founder & CEO, Vserv, said, “Maverick has a successful history of investing early in large scale mobile platforms globally. We are delighted to be their first venture capital investment in India as they bring capital and deep technology domain expertise.”

This partnership between Vserv and Maverick Capital Ventures builds on the latter’s extensive history of successfully investing and supporting mobile businesses globally to become large scale platforms. With this investment, Vserv has raised a total of $18 million to date, including its first round of $3 million which it raised from IDG Ventures India.

Manik Arora, founder & MD, IDG Ventures India, said, “As an early investor in Vserv, IDG welcomes Maverick as a valued co-investor. We are delighted to further support the company as it goes into high gear.”

By 2018, the Internet user base in India alone is expected to zoom to 500 million users from currently existing 200 million users. This is primarily driven by mobile users who are expected to contribute over 80% of this base.

With rich data profiles of more than 120 million mobile Internet users in India, Vserv has strategically positioned itself to deliver mobile marketing for over 500 clients. These clients belong to sectors like consumer goods, e-commerce, retail, telecom, banking & financial services, mobile entertainment and gaming. (Image: Vserv)