Cinemacraft receives additional funding from 500 Startups

Photo: Cinemacraft

500 Startups invests in Tokyo/Singapore-based interactive media platform startup, Cinemacraft, bringing total investments to US$900,000.

After a reported S$1 million dollar funding round lead by Jungle Ventures in October last year, Cinemacraft today announced further investments from 500 Startups. According to the official press release, this round of investment from the global business accelerator led by Dave McClure brings the total investment in Cinemacraft to US$900,000.

Cinemacraft is also a recipient of a research and development grant from the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), spread over two years. e27 had the opportunity to interview Sandeep Casi, CEO and founder of Cinemacraft, to find out more about the company.

Photo: Sandeep Casi

In the press release on the investment round, Sandeep Casi said, “It’s heartening to be included among some of the world’s brightest emerging companies. This vote of confidence from 500 Startups will help us further streamline our product and strengthen the roll-out efforts in our core markets of Japan, US, India and Indonesia.”

Sandeep also said that, “Our solution enables us to deploy interactive media applications on low bandwidth, high latency networks in emerging markets as well as leverage the robust connectivity of developed mobile markets. We’re excited to be working with content partners, ad agencies, and the entire mobile ecosystem to effectively deliver on the increasing demand for video on the go,”

“The mobile video consumption continues to increase in Japan, US, & Southeast Asia as smart phones and tablets penetrate at a rapid pace. Most videos today on mobile are delivered for passive viewing. Cinemacraft with its disruptive media delivery platform is poised to be a leader in interactive consumption of videos and a new breed of interactive video intensive apps,” said Dave McClure, founding partner at 500 Startups, in the press release.

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The difference between visible and invisible elements of a startup ecosystem

I was on the plane with Dr. Anurava Goswami of Indian Statistical Institute the other day. He is a very well accomplished scientist with a deep background in bio-mathematics and has multiple degrees from Harvard, and other institutions. He mentioned a very interesting remark on the state of “infrastructure” in Indian research organizations and their lack of “invisible” infrastructure.

His point was he could pay money to have big buildings, large labs and a great campus in India – these according to him were “visible” infrastructure. What was still missing was “invisible” infrastructure. The particular example he gave was the Fedex person who delivered at Harvard, samples of live cultures and he would be at the office at 6 am sharp with his package, knowing fully well how important that time was to the scientists. The Fedex delivery person was part of what he called “invisible” infrastructure.

I wanted to draw some parallels to the startup ecosystem.

The startup community and ecosystem in Silicon Valley is extremely well revered. Its speed of innovation, the consistent “hits” and the unparalleled dynamism of ideas is worth applauding. The visible elements of the startup ecosystem – dynamic entrepreneurs, indulgent venture capital and seasoned mentors are what I call “visible infrastructure”. I would definitely include things that make the US extremely easy to do business in such as setting up your company, bank account, labor laws etc. Those are the table stakes and the easy parts that every startup friendly ecosystem in the world is trying to emulate.

Imagine entrepreneurship is a cult and Silicon valley the “Mecca” or the “Holy land”. Something amazing happens to the converted when they visit the holy land. Yes, they are still religious and follow the “rituals” of entrepreneurship elsewhere, but when they meet other converted in the hallowed ground, they get an almost “born again” fervor.

I was at University Cafe a few months ago, waiting for a friend, when I was sitting next to a table of 2 young entrepreneurs talking rather loudly to another individual (you could say I was eavesdropping, but they were so loud I could hear them at the Apple store, a few blocks away, if I was sitting there instead). They were trying to convince the other individual to join them and it was a full on “change the world, ding in the universe, pitch”. Their excitement and enthusiasm for what I gathered was a “mobile application to tag users by keywords instead of social networks” was nothing short of hubris, but to them that was the only thing in the world and they gave it their best shot. I call it  ”invisible attitude”.

At Ramona’s a few days later, there was an open “60 second demo” of developers to a group of their peers. I happened to listen to one developer who had a pretty awful time with the mic, then his app crashed two times and the projector resolution sucked so much we couldn’t really see his app at all. But post his “pitch”, he said “please download the app and give me feedback”, with a kinda sad look in his face. Within 10 minutes, during which time most folks were grabbing their beers, his app was apparently downloaded “30 times” and 5 people took time to review drop him a comment on his blog about what features they would like to see on his app. I call this  ”invisible encouragement“.

Here’s my point. I know India does not have many great mentors willing to give time, and I am acutely aware of the lack of many early adopters and also the dismal seed capital availability. At the end of the day though, only the converted help other converts.

It is up to us entrepreneurs to help other entrepreneurs.

Forget about the government, venture capitalists, larger companies and experienced mentors.

Forget for a moment that you are competing with multiple other startups and entrepreneurs for your time under the sun.

Go out of your way to help other entrepreneurs.

If its helping figure out scaling php on the cloud OR if you have figured out how to setup your company in the US, with a subsidiary in India OR if you have figured out the best source of organic traffic for your B2B SaaS company OR if its taking 15 min to buy online something you would offline even it costs 5 bucks more, OR if its downloading a new beta app and providing feedback.

Help other entrepreneurs, with no intention of getting anything back.

I assure you, it will surprise you back with its generosity.

[Guest article by Mukund Mohan, reproduced from his blog]

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2 Missed Calls & Farmers Can Operate their Irrigation System Remotely [Realtech System’s Mobile Starter Controller]

In agricultural India, farmers have to walk miles daily to operate their irrigation pumps. Rampant power cuts with no fixed time slots further add to their plight. After reaching the field, they find out that power supply is not available. Real System’s Mobile Starter Controller is helping farmers solve this challenge. Device helps them check availability of power supply and switch pumps ON/OFF remotely via a missed call.

How does it work?

Hardware reqirement: Real Mobile Starter Controller and a cell phone.

Technology & Process: Realtech Device equipped with a SIM card is installed at pumping station. SIM card is programmed to respond to missed calls from specific number (cell phone number of farmer).

When farmer makes a missed call to SIM fitted in Realtech device, it responds by sending SMS to farmer’s mobile stating whether power supply is available or not at that point of time.

If power supply is available, on second missed call motor is turned ON and farmer is informed about the action via SMS including time of start.

Third missed call switches the motor OFF and sends SMS to farmer’s mobile phone confirming the task.

SMS is sent to farmer in text (local language) + picture format as majority farmers don’t understand English or are illiterate. Product currently supports, seven regional languages. To avoid control by anybody other than farmer (or his family) , five cell phone nos can be programmed and device ignores calls from any other unidentified numbers.

Price & Operating Costs: Product has 3 models with price ranging from Rs. 4,500 to 6,500.

Operating cost for the farmer – he has to maintain minimum balance in his cell phone to make missed calls and bear the SMS costs relating to SIM installed in Realtech’s device.

Below is brief QnA with the Mr. T. Kumar, founder of Realtech Systems.

PI: Can you share your background and what made you start Realtech Systems?

I am a diploma in chemical engineering by education and have been an electronics hobbyist for long. After completing my education, I started a computer training institute and continued playing with electronics in free time which gradually translated into small projects from local industries.

In 2006, my venture was incubated at Technology Business Incubator, Kongu Engineering College where I got the infrastructure and support to design and develop products as per industry standards / practices.

PI: How did you come up with this idea and how long did it take to develop a commercially viable product?

I come from rural background and my family is into agri-business. So, this gives me a very good understanding of challenges being faced by farmers in rural India. Managing water supplies in their farms is one of the key challenges and I started working on that.

Development of product started 3 years back. We came up with our first prototype after 6 months from starting date, which was given to 20 farmers for trial.

Product’s first version was not controlled / operated by missed call; farmer had to type a message in English (ON / OFF) to operate the motor. We learnt, customers were not very comfortable typing a message, for them mobile was a device to make calls.

So we had to go back to our lab, redo the product and run trials again. It took 1.5 years to release current version of the product commercially.

PI: What is current scale of your business?

We have sold 1,000 units so far, with a turnover of 50 lacs coming from the product in past one year. We have a network of 30 dealers in South India and recently appointed distributors in Indore and Pune to cater markets in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra respectively.

Regarding manufacturing, we don’t own any plant. Hardware is sourced from a vendor who manufactures that as per our design and quality standards. We have patented software, which is programmed into hardware at our office.

PI: What are future plans of Realtech?

We feel automation of pumping stations is still a huge opportunity apart from our current product. Imported solutions available (priced at few lacs) are affordable only by few large farmers. We are working on developing product to automate pumping stations as per needs of local farmers at prices affordable by masses. This will take few more months.

So far, we have been dependent on bank loans and personal funds to grow our business. Once this product is launched, we plan to look at venture capital funding as well.

Also see: Mobile Innovations – GreenPhone and Nano Ganesh

[Are you an entrepreneur or an innovator developing technology products servicing needs of rural India? We would like to know about your venture. Send us your details and we will get in touch at the earliest possible.]

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DataWind Announces App Contest for Students

DataWind, the company behind Aakash tablet and the premium version, i.e. UbiSlate has announced app contest for students.

The contest (App ki App) is inviting app developers to build apps on Android 2.2 version the the top five applications submitted will be awarded a prize money of Rs. 1 lakh each. These five applications will be pre-installed on the device and advertising revenue from these applications will be shared with the app developers. The last date for submitting entries is February 20th 2012 and for submitting apps is Feb 29th.

Akash : Cheapest Tablet? Who Pays the Price?

Future of DataWind

Even though the future of Aakash tablet remains uncertain, government has today announced that they are floating fresh tenders to to meet the demand for Aakash tablets and while so far government has placed the order for only 100,000 – they need 220 million tablets (case of extrapolated numbers?).

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Baidu Breaks Ground on New International HQ – But Not in Beijing

An architect's render of Baidu's new Shenzhen campus, due to open in 2015.

Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU), China’s biggest search engine, has today broken ground on a new campus building that will eventually be home to 10,000 employees. Located in Shenzhen in southern Guangdong province, right on the border with Hong Kong, it’s scheduled to be ready in 2015. It is being dubbed the Baidu International Building until it gets a proper name in English. Across its two main towers it covers an area of 220,000 square meters, making it twice the size of the company’s HQ in Beijing.

It’s a huge boost for Shenzhen where Baidu currently has about 1,000 employees across sales and research and development (R&D) departments. According to CEO Robin Li, quoted in a press release, the new Shenzhen campus will expand to focus on three areas: it’ll be the main operations center for South China, its international HQ, and the center for its mobile Internet business, including ongoing R&D.

Baidu’s communications director, Kaiser Kuo, told PO that having this new campus in the south of China is a no-brainer, because:

[It] makes geographic sense, as much of our initial international focus will be in Southeast Asia), and it will be a major center for our mobile Internet business. Shenzhen, and the Pearl River Delta more generally, is a major center for mobile development, with many stakeholders in the mobile Internet ecosystem based there, including many handset vendors and manufacturers, as well as software developers.

The company’s HQ will remain in Beijing across its current three buildings, where it has 10,000 staff already. All that mention of ‘mobile,’ by the way, is likely related to Baidu’s new, Android-based Yi platform, which launched last month on its first handset, the Dell Streak Pro D43 – plus its mobile web apps and other Android and iOS apps.

Shenzhen is the hometown of Tencent (HKG:0700), the social media giant which is increasingly locking horns with Baidu as both companies push more into mobile, and as Tencent puts more resources into its Soso search engine.

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E-Commerce Sites Bracing For 2-Week Shutdown as Chinese New Year Nears

A courier at work. (Image source: CNbeta.com)

Remember all that stuff about 750 billion RMB being spent online in China last year, and how Alipay sees 2.1 million RMB in transactions every 60 seconds? Well, all that pretty much comes to a standstill when it’s Chinese New Year, the most important of the annual festivals here.

That’s because all the couriers – those low-paid, scooter-riding, traffic-weaving frontline soldiers of home deliveries – tend to be migrant workers who need longer than the mandated week-long holiday in order to travel back to their hometowns in other provinces. So even though the Chinese New Year doesn’t start until January 23rd, the courier industry is pretty much shutting down in two days’ time: on Wednesday the 18th. Any orders placed on most e-commerce sites will not be delivered to your doorstep until early February, once the courier companies get back into full swing a few days after the festival officially ends.

Indeed, if an item bought online needs to go some distance, then it’s probably already too late for it to be shipped. I ordered something on a Chinese e-commerce site last night, and was told it won’t arrive until after the holiday. Goods being shipped within large urban areas might well get delivered during the rest of this week if there are enough local staff.

Today, DoNews reports that some larger Chinese logistics companies, such as EMS and China Post, will try to keep things moving all week, right up until the start of the holiday. But most e-commerce companies make use of a veritable army of smaller courier firms which are faster and more flexible than the state-owned behemoth, China Post. That’s why China’s online shopping boom, across both the C2C and B2C sectors, is also proving to be a huge boost for private delivery firms, creating thousands of new jobs.

And, of course, they all deserve a break and a chance to get back with family for the festive season – especially after worrying stories of overwork, and even a stress-related death, among couriers earlier this year.

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China’s The9 Lands Anelka, Shanghai Shenhua in Endorsement Deal

Nicolas Anelka sporting Firefall logo, photo from shenhuafc.com.cn

Back in December we told you about Chinese gaming company, The9 (NASDAQ:NCTY), and its efforts to bring Firefall (from subsidiary Red 5 Studios) to Southeast Asia. At the time Tony Park, head of The9’s Korea branch, noted that there was not any marketing strategy for bigger countries like China or Korea. But yesterday all that changed, as The9 announced that it has entered into an endorsement deal with football star Nicolas Anelka and his new team, Shanghai Shenhua, with whom he signed a few weeks back.

The agreement with Anelka is a one-year, worldwide endorsement deal worth 2.7 million euros ($3.4 million) for the 32-year-old Frenchman. The deal with Shenhua is for two years, costing The9 RMB 32 million (just over $5 million). And now that the entire Shanghai Shenhua team will have Firefall emblazoned across their chests, it means huge visibility in a young demographic for The9. Chris Shen, VP of marketing at The9, commented on this:

A big portion of Firefall gamers are also soccer fans, most of whom are male, passionate about sports, and actively followers of entertainment stories of sport stars. We are going to implement the cross-marketing campaigns throughout the year that leverage the popularity of Anelka and Shenhua to enhance the brand awareness of Firefall among the target audiences in both China and the global market.

Firefall is still in private beta and has yet to officially launch. But we’re hoping that day isn’t too far off.

It’s not the first time that we have seen the gaming industry make its mark on sport here in Asia. A few weeks back we also saw Japanese mobile gaming company DeNA (TYO:2432) buy a majority stake in the Yokohama BayStars (now the Yokohama DeNA BayStars) baseball team.

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