Matrix provides Series A for India traffic information portal
Matrix Partners India has provided a Series A round of funding for real-time traffic and travel information platform Birds Eye Systems. The size of the investment was not disclosed but the capital will be used to expand the company’s coverage from Mumbai, New Delhi and Bangalore to other cities and to multiple modes of transport.
Birds Eye was founded in 2009 and launched the Traffline platform last year. Information on traffic conditions is sourced through partnerships with private companies, government, police and public transportation utilities and then communicated to users via a website and through Android and iOS apps.
Brijraj Vaghani, co-founder and CEO, previously worked with Qualcomm and Nextwave Wireless in the US, before moving back to India and starting Birds Eye. His co-founder and CTO, Ravi Khemani, was formerly with careerbuilder.com in the US and Sears International in India.
According to AVCJ Research, the company received INR1.5 million ($25,000) in seed funding from the Centre for Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship in March 2012 and INR20 million from the Indian Angel Network one month later.
"We are excited by Traffline's unique approach of using technology to solve the offline traffic and transportation problem in India. Traffline is a pioneer in this space and we're investing to expand the product to 10 cities in India and multiple transport modes in a short timeframe," Vikram Vaidyanathan, a director at Matrix, said in a statement.
This is not the VC firm's only investment in transport-related technology solutions. Last month it participated in a Series B round of funding alongside Tiger Global Management in Olacabs, an online platform that connects customers with small-scale taxi operators and car rental firms.
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