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SAIF Partners backs iStream.com with $5m

  • Susannah Birkwood
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Private equity firm SAIF Partners has backed A2 Media, the publisher of online video site iStream.com, with $5 million in equity financing.

iStream, which was founded in 2007, already offers news videos across all major Indian languages, and plans to launch TV and movie videos by next month, when its new iOS app will also be launched. The business aims to offer its products across a range of mediums, including mobile, set-top boxes, gaming consoles and televisions.

CEO Radhakrishnan Ramachandran, who founded the company alongside his CTO Chellappa Dhanukodi, commented: "Our goal is to help Indians around the globe discover and enjoy their favourite programmes, at their convenience, on multiple devices and in multiple Indian languages."

Following the deal, SAIF Partners India chief Ravi Adusumalli and Vice President Mukul Singhal will join the company's board, alongside George Zacharias, ex-managing director of Yahoo! India.

Online video streaming is said to be a booming area within India's digital media segment, partly driven by the huge success of overseas competitors such as Netflix and Hulu in the US.

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