Intel Capital Invests In Soota's Happiest Minds & TELiBrahma

Two Indian companies – Ashok Soota's start-up Happiest Minds Technologies Pvt Ltd and wireless solutions firm TELiBrahma Convergent Communications Pvt Ltd – have received funds from Intel Capital. The deal value is not immediately known.

The global investment arm of chipmaker Intel has announced that it has invested $40 million in 10 Asian technology companies, of which eight are new investments in companies from China, India, Japan and South Korea, and two are planned investments in companies from Taiwan.

Happiest Minds Technologies: This start-up was launched in April by ex-Mindtree Ltd chairman and co-founder Ashok Soota. The Bangalore-based firm will offer IT services, research and development, software product engineering, remote infra, testing and consulting. The company plans to integrate Cloud, mobility and social CRM into solutions.

Happiest Minds will use the funds to open new offices in Singapore and Europe. It already has set up operations in Bangalore and the USA.

TELiBrahma: The company has raised $5 million. This is its Series C round of funding. TELiBrahma's previous investors Inventus Capital and Ojas Venture Partners also participated in this round.

The Bangalore-based firm was launched in 2004 and offers innovative mobile solutions for retailers and brands, using Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It also has an augmented reality-based mobile browser called intARact that helps brands create better campaigns and engage with users.

TELiBrahma had raised Rs 1.6 crore in seed-funding from Karnataka Information Technology Venture Capital Fund (KITVEN) and also raised $2 million from Inventus Capital and Ojas Venture Partners in 2008 in its series A round of funding.

The fresh fund will be used for business growth and operational expansion. It is learnt that the company is planning to expand into more geographies. The company has worked with top automotive manufacturers such as Maruti and Mercedes, and counts Nokia, Samsung and Coke as advertisers.

Intel Capital's Portfolio

This news comes short on the heels of its $20 million investment in six Indian companies – Bangalore-based fabless semiconductor company Saankhya Labs, Testing Czars that offers code-free testing of software and applications, microfinance firm FINO, electronic television programme guides developer What's On India, payment solutions and processing firm enStage and solar power firm DURON Energy.

Earlier this year, Intel Capital India invested $18 million in online travel company Yatra Online Pvt Ltd, mobile VAS company July Systems, online insurance retailer PolicyBazaar, healthcare tech company Sudhir Srivastava Robotics Surgery Center Pvt Ltd and the Colombo and California-based open source software company WSO2.

Other portfolio companies of the fund include BuzzInTown, Pune-based Persistent Systems, Infrasoft Technologies and KLG Systel.