AppsDaily raises $16M in Series C funding led by Zodius; Mumbai Angels part-exit

Mumbai-based mobile application development and distribution company AppsDaily Solutions Pvt Ltd has raised Rs 100 crore ($16 million) in a Series C round of funding led by Zodius Capital with participation of its existing investors, according to a press release.

Its existing investors include Russian VC fund Ru-Net, IndoUS Venture Partners (now Kalaari Capital) and Qualcomm Ventures.

Individual investors, who had backed the firm under the banner of Mumbai Angels, have partially exited with multiple returns in this round, the firm said. It did not disclose the names of the angel investors who have part-exited.

The company had raised around $1 million from around a dozen angel investors besides seed stage investor Blume Ventures in 2010. A year later it raised $4 million in Series A round from IndoUS Venture Partners and Qualcomm Ventures. In October 2013, it raised over $5 million in Series B funding round from Ru-Net, IndoUS Venture Partners and Qualcomm Ventures.

The fresh funds raised will be primarily used to expand the company's product offering, launch its digital platform, expand its retail distribution reach and make some key hires to strengthen its management team, it said.

AppsDaily develops and markets mobile applications across India and abroad. The company also focuses on developing and distributing software for mobile phones. Unlike traditional companies that simply launch the apps on popular app stores (like Google Play or the iTunes app store), the firm follows a unique model of selling and distributing its own and third party products through offline retail partners across India. The products are sold under the brand name 'daily'—for example, daily cop, daily protect, daily assure, and daily complete security, among others.

Founded by siblings Arun Menon (CEO) and Ajay Menon (director) in 2008, it started as Onward Mobility and later rebranded to AppsDaily. Arun holds a B Tech degree in mechanical engineering from IIT Bombay and had earlier worked at companies like BillDesk and Tata Infotech. Prior to AppsDaily, Ajay had founded Ambrosia Infotech Ltd, a product engineering and consulting services provider across different verticals like telecom, internet, healthcare and retail.

It has more than 1,200 employees across 10 offices with headquarters in Mumbai. AppsDaily claims to have grown 10x in revenues in the last two years and has 3 million paid customers across 700 cities in 7,000 mobile stores. It expects to end this financial year with net revenues of over Rs 130 crore.

AppsDaily's current products include mobile anti-virus, mobile insurance, backup solutions, mobile privacy, SOS, mobile utilities and games. The company is gearing up to launch apps in the education and healthcare segments.

Ajay Menon, co-founder, AppsDaily, said: "We have already created the category of mobile protection in the country and we will be using this funding to enhance our momentum in this space. We also want to extend our reach to 2,000 cities in the next year and are looking at investing in making AppsDaily the preferred choice for every Indian consumer who uses the smartphone as his first and only screen for communication, entertainment, travel, healthcare and education."

The firm said it will launch a first of its kind hybrid app platform targeted at the Indian smartphone customer who is shifting online but requires handholding, is currently paying in cash and demands the physical touch point customer experience.

"They provide an important bridge to the Indian digital consumer who wants access to best in class services but is still grappling with bandwidth availability and cost issues," said Gautam Patel, managing director of Zodius, who is joining the AppsDaily board as part of the latest investment, said.

The other investor directors on the board are Vani Kola from Kalaari Capital (IndoUs Venture Partners), Galina Chifina from Ru-Net and Rajiv Dadlani from Mumbai Angels, as well as Varsha Tagare from Qualcomm Ventures, who serves as an observer on the board.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)