Bangalore-based online photography company Canvera Digital Technologies Pvt Ltd has raised $6.5 million (Rs 35 crore) in Series B round of funding from Info Edge (India), which runs a slew of consumer Internet portals including Naukri.com, among others, and is also an investor in various other digital media properties.
With this round of funding, Canvera has raised a total of approximately $13 million (Rs 70 crore) till date. The company had earlier raised funding from Footprint Ventures, DFJ and Mumbai Angels. While the previous VC investors have stayed put, some of the angel investors have exited in the current round, which had a mix of fresh issue of securities and secondary component.
The funds will be primarily used for expanding sales and marketing operations. In addition, the fresh money raised will also be invested for building various hosted solutions for photographers.
Speaking to Techcircle.in, Dr Dhiraj Kacker, CEO and co-founder of Canvera, said, “Vivyo is a social and e-commerce platform for photographers where they can market and sell their photos and collaborate with buyers. It was launched a little over a year ago and is shaping up well. Money will also be used to strengthen this platform.â€
Headquartered in Bangalore, Canvera has regional offices in seven cities across the country – in Chandigarh, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and Mumbai. Right now a team of 550, Canvera intends to hire 100 more employees by the end of this year.
Kacker said, “Info Edge has made a number of investments previously in companies such as Zomato, Meritnation, MyDala, PolicyBazaar, 99labels and more. But this is its largest investment till date. Info Edge can be credited with building scalable and highly profitable online businesses across India. And it understands the opportunities and challenges of building up a company.
“With Info Edge investing in us, we would get an access to their senior management. So whenever we face any kind of operational challenge, we will sail through by taking their help,†he added.
Sanjeev Bikchandani, founder and executive vice-chairman of Info Edge, said, “The Canvera team has done a fabulous job of building a world class photography brand addressing the unique challenges of India. With its key focus on operational excellence and building a great culture, we saw in Canvera a reflection of Naukri in our early days and that’s why we made this investment.â€
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(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)