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Accel’s New $155m India Fund to Invest in Internet, Digital Media, Mobile Startups

Nov 162011

U.S. venture capital firm Accel Partners has closed a $155 million fund, Accel India III, that will make seed and early stage investments in Indian startups.

This is Accel’s third India fund.

Accel, which has previously invested in 34 Indian companies, said the latest fund had attracted top tier institutional investors from North America, Europe and Asia.

The fund intends to focus on Internet services, digital media, SaaS and enterprise technologies, mobile, healthcare and education and other high-growth sectors.

Accel executives say that while traditional venture capital and growth equity have been increasingly drawn to India over the past several years, seed and early stage markets were still under-served.

Accel Partners’ Indian investments include Internet startups such as Flipkart, Myntra, Letsbuy, HealthcareMagic, Babyoye and Exclusively.in.

With offices in Bangalore and Delhi, Accel Partners has eleven investment professionals based in India, led by four partners: Mahendran Balachandran, Shekhar Kirani, Subrata Mitra and Prashanth Prakash.

Despite all the investments supposedly flowing into Indian startups lately, we’ve yet to see even a single Indian company make waves on the international landscape, either in the consumer space or in the business segment.

Related Stories:
Sameer Gandhi Bolts to Accel Partners

A Better Life Review – Absorbing Portrait

Hollywood 3 Responses »

Nov 162011

It’s one of the depressing aspects of movies that a disproportionate number of them focus on insignificant piffle.

Like romance, for instance.

Try as we might, we can’t get a handle on how generations of moviegoers can watch the same boy-girl love story on the screen for decades just because they bear different titles.

Well, we’ve never taken the sapiens part of Homo Sapiens seriously.

While Bollywood is more susceptible to the siren song of soppy romances, Hollywood too is guilty, on a lesser level, of falling prey to the seductive, meretricious, easy charms of a romance. Hey, who needs the steady affections of a boring wife when you can lie in the fickle embrace of a pretty slut.

So, in the rare instance when we stumble upon a fine movie where love does not occupy center-stage, it’s time to rejoice.

As we did after watching the beautiful movie A Better Life (2011) a little while ago.

Directed by Chris Weitz of The Twilight Saga: New Moon fame, the movie features Demián Bichir and José Julián in the key roles of father and son.

Illegal Immigrants

Most people who can hold a magazine or book or move a mouse know that there’re millions of illegal immigrants in the United States. By some counts as high as 20-million.

The majority of illegal immigrants in America are Hispanics, who come from Mexico and further South in search of a better life. You see them working as gardeners for rich Whites, laying roofs on construction sites, washing dishes in the back of restaurants or huddled together outside Home Depot or near bus-stops in the mornings, desperate for a day’s work.

Toiling in the shadows, forever fearful of being caught and deported, frequently exploited by unscrupulous employers and often targeted by the police and immigration agencies, ‘Mexicans,’ as the illegal Hispanic immigrants are collectively grouped together in America, are a faceless entity, especially outside some of the big cities like L.A. or New York.

A Better Life is the moving, very realistic account of one such ‘invisible’ illegal immigrant Carlos Galindo, who works as a gardener in Los Angeles.

A short slice of his life, to be sure, but so well written that you can easily grasp Carlos’ painful past and peek into his uncertain future.

Besides the daily struggle of eking out a livelihood as an illegal immigrant, Carlos, a single parent whose wife left him long ago for greener pastures, also has to contend with the hard task of keeping his school-going son away from the call of the gangs that have an entrenched presence on the streets and neighborhoods of Los Angeles.

When his employer plans to return to Mexico, Carlos buys his truck and business after borrowing his sister’s lifetime savings of $12,000 in hopes of moving to a better neighborhood and dreaming of a better school for his son.

But happiness is not written in the destinies of some people. Only endless struggle and misery.

And so with Carlos, who runs his truck into a metaphoric pothole on the very first day of owning it.

A misfortune that soon takes a life of its own and ultimately becomes heartrending in its impact.

Demián Bichir, a top actor in Mexico, plays Carlos with remarkable flair, lending to the character of the illegal immigrant a verisimilitude rare in movies of this nature and turning it into a compelling watch.

Some of our astute readers, few as they are, will see in A Better Life a strong resemblance to the old Italian film The Bicycle Thief.

Be that as it may, sometimes the same tale needs to be recounted under different circumstances, different times and to a different audience.

A feat that demands an accomplished team like the talented cast and crew of A Better Life.

SearchIndia.com strongly recommends A Better Life in the sure certainty that this is just the kind of classy, realistic movie Indians will never watch, addicted as most of our countrymen are to monstrous drivel like Bodyguard or Mankatha.

A Better Life is available on DVD at Netflix.

Kindle Fire Impact on Other Tablet Buying Intent

Digital Media, Tablets 3 Responses »

Nov 142011

For the next couple of days, y’all are going to be bombarded with articles on Amazon’s new Kindle Fire tablet.

The 7-inch Android-based tablet is already in the hands of consumers and early reviews are kind of mixed with some not impressed with its Silk browser.

The below chart from Indian market researcher Social Nuggets is SI’s contribution to the Kindle Fire media overkill.

Based on its analysis of intent to purchase data from social networks, Social Nuggets sees Kindle Fire taking away market share from all tablets with the impact on Android and other non-iPad Tablets projected to be significant.

“Amazon has the potential to make it a two way Tablet race between Kindle Fire and iPad if it delivers on all its promise,” say the number crunchers at Social Nuggets.

No, we have no intention of buying the Kindle Fire, perfectly happy as we are with our iPad 2.

Kindle Fire Impact on Intent to Purchase Tablets

Rockstar Box Office – Decent in the U.S.

Bollywood, Box Office 2 Responses »

Nov 142011

The U.S. box office numbers for Ranbir Kapoor’s new movie Rockstar are out.

And, hey, the numbers look pretty decent.

For the November 11-13, 2011 opening weekend in the U.S., Rockstar pulled in $612,235 from 112-screens giving it a respectable average gross of $5,466.

Rockstar was Ranbir’s 10th movie.

The 29-year-old actor, who hails from India’s first family of actors, the Kapoors, made his Bollywood debut in Saawariya in 2007.

By most accounts, Ranbir Kapoor is considered one of the finest Indian actors from the younger generation.

Here’s how Rockstar fared at the U.S. box office compared to a few prominent Bollywood films:

Rockstar – Fails to Rock but OK by Indian Standards

Bollywood 9 Responses »

Nov 112011

The best we can say about Rockstar is that we didn’t throw up and sully the movie hall as we usually do after watching a Bollywood film (like Bodyguard or Dum Maro Dum, for instance).

As is to be expected of 99.9% of Indian films, Rockstar too is a romance.

But this one comes covered in the garb of an aspiring music lover’s rocky trek to rockstardom.

Unless you’ve been hiding under some desi rock eating stale Diwali Ladoos, you know Rockstar features Ranbir Kapoor and the sexy Paki-American-Czech kitten Nargis Fakhri.

And that the movie is written and directed by Imtiaz Ali (of Jab We Met and Love Aaj Kal fame) with music by the peerless A.R.Rahman.

Ranbir’s Film

Only the dimmest of dimwits would deny that Ranbir Kapoor is the best young actor in India today.

Hey, in our not-so-humble opinion Ranbir makes even a budda like Amitabh Bachchan, with over four decades in the business, look like a bachcha.

Of course, the best part of Rockstar is Ranbir.

The fella rocks.

As the young aspiring musician, the friendly college-student, the pensive lover-boy and ultimately the completely out-of-control Rockstar, Ranbir Kapoor brings life, a ton of life to the film.

If you haven’t heard by now, Ranbir Kapoor plays Janardhan Jakhar, a young Jim Morrison wannabe deeply passionate about music, gets friendly with the most beautiful girl in the college, falls in love with her, becomes a rockstar and finally (does he get the girl or not?).

When he’s not busy with any of the above, out JJ aka Jordan is engaging in a lot of self-destructive activities.

Weak Links

The movie’s weakest link is director Imtiaz Ali’s less-than-impressive story.

Not only is it hopelessly unconvincing but it drags on in the second half.

You need oodles of ‘suspension of disbelief’ to swallow that a young Muslim girl is gallivanting around on a jazzy motorbike with a guy on her wedding day.

Mercifully, we didn’t get the happy-ending that is de rigueur in Indian films.

Sadly, the recently departed Shammi Kapoor, in what was likely his last film, was wasted because of poor writing by Imtiaz Ali and makes no impact whatsoever.

Music Hype

Now, don’t you schmucks believe all the hype about the music.

It doesn’t rock but Rahman has done more than an adequate job.

We bet there’s not a single Indian among the 1.2 billion desi mosquitoes that’s not listened to Saadda Haq.

For the most part, the picturizations of the songs were decent too.

Hey, What about the Babe?

Ah, now for Rockstar’s heroine Nargis Fakhri.

The girl oozes sex appeal, class and grace, three elements missing in the Priyankas, Kareenas, Aishwaryas, Katrinas, Deepikas etc of Bollywood.

Nargis’ good luck was to jump from riding the E, F or 7 train in Queen’s to heroine in a high-profile Bollywood movie like Rockstar.

Nargis’ bad luck was to be paired opposite an actor of Ranbir Kapoor’s caliber.

Pitted against Ranbir, even Nargis’ best efforts would be found wanting. And it is.

While not as bad as the hideous Bollywood trinity of Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone, Nargis Fakhri still has ways to go in the acting department.

But SI has strong confidence that this white desi American babe will do us proud in her next movie. No, Nargis hasn’t promised to go down on us although if she asked we’d …….

By the way, we found the supporting cast of Kumud Mishra, Piyush Mishra and Shernaz Patel impressive, very impressive. Stellar.

Overall, SearchIndia.com recommends Rockstar to all ye chutiyas since there’s nothing else to do this weekend.

In any case with the new Hollwood movies, Immortals, Jack and Jill and J.Edgar getting shafted by the critics, all ye NRI chutiyas have little choice.

Go watch Ranbir in Rockstar. The movie is playing in several theaters across America (including at some Regal and AMC halls in the NJ/NY area).

Incredible India 64 – Yes, Indians are Chutiyas

Incredible India 2 Responses »

Nov 102011

India is a nation with two deeply hostile neighbors, a nation with people dying of starvation, a nation wracked by internal rebellion, a nation without toilets for over 600-million, a nation where hundreds of million struggle for survival every day, a nation where people are ‘encountered’ to death every day…..

And yet, what is the current national obsession of the chattering classes?

The impending birth of mediocre Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai’s first child.

Good Lord, there’s no hope for the benighted land.

Here are excerpts of the ‘Great Indian Delivery’ from leading Indian newspapers:

* Reports suggest that Rs 150 crore is riding on bets on whether Ash will deliver on November 11 or not.

“This date has come after hundreds of years and astrologers say it’s auspicious — that’s why it’s a hot favourite with most betters,” says a Delhi-based bookie.

“After 11.11.11, it’s Children’s Day that’s a favourite,” says a punter.

Reportedly, bets have also been placed on the gender of the child — 70 paise per rupee on a girl and 80 paise per rupee on a boy. The amount put up in the betting pool has allegedly reached the figures Indo-Pak cricket matches generally do.

Source: Hindustan Times

* According to media reports, the Broadcast Editors Association (BEA) has issued a 10-point advisory to its members on coverage of the birth of the veteran’s grandchild.

Source: Times of India

* And now for the most disgusting news of how other Indians are taking the extra step to ensure their delivery coincides with Aishwarya’s.

Speculation that the most awaited star kid, Abhishek and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s first baby, could arrive on 11/11/11 has suddenly made the date extra special for city couples expecting a baby in November. Parents-to-be are hoping hard that both the Bachchan baby and their own little bundle would arrive on the magic date.

Going beyond just keeping their fingers crossed, some couples have even fixed appointments with their doctors to perform caesarean on the day if the baby is not born through normal delivery.

Source: Times of India

Hey, what was that wail?

Ah, that was Aishwarya’s soon-to-be-born chirping Mera Bharat Mahaan from the womb.

America in Blunderland

Amazing America 5 Responses »

Nov 092011

The below video makes us proud, so proud to be an American.

Now you know how your tax dollars are put to productive use.

After all, art imitates life. Doesn’t it?

Sukhadia’s Devon Chicago Review – Lousy Food, Delicious Sweets, Crunchy Snacks

Food 4 Responses »

Nov 092011

By Naveen

Sukhadia’s is a landmark on Devon St. for Chicago desis prematurely ejaculating over nostalgic reveries of the motherland, Incredible India.

Besides the cornucopia of Indian Sweets and Snacks to which they owe their fame, Sukhadia’s also serves fast food.

For most desis in the Chicago area, a visit to Devon is incomplete without hitting the pause button at Sukhadia’s.

So, when I visited Sukhadia’s on Devon last Tuesday evening I expected nothing but the very best!

Sukhadia’s is conveniently located, bang in the middle of the Indian strip on Devon Street.

Parking can be a hassle at Devon because of the cramped space, constant traffic and Indians abdicating their polite facade and unleashing their baser desi instincts of pent-up rudeness and rash driving that are otherwise held in check at other places and times.

Parking a few blocks away, I lazily sauntered over to Sukhadia’s.

Only to find it surprisingly devoid of the usual hustle and bustle. It seemed the store was ready to close any minute.

I decided to sanctify them by dining in and carrying out sweets and snacks for extended company.

Modest Ambiance

Like most desi establishments in the U.S., Sukhadia’s boasts of a modest ambiance with basic facilities.

The shelves and refrigerators are clean and neatly organized.

Tables and floor are tidy. Sugar dispensers, plastic cutlery and paper towels are aplenty.

Like most cheap desi establishments, the Sukhadia’s serve food in Styrofoam plates .

Styrofoam plates, Gaaawd!

The rest room is disgusting and horribly maintained.

Oh, why should that come as a surprise?

Devon desi joints offer nothing but the worst when it comes to rest rooms.

The Food

Sukhadia’s is a self-service place.

We placed our order and paid the bill at the counter after a quick scan of their menu that boasts of an assortment of Chaat, South & North Indian and Gujarati items.

The first item that trotted our way was the commonplace Mumbai street food, Pav Bhaji.

The delectable Bhaji alone justified our long drive to Devon and to our pleasant surprise I found it non-greasy and non-watery.

Voila!

Sukhadia's Pav Bhaji Pav Bhaji

However, I was least impressed with the Pav.

You see, the cheapos at Sukhadia’s seem to be buying the cheapest possible buns from a local grocery store and peddling it as Pav. While there was nothing much wrong about the Pav, the fact that they took no extra effort to make one themselves or at least differentiate it from the standard grocery store bun irked us no end.

You see, our standards have increased after coming to Amreeka!

Next up was Chole Puri, which was adequate in taste although nothing exceptional. Hey, the Jalapeno–Carrot pickle was a good side.

With a nice balance of sourness and right amount of spice, it turned out to be quite addictive.

So addictive indeed that I took a box home.

Sukhadia's Chole Puri Chole Puri

Out came Dahi Batata Puri and, boy, what an utterly lousy, disgusting piece of shit did these bastards serve us!

It was cold, watery, stale and puke-worthy with the Puris disintegrating on holding.

Arre o Sambha, are you listening?

Needless to say, we were livid at these cartoons.

Sukhadia's Dahi Batata Puri Dahi Batata Puri

The Roti-Subji helped us partially recover from the tsunami of ‘Dahi Batata Puri’ disgust we were drowning in.

Roti was large, soft and warm and the Kala Channa subji was a fine side.

Sukhadia's Roti Subji Roti Subji

The other Subji involving the rape of Baingan (Egg Plant) with a salty concoction masquerading as gravy, was unfit for human consumption. Or for that matter, even animals.

Again, the Jalapeno-Carrot pickle abated the agony (Or as young Macaulay would have said, Thank You, Madam, the agony is abated).

The less said the better of the Salt Lassi and Masala Chai.

Masala Chai is supposed to be aromatic and hot.

Alas, we were served a brownish lukewarm bilge devoid of any aroma or flavor.

Sukhadia's Masala Chai Sukhadia’s Masala Chai

Salt Lassi turned out to be partially beaten sour curd with no salt.

Cursing the Sukhadia’s in the foulest language *&@#$%#$%*^, we junked both items without much ado.

Sukhadia's Salt Lassi Salt Lassi

Alas, it was not our day.

The store manager / owner told us that most of the items in the menu were not available because they were shortstaffed that day and they did not expect many visitors.

*&#$^*@$, why do you keep the store open then?

Desperate for some $$$$?

Of course! You greedy *&^$#$*% would like to snatch every dollar from our wallet even if it is by delivering sub-standard quality.

Delicious Sweets

I am not an aficionado of sweets but I guarantee a trip to Sukhadia’s can put you on a high dose of Mithai-addiction.

To keep our desi lower jaws busy for a few days, I selected a sampling of sweets from their fine spread and a few snacks as well.

During the selection of sweets, the glib talking owner was a constant irritant offering his unwanted opinion.

When I asked for a sample of what was labeled as Mathura Peda he promptly thrust his hand into the tray and split the item into two pieces with his fingers and thrust his left hand with one half of the sweet towards my face as he flung the other half back into the tray.

Does this f@cker not know that he is supposed to wear gloves (gloves were present and his helper was using gloves)? Does the Chutiya not know why God bestowed Indians with the left hand?

(Water + desi left hand = clean bottom!)

Ignoring the bozo’s crude, unclean, defiling act, I checked it out (why, God!).

To my surprise, he packed all the items into a nice “Sukhadia’s” bag instead of the clumsy plastic bags.

Sukhadia's Sweets Sukhadia’s Sweets

Let me say upfront that all the sweets with the exception of the Sweet Cutlet (bottom row, extreme left) were fantastic!

Each one tasted exactly how it should taste.

Sweet Cutlet tasted odd and didn’t exactly thrill me.

Sukhadia's Ras Malai Ras Malai

Ras Malai, Kala Jamun and Besan Ladoo were the picks of the lot although the other items were almost as good.

Ras Malai was a spongy delight. It oozed every bit of Ras in perfect coordination with the melting of the malai in my appreciative mouth.

Hmmmmm.. I almost came right in the store!

Kala Jamun was fantastic, evenly cooked, sweet but not overtly saturating.

Brilliant!

Absolutely divine… The version with coconut flakes was also very good.

Prima facie, Besan Ladoo wasn’t that appealing but one bite wiped all doubts away and it proved its worth in besan

The other run of the mill stuff – Motichor Ladoo, Kaju Katri etc, were not exceptionally unique but adequate and sweet!

After this visit, I added two more items to my “Must Try Again” list of sweets and those were the Carrot Burfi and Kalakand.

A mere 10 seconds in the microwave brought all the life back in them much to the delight of my taste buds.

Crunchy Snacks

A review of Sukhadia’s is incomplete without mention of their fine snacks.

We tried the crunchy Chaklu, Spicy Banana Chips and fine Mixture.

All fine items, good to munch on while watching your favorite Bollywood or Kollywood drivel.

Sukhadia's Chaklu Chaklu

Chaklu is my favorite, second only to my inamorata.

It reminds me of its Tamil Cousin “Thattai”.

While they are mostly similar, the use of Sabudana in Chaklu differentiates them.

The noise of a Chaklu disintegrating in my mouth is like magic.

Sukhadia's Mixture Chips and Mixture are a fine companion.

For your Beer, Whisky or any other Indian son of a bitch Bacchus that gets you high!

Sukhadia's Spicy Banana Chips Spicy Banana Chips

Recommendation

Folks – Sukhadia’s is a one of its kind, sui generis for Sweets and Snacks.

It is usually “OK” for fast food but it seems we caught them with their pants down this time.

If you are visiting Devon then make a stop at Sukhadia’s and pick up your favorite snacks!

It seems wiser to avoid dining in on week days based on our experience.

Now, while you folks read this review, if you don’t mind (or even if you do) let me refill my cup of mixture and stuff my mouth with a few more Sukhadia’s Chaklus.

Yummy!

Harshul Sanghi gets $100m to Play With

Business, Diaspora No Responses »

Nov 082011

Harshul Sanghi, recently appointed Managing Partner of American Express‘ Enterprise Growth Group, will spearhead a $100 million initiative that will invest in early stage digital commerce startups.

American Express’ aggressive moves in this space are aimed at developing innovative technologies to accelerate its digital transformation and strengthen connections to customers around the world.

American Express’ digital commerce initiative will invest in fledglings working on digital commerce initiatives centered around loyalty and rewards, mobile and online payment management, fee-based services, security and fraud detection and data analysis.

Like other payment vendors, American Express has been kicking the digital tires around and has launched a few initiatives like the Serve digital wallet. But with PayPal strongly entrenched in the online payments space we doubt Amex has got anything to crow about. And from what we’ve read about Serve, we’re not impressed and doubt it’ll go anywhere.

Amex’ digital commerce initiative will be managed out of its newly established office in Silicon Valley.

By the way, Sanghi was previously Managing Director of North American venture activities for Motorola Mobility and has a background in working with early startups.

Another Day, Another Tablet – Nook Tablet Debuts

Digital Media, Tablets No Responses »

Nov 072011

It seems like not a day passes in the digital media universe without a big-brand jumping on the tablet train with a huge announcement, launch event or upgrade.

This morning it was the turn of the struggling U.S. bookstore chain Barnes & Noble to make a song and dance about its new Nook Tablet.

Nook Tablet is Barnes & Noble’s first entertainment-centric tablet offering. The company’s previous tablet, the Nook Color launched in October 2010, was positioned as a Reader’s tablet.

Nook Tablet

Nook Tablet Features

Running the Android 2.3 Gingerbread software, the 7-inch dual-core processor Nook Tablet with 1GB RAM costs $249 and will be available for purchase on November 17 (just two-days after rival Amazon’s $199 Kindle Fire tablet).

Unlike the iPad and like the Kindle Fire, the Nook Tablet is WiFi only. No 3G version for mobile connectivity.

There’s no camera in the Nook Tablet.

Barnes & Noble is promising that Nook Tablet’s battery will provide 11.5 hours of reading or 9 hours of video without recharging and with wireless off.

Weighing 14.1 ounce, the Nook Tablet supports Flash and packs 16GB internal storage with the option to add another 32GB via microSD card. There’s free Nook Cloud storage as well like with the Kindle Fire and the iPad.

Nook Tablet display is 1024 X 600 (169 pixels per inch) and users can play audio on the built-in mono speaker.

Some members of the media who played with the Nook Tablet at the launch event in New York City were awed by the display.

There is a 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack but headphones are not included in the kit. So, figure another $25-$30 for a stereo headphone.

Built-in apps for the Nook Tablet include Netflix, Hulu Plus, Pandora internet radio, Chess, Crossword, Sudoku, Media Gallery, NOOK Friends and e-mail.

Outlook

Despite the flurry of tablet launches by a bevy of companies including Motorola, RIM/Blackberry, Acer, Asus, HP, Toshiba and Samsung, no one has been able to make a dent in the Apple iPad citadel.

Customers have mostly flocked to the iPad (starting price of $499 for the 16GB version) leaving the other players scrambling to survive and forcing them to slash prices with no avail.

Whether Barnes & Noble can survive the iPad tsunami that has laid waste other tablet vendors remains to be seen.

You can pre-order the Nook Tablet today.

Along with the launch of the Nook Tablet, Barnes & Noble today cut prices of its older products – Nook Color is now $199 and the Nook Simple Touch costs $99.

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