Morpheus Venture Partners (MVP) adds successful valley entrepreneur to team, announces new batch of 10 startups

The latest batch has a diverse set of startups ranging from apparel, financial services, automotive, advertising & education domains

Bangalore, India – August 14, 2009 – Morpheus Venture Partners (MVP) (www.morpheusventure.com) an India based venture firm, which works closely with select startups as a ‘limited co-founder’ announced names of 10 progressive startups participating in Batch 3 of its four month Business Acceleration Program (BAP).With this addition, MVP now has 20 companies in its portfolio.

The uniqueness of this batch is the diversity of the startups – ranging from apparel, financial services, automotive, advertising, robotics & education domains. This is also a step away from the original YCombinator program that was the inspiration to MVP’s Partners and focuses largely on web-technology startups.

“India has a lot of unsolved problems that lead to large markets opportunities,” said Sameer Guglani, Founding Partner – MVP. “That’s the reason our portfolio is focused on domains like education, health, automotive, apparel, retail, advertising and financial services.”

MVP has also expanded its team with Indus Khaitan joining as Partner in May 2009. Indus is a technology evangelist and an entrepreneur with over 10 years of product, technology & operational experience in the Silicon Valley. Indus started Tejit which was acquired in May 2008. Most recently, Indus was Chief Technology Officer of SezWho, a Silicon Valley startup which was sold to JS-Kit in Mar 2009. “We and all our portfolio companies are very excited to have Indus on board. He brings years of deep technology expertise, experience of building companies in the valley and his infectious passion for startups”, commented Nandini Hirianniah – Founding Partner, MVP

MVP Batch 3 Portfolio:

1. Adscoot: Yet to launch, outdoor media startup, envisioning a new medium of advertising targeted at SMEs – More here
2. EasySquareFeet: A full service real estate company, serving over 150 clients each month, with a mission to make the experience of renting / buying that all important SquareFeet ever so memorable! More here
3. InterviewStreet: A beta platform that facilitates students’ preparation for their placement interviews via mock interviews for the companies they intend to work for. More here
4. Naabo: Their flagship SaaS based product TurboDoc helps doctors manage their clinics & medical practice, and is used by more than hundred paid customers and growing. More here
5. Picsean: Aims to be a comprehensive online and offline magazine rack, with content being aggregated from photographers – professional and amateur across the world! At an idea stage currently they are yet to launch. More here
6. ReachTax: Envisioned to be the H&R block of India, they help individuals and businesses manage their finances and taxes. 10% of Small Businesses based out of Chennai, India filed their annual tax returns via Reach Tax in the last financial year. More here
7. Retail Vector: A mystery shopping venture that aims to measure and help clients enhance customer satisfaction by leveraging real shopper experiences! More here
8. RobotsAlive: With a dream to create a Robotics revolution in India; they make Robots and reach out to Education Institutes to use Robots to teach Robotics efficiently. More here
9. Scopial: A hi-fashion Apparel Company powered by a strong community of International Designers who showcase their designs via Scopial. The top rated designs are made into best quality tees. More here
10. VeriCAR: A used car verification and certification company started by two automobile geeks, with over 250 verifications and counting! They also help in Sale / Purchase of used cars. More here

Update on previous portfolio companies:

• 1 exit: food@home (Acquired by a larger local catering company in March 2009)
• 3 Series A: Commonfloor, Crederity, Instablogs
• 3 Market Leaders: DeskAway, Instablogs, Sutra People
• 4 Profitable: DeskAway, Fachak, LifeMojo, Sutra People
• 1 shutdown : Moblf (Founders have moved on to other ventures)

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