£2M Invested in Asian portal - Netwalla.com
NewMedia SPARK PLC
10 March 2000
NewMedia SPARK invests £2m in
Asian portal - Netwalla.com - in partnership with LootLab
NewMedia Spark plc ('SPARK') announces that it has agreed
to invest £2 million for a 23% stake in Netwalla.com Ltd.
('Netwalla'). Netwalla will create a business to
business exchange that will seek to foster online trade
between the UK and South Asia and a consumer facing
portal targeted at Asian households in the UK and Europe.
Netwalla is also backed by LootLab Ltd, a privately held
internet incubator established by Loot Ltd, one of the
UK's pioneering new media publishing groups.
Netwalla will incorporate The Asian Business Directory
('ABD'), a leading point of reference for the Asian
community in the UK, which will provide an existing
nationwide sales and distribution infrastructure. This
infrastructure, together with Loot Ltd's relationships
and holdings in India, will allow Netwalla to establish
the leading European portal for Asian businesses and
consumers.
Netwalla's management team includes Bundeep Singh-Rangar,
formerly of Bloomberg and STAR TV and Atwant Mason, ABD's
Managing Director. Shawn Luetchens, and Ranjeet Bhatia,
co-CEOs of LootLab and Jayesh Patel, Director at NewMedia
Investors, will also join the board.
Commenting on the investment Michael Whitaker, CEO of
SPARK, said:
'Netwalla's focus on an entrepreneurial and dynamic
sector of the business community as well as the appeal of
its content to a strong and vibrant community will we
believe, allow the management team to create a leading e-
commerce brand. The ability to leverage Loot's assets in
India as well as to build on an existing infrastructure
will provide Netwalla with significant momentum and we
see a number of significant revenue streams. We also
hope this investment will allow SPARK to develop links
into India where there is a deep pool of IT excellence.'
Commenting on the investment Ranjeet Bhatia, co-CEO of
LootLab, said:
'This is Lootlab's first portfolio company and we are
pleased to be working with SPARK to create a unique
offering for the Asian community in Europe. Over
£4billion worth of goods and services are traded each
year between the UK and the sub-continent and this is set
to rapidly increase with greater deregulation and a more
reliable telecom infrastructure. We hope to facilitate
this trade through a range of informational and
transaction services. Loot's Indian partner publishes
business directories in more than 12 Indian cities and we
hope to leverage these relationships to kick start the
business.'
Commenting on the investment Bundeep Singh Rangar,
interim CEO of Netwalla said:
'We're going to build online facilities for efficient
trading between the UK and South Asia, and aggregate and
create killer content for the Asian community. We will
provide Web technology, escrow and credit card facilities
to businesses together with news and community content to
consumers. The existing infrastructure and relationships
with businesses, advertisers and consumers will allow us
to be the first significant mover in the marketplace.'
Netwalla is the 22nd investment to be announced by SPARK
since its flotation on AIM on 28th October 1999.
For more information, contact :
Mike Whitaker, Jayesh Patel, New Media SparkTel No: 0207 7851 7777
E-mail - jay@newmediainvest.com
Ranjeet Bhatia, LootLab Ltd. Tel No: 0207-644-9293
E-mail - rbhatia@LootLab.com
Bundeep Singh-Rangar, Netwalla.com Ltd.Tel No: 07092-007-100
E-mail - bundeep@netwalla.com
Lisa Baderoon, Buchanan CommunicationTel No: 0207 7851 777
E-mail - lisab@buchanan.uk.com
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