DALLAS, TX -- (Marketwire) -- 12/06/12 -- Naya Ventures, a new type of venture capital fund specializing in early stage companies in the mobile and cloud markets, today announced its first closing for its $50 million fund.

Headquartered in Dallas, with offices in Silicon Valley, Seattle and Hyderabad, India, Naya takes a unique approach from the typical venture capital fund to lead by collaboration. Combining the features of a venture capital fund with those of a private equity firm, Naya not only provides capital to early stage companies, but also the industry experience and relationships at the concept stage in their development to help jumpstart their growth to the next level and beyond. Naya helps connect entrepreneurs with the necessary key players in big companies, from internal product marketing and development all the way up to C-level executives, leveraging its own extensive operational experience, product development expertise and network of strategic relationships to help entrepreneurs grow their companies and accelerate value creation. At a time when many funds have struggled or even closed, the value of Naya's portfolio companies have created significant value and all its portfolio companies have gone straight to Series A or B funding.

The fund is led by serial entrepreneurs who are veterans in mobile and cloud technology industry and who have collectively founded and sold mobile technology companies creating more than $500 million in shareholder value. The fund is headed by Dayakar Puskoor, a wireless industry visionary and former Microsoft executive whose background includes founder and CEO of JP Mobile and M2 Junction; Prabakar Reddy, an experienced global executive with more than 20 years of strategy and operational roles in Fortune 500 and innovative start-up companies including co-founder and CIO of Risemart and managing director of ANSR Group, and Gowri Shankar, CEO of SinglePoint Technologies and a founding member of the Sprint PCS launch team, which laid the foundation for Sprint PCS's industry-leading enterprise sales strategy.

"We're pleased that these investment partners have joined us and see the value in our unique approach," said Puskoor, who serves as general and managing partner for the fund. "We are not a traditional incubator model, nor a traditional Venture Capitalist; we consult with our portfolio companies' management teams to identify areas in which Naya can help and go beyond opening doors for our portfolio companies. We do all that we can to build value. All of our portfolio companies have benefited by Naya's connections in getting strategic deals and partnerships, and kickstarting revenue opportunities."

In operation since 2011, Naya's current portfolio consists of seven companies in the mobile and cloud market. These include BoxFish (formerly Mixaroo), a better way to control TV, Zoomingo, a top rated shopping app platform that lets consumers find the best deals in their local stores or online from their smartphone or home computer; and Glympse, a mobile service that allows GPS-enabled mobile devices to share their location via a web app for a pre-set amount of time. Additional companies are currently in the pipeline or under evaluation.

"Naya's team has helped us in our business development and marketing, assisting us to refine our strategy and getting key introductions to potential partners that helped us to accelerate our business development," said Eoin Dowling, Co-founder and CEO of Boxfish. "Naya worked with us in lockstep to increase our business development bandwidth."

"Naya has been a key strategic partner from the beginning, and the team is available to us as much as we want," said Shirish Nadkarni, president and CEO of Zoomingo. "As part of this, Naya had helped us with our strategy and business development, identifying and introducing us to potential business partners to help us establish a strong business model for Zoomingo."

Co-investors in Naya portfolio companies include Menlo Ventures, Benaroya Capital, Seapoint Ventures, Intel Capital, Deutshe Telecom Ventures, Ignition and Rally Capital.

Founded in 2011, Naya Ventures invests in early stage mobile technology and cloud based companies where its product development expertise, emerging market channel relationships and go-to-market strategies can efficiently increase enterprise value. Led by serial entrepreneurs in the mobile and cloud industry, Naya Ventures' principals work alongside a global network of C-level executives and general partners at influential US technology companies and venture funds. Naya's strong mobile and cloud industry reputation, its relationships with leading technology companies such as Microsoft and its global network of technology and market development resources help accelerate value creation. Its relationships also provide Naya with an extensive deal sourcing and follow on funding capability.

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