(20 August 2008 7:00 pm)

NEW DELHI: Movie rental company Seventymm has raised Rs 500 million in a fresh bout of funding.

The Series C round of funding was led by NEA-Indo US Ventures. The private equity firm's managing director Vani Kola has joined the Seventymm board.

Seventymm has a total capital investment of Rs 900 million. Earlier the movie rental company had raised Rs 400 million from venture capital firms including Matrix Partners India, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and ePlanet Ventures.

Says Seventymm founder and CEO Raghav Kher, “We are delighted to partner with a reputed firm like NEA Indo-US Ventures and this reaffirms our strategic direction. Our vision of movies anytime, anywhere through Seventymm is now a looming reality rather than a distant dream.”

Seventymm plans to be in 40 cities including Tier I and Tier II cities by end of 2009. In addition the company also plans to increase the number of titles from 1800 to 2500 by the end of this calendar year.

Kher adds, “In terms of revenue we plan to generate Rs 15 billion in the next five years alongwith a target of adding 4 million members. We also have plans to begin online streaming and download of films in the next five years.”

The company had invested Rs 20 million in promoting the product through print and radio in 2007. Seventymm COO Subhanker Sarker elaborates, “In this year to promote and market the brand further, we would be investing Rs 80 million in the next three months. This year we would also be using television apart from radio and print.”

The competition in the movie rental business is getting tougher with biggies like Reliance ADAG's Bigflix chalking out major expansion plans.