Canaan Partners have announced an investment of $5.25 million in Cellcast Asia Holdings, a subsidiary of UK-based Cellcast Plc, for developing, producing and distributing participative digital content in the whole of Asia, excluding China. Cellcast Asia Holdings, an Asian digital media house, has been created by Cellcast Plc by injecting 100 per cent holding in Cellcast Interactive India Pvt Ltd and 50 per cent holding in Cellcast SEA Ltd.

Alok Mittal, Managing Director, Canaan India, and Maha Ibrahim, General Partner, Canaan Partners USA, have been appointed to the board of directors of the newly established Cellcast Asia Holdings (CAH).

CAH will reportedly have a mandate to develop, produce and distribute participative digital content in the whole of Asia, excluding China. “CAH will be using this investment to enhance the use of interactive and 3G content, by leveraging TV as a contextual programme in a fragmented consumer environment transformed by new media technologies,” an official note stated.

Mittal, said, "With mobile phones becoming a general-purpose, interaction device for nearly two billion consumers worldwide, demand for and use of interactive digital entertainment is on the rise. Cellcast has unlimited potential for growth and we are thrilled to help drive the company’s expansion. With a direct presence in India, Canaan is rapidly expanding its early-stage investments in the region and we are thrilled Cellcast is joining our portfolio as our first mobile entertainment investment in India.”

Pankaj Thakar, CEO, CAH, said, “There is an evolving use of mobile phones to provide a personal entertainment experience. We at Cellcast strive to match the needs of broadcasters and end consumers by producing live interactive pay-to-play programming, aggregating and distributing an extensive portfolio of mobile and participative TV applications.”

“This partnership with Canaan Partners will enable us to accelerate growth through investment in new formats, applications and the expansion of our management team to support our regional initiatives. With this venture we will share a common vision of bringing to the Indian and Asian markets next generation applications and formats, reaching millions of customers in the fastest growing mobile market in the world.”

Canaan’s recent investments in India include BharatMatrimony; iYogi, an outsourcing start-up; and techTribe, a career networking portal based on the referral model.