Content Syndicate Announces Investment By IV Holdings

Content Syndicate
IV Holdings

Content Syndicate has officially announced that it has received strategic investment from Interactive Ventures Holding Company (“IV Holdings”), a leading venture capital firm, focused on internet and interactive companies, and based out of Amman, Jordan.

The funding will be used to support Content Syndicate’s rapid growth and development of its content services platform.

“In its private beta alone, Content Syndicate, with its unique and disruptive business model, as well as its dynamic management track record, impressed us. More importantly, the strong validation the company has received from major customers and publishers, combined with our investment strategy focused on the development of content syndication in our region, made Content Syndicate a great fit. Very few early-stage companies have this kind of amazing traction and robust business model,” said Fawaz H. Zu’bi, Chairman of IV Holdings.

Content Syndicate’s patent-pending platform helps publishers to commission, buy, sell, syndicate content in more than 200 languages. With no entry-level costs, coupled with its ‘pay for performance’ model, Content Syndicate helps publishers to monetize their content further and minimizing the inefficiency, thereby generating additional revenues and cutting costs. The company intends to extend its service to support other media – audio, video and mobile content in 2009.

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Content Syndicate Wins Cool Start-ups Award At TiE-ISB Connect

Content SyndicateAt the recent TiE-ISB Connect 2008 event jointly organised by The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) and the Indian School of Business (ISB), Dubai-based Content Syndicate (CS) emerged as the winner in the ‘Cool Start-ups‘ category.

The event took place at ISB Hyderabad from 5 to 7 November. Sponsors included Sun Microsystems, Microsoft, Times of India Group Satyam, Totem Infrastructure and the Indu Group.

This is the third year for TiE-ISB Connect and it is also one of Asia’s largest investor-entrepreneurial events. Tie-ISB Connect 2008 featured over 700 delegates, 30 venture capital firms and various media companies.

The event attracted over 200 business plans of which 149 executive summaries were short-listed for the next round. 30 of the short-listed firms were invited for a final presentation before a judging panel comprising of senior partners and management from Accel Ventures, Google, Canaan Partners, Helion Ventures, Venture East, Clearstone, PA, Virtusa, IDG Ventures, Nexus Capital, Sun Microsystems, Ojas Ventures, Totem and Kuruvindam.

The criteria for selecting the winners were based on the strength of business model, innovation, the team, maturity of business, track record, financials, long-term plans and scalability.

Commenting on the award, Content Syndicate’s Founder & CEO, Maddy Reddy, said: “We are honoured to be a part of this prestigious event. It was a great experience and provided us with a strong validation of our business. I would like to extend my gratitude to our clients, team, investors and partners for playing a vital role in making this happen.”

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Dubai-based Content Syndicate Wins YourBusiness SME Awards

Content SyndicateAt a recent industry event organised by YourBusiness magazine and Visa, Dubai-based Content Syndicate was awarded two prestigious awards, emerging triumphant in the ‘Best New SME’ as well as the overall ‘Best SME in the GCC’ categories.

The awards were sponsored by HP and Visa International as platinum sponsor of the overall winner category.

The 2008 YourBusiness SME Awards marks the anniversary of YourBusiness publication in the market and by extension seeks to reward entrepreneurs for growth. Sponsors for these awards include Visa International, Emirates NBD, Etisalat, HP, Hamriyah Free Zone, DHL and Forsa.

The awards were open to local and expatriate business owners of small to medium enterprises, or SMEs that employ less than 250 staff, earn up to AED 50 million and operate in the Gulf region. The awards ceremony took place at the Park Hyatt Hotel on 20 October 2008 and was attended by over 200 invitees.

Commenting on the win, Content Syndicate’s Founder & CEO, Maddy Reddy, said: “With SMEs constituting nearly 80% of the business ecosystem, both in the region and globally, we are honoured to be awarded this recognition. It’s also easy to overlook the fact that some of the biggest firms out there were all ‘garage start-ups’ or SMEs when they started out. This award is an important milestone for us in the long and exciting journey ahead.”

The judging panel comprised of senior management from Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation, Visa, HP, Etisalat, HSBC, Emirates NBD, Citibank, YourBusiness advisory board and business consultants.

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