Canaan Partners' New India Office Makes ''Social'' Internet Investment; Canaan Teams With Yahoo! Inc. in an $8.6 Million Investment in BharatMatrimony, an Online Marriage Service

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 2, 2006--Canaan Partners, a major international venture capital firm, today announced the funding of BharatMatrimony Group, the leading online matrimonial service in India. This is an exciting new investment by the venture firm's India office, which opened in June. Canaan is an investor in an $8.6 million A round financing that also includes Yahoo! Inc. The investment will also be used to enhance the entire portfolio of services of BharatMatrimony Group and take them to leadership positions in their respective sectors. The other group businesses of BharatMatrimony include ClickJobs.com, IndiaProperty.com, IndiaAutomobile.com and IndiaList.com.

"The investment underscores Canaan's ongoing commitment to early-stage Internet-related deals in India," said Deepak Kamra, a Canaan general partner. "Canaan was the first investor in Match.com in the United States in 1995, the first dating service in the United States." Match.com had revenues of $250 million in 2005. Canaan was also an early investor in DoubleClick, a pioneer in Internet banner advertising.

“Canaan was the first investor in Match.com in the United States in 1995, the first dating service in the United States.”

"Canaan Partners was there in the early days of social networking on the Internet with Match.com, and we're capitalizing on the same kind of opportunity today in India," Kamra added. "India has a huge population of 1.1 billion, and the most important thing there is love and marriage. We saw pretty much the same thing at Match.com and we're seeing it again at BharatMatrimony."

BharatMatrimony was founded in 1997 and until now was self-funded. More than 500,000 marriages have been arranged online in that time, said Murugavel Janakiraman, the company's founder and CEO, which makes it the biggest and most successful matrimony service in the world. The company manages more than a dozen different matrimony portals catering to Indians of different languages and religions throughout the world. One major portal is www.bharatmatrimony.com.

Janakiraman met his wife through BharatMatrimony and said many of his employees also got married through the portal. Portals feature thousands of comments and pictures from couples happily married through the help of an Internet portal. "About 80 percent of marriages in India are arranged through immediate families, relatives and friends, and most of the rest through personal matchmakers," Janakiraman said. "Online matrimony arrangements have been less than 1 percent of the total. But we are working to expand that by greatly expanding the reach of marriage partner matchmaking."

Alok Mittal, executive director of Canaan's Indian office, noted that BharatMatrimony portals will be supported by offices in nearly 40 Indian cities with personal computers linked to the Internet. "Dating is not a widely accepted custom for most Indians," Mittal said. "But marriage is extremely important, and we want to help as many brides and grooms get together as possible." Families will still have enormous sway in the ultimate selection of marriage partners, Mittal said, and parents are very involved in the whole process.

"We are very excited to be an investor in BharatMatrimony," Mittal added. "The company is very well positioned to continue to grow rapidly and maintain its leadership in the Indian Internet landscape while continuing to be a highly valuable company from a social standpoint. The company's services truly change the lives of millions of Indians around the world. India is one of the key markets for Canaan Partners and we are looking at creating lasting partnerships in the technology space and generate shareholder wealth over the coming years."

The portal makes money through monthly subscription charges of $10 to $15 a month. Most users subscribe for three to six months.

About Canaan Partners

Canaan Partners is an early stage venture investor. The firm catalyzes the development of innovative technology and healthcare companies to build next-generation market leaders. Founded in 1987, Canaan Partners has $2.4 billion capital under management and has invested in 232 companies, completed 60 mergers and acquisitions, and brought over 50 companies public. Canaan invests in Internet and consumer technology, communications, semiconductor and energy, enterprise software and services, biotechnology, and medtech. Canaan was an early investor in DoubleClick (DCLK), CommerceOne (CMRC), Copper Mountain Networks (CMTN), Immunicon (IMMC), ONI Systems (ONIS), Dexcom (DXCM) and Combinatorx (CRXX), along with dozens of other market-leading companies. Canaan has offices in Menlo Park, California; Rowayton, Connecticut; Herzliya Pituach, Israel; and Gurgaon, India. For more information visit: www.canaan.com.