ENTREPRENEURS: Sushma Abburi, Kavita Iyer and Sanjay Aggarwal

Bangalore: It makes news when a four-month-old, start-up web portal aimed at the college-going and young professional audience, gets a $7 million funding. That too from a capital funding company like Sequoia whose investments include big names such as Bharti Telesoft, Café Coffee Day and TravelGuru.

But, Bangalore-grown Minglebox.co, started by three IIT Delhi alumni whose career experience covers stints with IT majors such as Yahoo, Wipro and Infosys, has a track record to attract investors with any eye on the growing youth market.

Co-founder and CEO Kavita Iyer quoted the figures before the media on Wednesday. "We have totalled one million people connections, two million messages and 5,000 first-time bloggers, mostly from college campuses across the country and the numbers can only keep growing as the sub-30 age group are also keen online shoppers." That will be the revenue model, once the advertisers start taking notice, she anticipates. Her colleagues, Sushma Abburi and Sanjay Aggarwal, are equally enthusiastic.

Minglebox has an edge over its Western counterparts the youth now frequent. "The contents and atmosphere will fit within Indian cultural sensibilities," explains Ms. Iyer.

The Minglebox team has carried out extensive market surveys and found that online chatting, emailing and forging friendships online are among the favourite pastimes of the young.

R. Ramaraj of Sequuoia Capital, a co-founder of Sify, who now joins the board of Minglebox, has obviously studied the potential returns. "There are 40 million Net users now in our country and the majority are well below 30 years old. Online business is already equal to $ 66 million in India and with more broadband connections now available the numbers of Net users will keep growing," he says.

Right now Minglebox.com serves as a network of campus websites, offering facilities like an online jukebox.

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