Gaurav Mishra, COO and Co-founder of search engine Guruji.com has left the company, CEO Anurag Dod confirmed to MediaNama, as did Mishra. Mishra said that he’s left due to personal reasons, and needs to return to the US soon. Dod denied the rumour that Sequoia Capital has written off the Guruji investment, and maintained that they have enough funding, and are going to sail through these troubled times. He reiterated that they’re doing well in terms of revenues, but declined to share specifics, saying that their AdGuru product (an ad network we haven’t heard about before), is doing well. Mishra mentioned that Guruji’s music search has seen great uptake. Note: Updated the AdGuru link, via Alootechie.
Guruji was reported to have received $7 Million in investment from Sequoia Capital. We’ve written to Sequoia Capital MD Sumir Chadha for comments. More as we have it.
From an earlier post on Guruji: “I think the larger issue here is of the role that Guruji is trying to play in the search space, and the apparent lack of uptake of their services (comparison). I do believe that Guruji chose the right path with local language search, instead of taking on Google head-on, but the lack of growth of local-language content, and Google developing its own local-language search probably robbed Sequoia and Guruji of an exit route. Let’s see if they break even by the end of 2009, and reach their Rs. 20 crore revenue target.”
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9 Comments until now.
I guess Gaurav is smarter of the two … Sequoia has certainly written this investment off, am not even sure why they even made that investment. Also, I don’t think Guruji got all the $7mn upfront, it was to be given in tranches and they did not even get their 2nd tranche. Thus, they had to get some more money from some other investor.
From some of the friends that I have in the industry, they say, things are not going well for them. The music search thing is also not doing good …
I met Gaurav once in a conference . he is a smart guy . I am sure this is a case of VC hammering the founders to dilute the vision and change the product road map to meet short term targets .
SAd part is that its the same VC which funded Google and let them pursue the vision . VC partenr seems to be more important than VC firm .
Its time that internet companies in India, realize that they cant build this so called “Path breaking product” and focus their energy towards whatever revenue that they can make, if they are funded by a VC.
Hi
Do we require another Google? I think there is no space for any other content based search engines. We need search engines that are not based on content based rather theme based. I am also trying to have a venture based on theme based search for Indian market and Indian consumers.
Thanks,
Rajeev
http://www.brandsindiaonline.com
@Long Time Logical Dude : you Must be an VC’s tail wagging PET . I can’t stand your bullshit about india .
FYI Rajeev Motwani is an Indian who was PHD guide for Page & Brin and It was HE who help them come up with PAGE Rank Algo . you can’t hide your stupidity behind these rhetorics Go take your “Risk Capital” and fund a Kiryana store or Milk Booth . Bloody “suits” .
Some stats on the number of searches done, users for Gurujee would be interesting…baidu.com has given Google a run for their money in China…I dont see why a search engine in India cant do the same.
ZK : Baidu is a bad data point . ppl in china use Chinese language for surfing . the keyboards are in chiense . browser support the font by default. not much variation in character set in different part of country . not a single one of these supporting fact apply for Indian market .
there is a need for thing like Guruji but Baidu is not that need . What is that need ?? Will tell that someday :)
Its a long way for local language based products in India, India has more than 12 (major) languages, pure local language users on net is still far away, most of the net users are english users, and they use languages as secondary option. Local language internet companies needs to have patience (and money) for atleast 5 more years before they can breakeven or make money. Companies like Webdunia has been in existance for more than 8 years, but still I dont see them making the impression on internet map. I wish all the very best to Webdunia and Guruji for taking up challenge of indian language market, and I wish atleast one of them survives and create the company which is in top 3 of indian internet world.
I went to webduniya and dint liked to stand there more than a min. SO what I think is india/Indians dont realy read much of indian languages, its what they listen and speak too much. Every where its eng in india for reading and writing so… I think guruji.com doesnt makes any point. But thats what I think.
Tough its good that Indian companies are coming forward with products, but plz. think of a new innovation like one I am too thinking of lets c how it goes. Trying new things is not a bad dream but be with your dream till its done….
Vj
http://www.vrotech.com