Bollywood loves startups: BigB bets on cloud storage service

Bollywood celebrity Amitabh Bachchan – also known as BigB – has invested in Singapore-based global cloud storage service firm Ziddu. The deal size was not disclosed.

“Initially, the Bachchans were keen to put in as much as US$500,000 but had to settle for a lower investment because banks refused to handle remittance beyond US$125,000 per person with the ministry,” Meenavalli Venkat, the founder of Ziddu told India’s Economic Times. The company is valued at US$71 million.

The seven-year-old startup offers free file hosting as well as secured cloud services for documents, photos, videos, and audio that can accessed from mobile or desktop across the world. It claims to serve 100 million monthly unique users across the world.

Ziddu also has a bitcoin wallet service to buy ecommerce gift cards, mobile recharge vouchers, or game cards. “Bitcoin community is huge and it’s growing day by day. We are one of the few sites offering instant services to Bitcoiners,” says Venkat.

Ziddu is looking into an IPO on the NASDAQ.

Bollywood backing startups

Previously, Bachchan also invested in Stampede Capital, a BSE-listed financial technology firm promoted by Venkat. He holds 3.4 percent equity in the firm

His investment in Ziddu is the latest in a series of moves among Bollywood actors backing startups. Actor Salman Khan invested in online travel firm Yatra, Kunal Kapoor backed crowdfunding platform Ketto, Madhuri Dixit invested in fitness device Goqii, Sanjay Dutt and Ajay Devgan funded online ticketing site Ticketplease, and Shilpa Shetty invested in home buying site GroupHomeBuyers. BabyOye which is acquired by Mahindra Group had received funding from Karisma Kapoor.

Many have also claimed to launch their own firms. Neha Dhupia and Malaika Arora Khan launched ecommerce fashion stores HerStyle and Label Corp respectively. These are touted as their ventures, but they could be the brainchild of some other entrepreneur.

For the celebs, who have been investing in real estate across the world, participating in startup investments open up a new channel for parking their money. Besides that, these investments provide an opportunity for startups to take advantage of a celebrity’s large fan following and accelerate its growth at an early stage.

Most celebs have woken up to the startup boom, particularly in India’s ecommerce sector, due to the rising prominence of startups like Flipkart and Snapdeal.

(Source: Economic Times)