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Tandem funds Shoptimize, AcceptPay & PacketZoom

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V&D Bureau
New Update

India-based Shoptimize, and US-based AcceptPay and PacketZoom start ups get funding from a Silicon Valley-based mobile accelerator, Tandem. These three teams have been selected based on their entrepreneurial drive, the potential size of business and product execution capability.

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Shoptimize is a mobile commerce platform for traditional merchants in emerging markets. The Shoptimize team based in Pune has developed an innovative content-curation approach that generates and directs high potential consumer traffic to merchant sites. It is currently working with over 20 businesses outside the U.S., instantly making their products and services available on mobile devices to engaged consumers.

AcceptPay is a cash-on-delivery platform to support e-commerce in cash-centric economies. They have a core technology team in Silicon Valley with business operations that work closely with banks and merchants outside the U.S.

PacketZoom is a mobile content delivery network started by ex-Google engineers. They accelerate mobile application performance substantially across the last mile of mobile networks, substantially improving the user experience.

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This is the third fund from Tandem, the Habit Fund III. It will preserve the fund's focus on disruptive mobile products and platforms, and will concentrate on habit-forming businesses - those that have the potential to become an integral part of people's daily lives. It will also allow Tandem to bring its unique approach, called 'muscle capital,' to an increased number of early-stage startups.

Muscle capital delivers a combination of cash and strategic/operating support from seasoned company builders to Tandem company founders from the very beginning, substantially increasing the odds of success for Tandem's portfolio companies.

"We are very excited to launch Tandem Habit Fund III," said Rohit Bhagat, Tandem partner and managing general partner of the Habit Fund. "It allows us to scale Tandem's proven muscle capital approach and track record, and takes the model global, particularly focusing on regions that are rich in talent but lack a valley-like ecosystem," he added.

Previous Tandem companies include ZumoDrive (sold to Motorola), as well as Bash Gaming (the maker of social bingo app on the iPad) and PlayHaven (a gaming platform that powers habit-forming mobile games), two companies that are cumulatively generating well over $100 million in annual revenue. A recent Tandem company, Tile, has orchestrated the most successful self-managed crowdfunding campaign to-date, which has generated over $2.1 million in funding (100x its initial goal) with over 39,000 backers.

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