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Morphues Venture Partners announce batch 3 with 10 more companies in their portfolio. Photo by: S P Hari

India’s very own Y-Combinator type company Morpheus Venture Partners (MVP) has grown one year old and how! They seem to have managed the global recession well and have now announced another 10 companies under their portfolio. A positive step seems to be that MVP has not taken up just pure technology companies but has selected a lot of them that need a strong offline presence. MVP now has 20 companies in its portfolio.

The uniqueness of this batch is the diversity of the startups – ranging from apparel, financial services, automotive, advertising, robotics & education domains. This is also a step away from the original YCombinator program that was the inspiration to MVP’s Partners and focuses largely on web-technology startups.

“India has a lot of unsolved problems that lead to large markets opportunities,” said Sameer Guglani, Founding Partner – MVP. “That’s the reason our portfolio is focused on domains like education, health, automotive, apparel, retail, advertising and financial services.”

The companies picked by MVP for their 3rd batch are:

1. Adscoot: Yet to launch, outdoor media startup, envisioning a new medium of advertising targeted at SMEs. Suyash, a 24 year old based out of Mumbai is envisioning a new medium of advertising – Ads on scooters. These are specially designed scooters that will run campaigns for its clients. AdScoot will target the SME segment that have few advertising options available to them and definitely none that are as clutter breaking as AdScoot.

2. Easy Square Feet: A full service real estate company, serving over 150 clients each month, with a mission to make the experience of renting / buying that all important SquareFeet ever so memorable! ESF is a full service real estate company. It aims to achieve this vision by professionalizing the real estate agent through the use of technology.

3. InterviewStreet: A beta platform that facilitates students’ preparation for their placement interviews via mock interviews for the companies they intend to work for. It expects employed people in companies to register with them on a pay per interview basis to interview candidates who wish to join that firm.

4. Naabo: Their flagship SaaS based product TurboDoc helps doctors manage their clinics & medical practice, and is used by more than hundred paid customers and growing. Currently TurboDoc has versions available for Ophthalmologists as well as Dentists and with presence in Bangalore only.

5. Picsean: Aims to be a comprehensive online and offline magazine rack, with content being aggregated from photographers – professional and amateur across the world! At an idea stage currently they are yet to launch. The first step is to create a thriving global community of photographers contributing. The next step is to monetize the submissions of that community through multiple channels the primary one an offline travel magazine.

6. ReachTax: Envisioned to be the H&R block of India, they help individuals and businesses manage their finances and taxes. 10% of Small Businesses based out of Chennai, India filed their annual tax returns via Reach Tax in the last financial year. Having established a significant base in Chennai ReachTax is on its way to all India glory! ReachTax has been featured by StartupNews before.

7. Retail Vector: A mystery shopping venture that aims to measure and help clients enhance  customer satisfaction by leveraging real shopper experiences! StartupNews hopes they have some good offerings for other startup companies!

8. RobotsAlive: With a dream to create a Robotics revolution in India; they make Robots and reach out to Education Institutes to use Robots to teach Robotics efficiently. Starting from the grass roots level – the first step of that revolution is to provide Indian Educational Institutes with a cost effective alternative to teach robotics. They provide the complete package i.e., the equipment, the curriculum, teaching support.

9. Scopial: A hi-fashion Apparel Company powered by a strong community of International Designers who showcase their designs via Scopial. The top rated designs are made into best quality tees. In the last 1yr of their existence they have already built a global community of designers spanning more than 15countries as well as vibrant participant base that votes and selects the winning designs. Scopial translates those designs on to high quality T shirts that make a statement. StartupNews.in got its hands on some of their T shirts and they are sure worth all their words.

10. VeriCAR: A used car verification and certification company started by two automobile geeks, with over 250 verifications and counting!  They also help in Sale / Purchase of used cars. At the core of VeriCar is a 200 parameter tool that assesses the value of any automobile.

We shall put up more about all the startups in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, here’s wishing MVP good luck for managing hectic time schedules and some sleepless nights. A new entrant to MVP’s family – Indus Khaitan joining as Partner in May 2009 seems to be a promising wizz that may add a lot of additional value for MVP and its portfolio companies. Indus is a technology evangelist and an entrepreneur with over 10 years of product, technology & operational experience in the Silicon Valley. Indus started Tejit which was acquired in May 2008. Most recently, Indus was Chief Technology Officer of SezWho (www.sezwho.com), a Silicon Valley startup which was sold to JS-Kit (www.js-kit.com) in Mar 2009. “We and all our portfolio companies are very excited to have Indus on board. He brings years of deep technology expertise, experience of building companies in the valley and his infectious passion for startups”, commented Nandini Hirianniah – Founding Partner, MVP

Hope the 20 portfolio companies and Indus hit a six with MVP and our next headline for them to be – Morpheus Venture Partners 10 a hit!