Going to the Moon
At Riya we have a dream to completely change how people search photos. One day, Riya will help you search and find every digital photo in the world. That day is far off, but today we got the investment we need to get there.
I'm announcing first here on my blog that Riya just raised $15MM from Bay Partners. There has been much speculation about the future of Riya. With this investment I dare say the future is to build a large new photo search company.
I talked earlier about Neil Sadaranganey and Neal Dempsey at Bay Partners here. I'm really glad to have them as investors. Already their steady hand during the last few months of rumors has earned my respect. You can really feel that Neal Dempsey has done this before and that Neil S is an up and coming great VC. Both are a class act and Riya is one of a new wave of consumer technology deals that Bay Partners will do in 2006.
Now back to the hard work to building a company. BTW we need to hire some absolute rockstars in Business Development, Finance (a Controller to mind the money), a Revenue Manager (CPC Advertising expert - if you have to ask what CPC is don't apply...;-), and a few additional researchers for our super smart Riya Labs which is now (unconfirmed) the largest team of computer vision Ph.Ds in any single company in the country.
Outstanding! Congratulations to the entire team.
Posted by: Michael Arrington | January 09, 2006 at 09:58 PM
Congrats Munjal!
Posted by: Robert Scoble | January 10, 2006 at 01:17 AM
Good timing! The deal should show that search is getting to be very hot area!
Posted by: Yakov | January 10, 2006 at 01:47 AM
Great stuff Munjal, good luck once again.
Posted by: Tejas Patel | January 10, 2006 at 03:31 AM
Look forward to downloading and trying Riya.
Posted by: Jie Kang | January 10, 2006 at 05:54 AM
Congratulations! Would love to speak if you have a moment.
Posted by: Adam Lindemann | January 10, 2006 at 06:35 AM
Congratulations Munjal,
I'm sure I'm not alone in wishing Riya all the success as you transition from "cool technology" to "sustainable business."
Posted by: Woodrow | January 10, 2006 at 07:13 AM
Congratulations!
Posted by: Dorrian | January 10, 2006 at 09:11 AM
Well done, my friend. Hats off to you and the entire Riya team...
Posted by: Joe Hurd | January 10, 2006 at 10:27 AM
Congratulations Munjal. Good luck for the future.
Posted by: Amit Agarwal | January 10, 2006 at 01:59 PM
Well done on getting involved in this space. Have you thought about using your technology in conjunction with cameraphones (rhetorical question I suspect)? I assume the resolution might present a problem but I would personally love to be able to take a pic of someone with my phone, send it off to Riya in an MMS, and get their contact information automatically if they consented - the end of business cards.
Posted by: Rod Hall | January 11, 2006 at 08:42 AM
Congrats and all the best.
cheers
satish
Posted by: satish | January 11, 2006 at 09:12 AM
Hi Munjal,
Success has many fathers, failure is a Orphan.
I am happy to see ur venture succeeding in getting repeat VC funding.
Good work and Good luck!
Madhu
Posted by: Madhu | January 11, 2006 at 10:03 PM
Dear Munjal,
I tried to post a comment already yesterday but it did not work, so I'm trying again.
Congrats for the round, I'm really happy that more money is being invested in Image Search and Image Recognition techs. Good for this market! We have been evangelizing for 5 years now, and your help in getting the public to know these technologies will be more than appreciated.
One comment if I may: I am not sure (as you sais it is unconfirmed) that your team of PhDs in Computer Vision is bigger than Microsoft's, Xerox PARC's, Kodak's, Canon's, Mitsubishi MERL's, and many others in the country. Maybe it will be soon with the new VC money ;-)
Good luck and enjoy the ride!
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Posted by: Kelly Miller | January 23, 2006 at 10:13 PM
Hi Munjal:
It's been a couple of years since we have communicated. I was previously the owner of andele.com. At a lunch we discussed my technology, now US Patent #6,748,327 that I am now trying to develop into a business. I am sure you are very busy but would like to talk to you about it.
Thanks,
Larry Watson
lwatson@andelecomputing.com
Posted by: Larry Watson | March 16, 2006 at 11:02 AM
Munjal
Are you aware of the fact that while your blog is accessible using any browser, the Riya.com website can NOT be accessed using MS Internet Explorer Ver 7 (Beta)?
Posted by: Nizani | July 18, 2006 at 12:48 PM