RadiumOne, with annual revenue of $100 m, plan to go public soon.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A business venture started by Gurbaksh Chahal is planning to make its Initial Public Offering (IPO) soon, despite the fact that its creator is fighting criminal charges.
The venture, RadiumOne, is a social advertising technology company, meaning that it uses analytics to determine the best ads for a particular startup, as well as how to target the best possible audience for those ads and the startup itself. Chahal is the CEO of the company, which reports close to $100 million in annual revenue. He founded it in 2009.
Chahal started the company by raising capital from Trinity Ventures, Crosslink Capital, and Adam Street Partners. The rest of the initial investment came from Chahal, who funded it through the money he accrued from selling some of his other ventures.
RadiumOne is apparently hoping to follow in the footsteps of other IT companies like Twitter, which also plans to go public soon. Combined with the performance of Facebook stock, which initially was considered a disaster but has now surpassed its IPO value, RadiumOne is looking to enter the marketplace since it also deals largely with social media and marketing.
Chahal, 31, was arrested in August under accusations of having beaten his girlfriend, by hitting and kicking her 117 times over a 30 minute period. The assault has allegedly been caught on tape by surveillance cameras in his home in Rincon Hills, San Francisco. He was charged with 47 counts of domestic abuse, to which he plead not guilty. He was released at the time on $1 million bail, and his passport has also been confiscated by the court.
A self-made millionaire, Chahal dropped out of high school at age 16 to create his first business venture, ClickAgents, which he later sold for $40 million in 2000. His next company, BlueLithium, was bought my Yahoo! in 2007 for $300 million, allegedly in cash. He then started RadiumOne.
All of his companies are involved in advertising, and his current company was recently valued at over $500 million. He received an honorary degree in commercial science from Pace University 2010, and was proclaimed one of the world’s richest and fittest men by Men’s Health magazine in 2011. The TV show “Extra” called him “America’s most eligible bachelor.” His personal net worth is said to be at least $200 million.