Re-imagine connected home entertainment.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: Mango Man Consumer Electronics, a Bengaluru-based startup that produces home entertainment hardware, has garnered $1.75 million in seed funding from Sequoia Capital and India Quotient Fund, according to a report released by TechCrunch.
With almost $2 million in funding raised so far, including the firm’s angel investment, Mango Man intends to use the injection of capital to further improve its current lineup of products, develop new hardware to be launched later this year, and expand its reach internationally, with Southeast Asia serving as the prime target.
The company, which currently employs 22 people, was founded in 2013 by Sai Srinivas Kiran G and Shubh Malhotra.
“The initial idea was to build something that would enable a user to play anything from anywhere on their televisions. This started with Teewe, and then our mission statement went on to include building more devices that will re-imagine connected home entertainment,” Srinivas told TechCrunch.
Teewe, an HDMI dongle, is Mango Man’s current flagship. It allows consumers to connect their computers and mobile devices to a television and is compatible with Android, iOS, Windows, Mac, Linux, and Chrome.
Srinivas claimed Teewe differentiates from competitors such as Google’s Chromecast by making it easier for users to stream content to their televisions that they have previously downloaded onto their PCs or mobile devices.
“Our focus is primarily on enabling users to watch content that they already have, instead of online streaming content because of the not-so-great Internet connection in India,” explained Srinivas.
Despite Chromecast being a direct competitor, Srinivas explained to TechCrunch that Teewe sales actually surged after Google’s media device launched in India last year due to the proliferation and increased awareness of HDMI dongles.
Mango Man is currently developing a product range focused on streaming music and home audio that will launch this summer, and is also working on another “connected home entertainment device,” slated to hit shelves at the end of the year.