-- A Successful Exit; Reinforces Early Stage Cross-border Strategy and Seed Investment Initiatives
SAN FRANCISCO, BEIJING and TAIPEI, Oct. 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- WI Harper Group ("WI Harper"), one of China's first venture capital firms with an exclusive focus on early and expansion stage technology companies, is excited to announce the acquisition of Flutter by Google. Flutter, founded in late 2010 by Navneet Dalal and Mehul Nariyawala, leverages computer vision matched with hand detection to allow users to control computers & mobile devices through simple hand gestures. Navneet is a machine vision enthusiast and technologist, with over 10 years of experience in computer vision. His thesis research on Histogram of Oriented Gradient is the de-facto standard in object detection for images & videos, receiving over 7,000 citations in the last 6 years.
"Our investment in Flutter is part of our early stage strategy to identify & back talented teams with strong technology and an incredible vision which has deep synergies with our extensive global network in the mobile ecosystem," said Peter Liu, Founder & Chairman of WI Harper Group. "We were delighted to invest alongside Andreessen Horowitz, NEA & Y-Combinator."
"Through our unique global partnership with Innovation Works, one of Beijing's first business creation platforms led by Dr. Kai-Fu Lee, and Taiwan Mobile Internet Labs, we were able to accurately predict trends ahead of the industry and leverage their knowledge & experience investing in seed stage companies in Silicon Valley," added Derrick Hsiang, Vice President, WI Harper Group. "We congratulate the Flutter team on a successful M&A in a short time frame."
"Entrepreneurs require different levels of assistance at every stage of growth," said Mehul Nariyawala. "Prior to raising funding, we had not heard much about WI Harper, but after meeting Peter and the team, we were impressed and realized the value they could deliver in U.S. and Greater China."
