MUMBAI: Online and digital marketing agency id8Labs is planning to raise upto $ 6-8 million through private equity in the next three months.

id8Labs managing director Amit Tripathi said, “We have appointed Viedea Capital Advisors to assist us in our fund raising plans. We are currently in talks with some private equity firms in India and USA and hope to conclude the deal by June. We plan to raise USD 6-8 million in the first phase to expand our franchise in Indian and global markets through offices in Dubai, Singapore and Philadelphia.”

id8 Labs, with currently more than 100 employees on board, plans to double its workforce to 200 professionals in FY09.

Viedea Capital Advisors, Bangalore-based boutique investment bank, focuses on early and growth stage companies, especially in areas such as Mobile VAS, Internet, Retail, IT/ITES and Life Sciences.  

“In our first year of operations, we have grown the business franchise to $9 million through acquisitions and consolidation of businesses of other Netweb Solutions group companies. Post consolidation, id8 Labs is now India’s first fully integrated online and digital media agency offering proprietary research, online creative and content solutions, search engine marketing, media solutions along with behavioral targeting and CRM,” Tripathi added.

Tripathi, founder of NetWeb Solutions, had earlier acquired 51% stake of Percept Holdings in WebPercept on 29 March, 2007 and re-christened it id8Labs. Tripathi has co-founded WebPercept as a 51:49 joint venture in the early days of the dot-com era in 1999-2000.

Later in October 2007, id8Labs also acquired the business franchise of eDesign Tree Inc in India and launched id8Labs Global in association with eDesign Tree in the USA. eDesign Tree co-founder Amit Shrivastava has taken over as CEO id8labs Global.