Incidentally, Shankar Iyer, chief executive officer and president of Silverline Technologies Inc of the US, is one of the members on the board of advisors of Cheecoo Networks. Shankar Iyer, is his personal capacity, has already put in an undisclosed amount to promote the site.

Although, Cheecoo Networks director Vikram Wagh declined to comment on the stake offering to Silverline, company insiders confirmed the move, saying: ``The start-up is in negotiations with leading venture capital funds and Silverline Technologies. A deal is likely to be signed within the next couple of weeks,'' they added.

Cheecoo's Wagh said the company had already invested funds raised through a private placement.But he declined to divulge details about the quantum of funds and the sources. Company sources said that the company was aiming an annual revenue of Rs 50 crore from advertisements in the first year of its operations.

Cheecoo is the country's first Internet service that offers users in India with free access to the Net through an Internet Service Provider (ISP) of their choice, services and personalised information. The Net service will be rolled out within a couple of weeks.

Cheecoo does not charge its members any registration, set-up fees or monthly subscription charges. For the purpose of registration, the customer using any Internet connection should log onto the www.cheecoo.com and follow the registration instructions. However, the free hours are limited to a maximum of 15 hours per month.

Wagh said when the member's credit reaches a minimum of 30 hours, the user can request Cheecoo Networks to pay the ISP so that the Internet account gets refreshed by an equal number of hours, Wagh said.

"Cheecoo Networks has initiated talks with several ISPs to buy Internet hours in bulk. The network can support Flash and Microsoft Agent technology. Later versions will also continue to support the then newest technologies available. Our proprietary back end software developed on industry-standard platforms provides marketers with unique targeting and reporting capabilities,'' Cheecoo Networks' Neepa Nair said.