Skip to main content

Posts

Showing posts from 2013

Can accelerator demo days become more data driven?

Stanford's Steve Blank believes that, with his methodology, VCs can do to start-up investments what Brad Pitt (in the movie Moneyball) did to baseball management. We focus on evidence and trajectory across the business model. Flashy demo days are great theater, but it’s not clear there’s a correlation between giving a great PowerPoint presentation and a two minute demo and building a successful business model. Rather than a product demo – we believe in a “Learning Demo”. We’ve found that “Lessons Learned” day showing what the teams learned along with the “metrics that matter” is a better fit than a Demo Day. “Lessons Learned” day allows us to directly assess the ability of the team to learn, pivot and move forward. Based on the “lessons learned” we generate an Investment Readiness Level metric that we can use as part of our “go” or “no-go” decision for funding. ...The collective wisdom of venture investors (including angel investors, and venture capitalists) over the past decade

Profile of Pune-based Realty Firm Vastushodh's Founder Sachin Kulkarni

From the ET profile: We were on a roll till 2008, signing several similar joint ventures for luxury construction projects, but then the recession resulted in losses worth Rs 1.5 crore. This is when we decided to reinvent and enter the affordable housing space. We found a good construction site close to Pune, which was available for Rs 3.5 crore.   At the time of signing the deal, we had no funds, so we requested the option to pay in instalments every quarter. The seller agreed on the condition that the first two instalments be paid upfront and we had to take a Rs 2 crore loan to facilitate this transaction. We also made the financier our partner. The AnandGram project was an instant success; we sold around 400 flats in two days. As a result, our profit in 2009 was around Rs 10 crore. We used the money to buy land and, since then, have purchased land blocks on the Pune-Solapur highway, Pune-Satara highway, Pune-Nashik road, and at Bhoisar near Mumbai. Venture Intell

Profile of Security and Intelligence Services founder R.K.Sinha

From the ET Profile The next milestone came three years later, when we learnt that Australia's largest security agency, Chubb Security, was up for sale. Its revenue was nearly four times that of ours, but we still decided to take a chance and buy it. The size of the deal was around $300 million. We had to sell 14% of our stake to D E Shaw, the New York-based hedge fund, to partly fund the acquisition. In the bargain, we became the first Indian multinational in the security services industry. Around this time, we also diversified into other verticals, such as housekeeping and electronic security systems. In August 2011, we signed a joint venture with Terminix, the world leader in pest management, to form one of India's largest pest control services company. Three months prior to this, we had a joint venture with Prosegur, South America's largest security services provider, to form one of India's biggest cash management services company. This was the f

The Man Behind Indian Private Equity's Favourite Bank

In Indian Private Equity circles, one often tends to hear of Rantakar Bank spoken of in almost fawning terms. Not surprising since, as the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database indicates, over a dozen Indian PE firms - from Aditya Birla Private Equity to TVS Capital - have invested $220 million into the Kolhapur, Maharashtra-based private sector bank. (With such a long list, the bank's PE register even includes two different funds sporting a Sanskrit and English variation of the same name: Elephant Capital and Gaja Capital!).   Economic Times has a profile of the man these investors are all betting on - Vishwavir Ahuja, Ratnakar's MD & CEO Ratnakar Bank who was formerly the India country head of Bank of America. Extracts: For the first six months, Ahuja, 53, camped out in Kolhapur, travelling from Mumbai by train and road to get there. He also faced resistance from staff who viewed him as an outsider and feared job losses. Ahuja had a plan to gain their trust

Deal Alert: Info Edge invests Rs 4.5 Cr in online photography firm Canvera; hikes stake to 26%

Info Edge, the company which runs job search portal Naukri.com, has invested an additional Rs 4.5 crore in Canvera Digital Technologies, a company that provides solutions to professional photographers through its portal canvera.com. Info Edge made the investment through optionally convertible cumulative redeemable preference shares. This new investment will increase Info Edge’s stake in Canvera to 26% and total Investment to Rs 42 crore.  Canvera, founded in October 2007, launched its service in July 2008 and raised funds from DFJ, Footprint ventures and Mumbai Angels. Canvera launched e-commerce and social platform for photographers in 2011. In August 2012, Info Edge had invested Rs 35 crore in Canvera for a 23% stake. Earlier this year, it increased the stake to 25% by increasing its investment to Rs. 37.5 crore. Source: Nextbigwhat.com   Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, ventu

Blow-by-Blow Accounts on Private Equity-Promoter Blowups

Economic Times has a roundup up of the various recent blowups between Indian promoters and their Private Equity investors. The article starts with how employees of Sagar Ratna restaurants - allegedly at the instigation of the former promoter - beat up the executives appointed by the PE investor (who is now in majority "control" of the company). The PE investor has accused the former promoter of violating his non-compete agreement and promoting a rival chain. The promoter has claimed that he has nothing to do with the new chain and has offered to buyback his stake in Sagar Ratna at a 25% discount to the price at which he sold his majority stake over two years ago. Extracts: The conflicts are, increasingly, becoming more acrimonious, even farcical, less professional and more personal. They are shining an ugly light on promoter quality and business practices, which were never of the highest order in India, and unfavourable regulations. "Promoters have used regulato

Deal Alert: Acumen, Dell Foundation invest in vocational education firm LabourNet

Bangalore-based LabourNet Services , a company that offers vocational training and services for informal sector workers, has raised funding from Acumen and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. The company has enabled livelihoods through training for over 50,000 people to date and plans to train over 125,000 workers annually. The company has earlier raised angel funding from Sankhya Capital and debt funding from NSDC.  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: IQ, 5ideas, Flipkart co-founder back shopping reco site operator Relevant E-Solutions

Relevant e-solutions Pvt. Ltd, which owns the fashion recommendation platform Roposo and gift recommendation platform giveter, has received its first round of funding from India Quotient, Startup Superfuel and Binny Bansal, co-founder of Flipkart.com. Giveter aims to bring relevance to users’ product discovery efforts for different situations based on taste, trends, and need while Roposo aims to re-define the way fashion is discovered. The core team of the firm includes Avinash Saxena, the ex-CTO of Zomato.com, Mayank Bhangadia and Kaushal Shubhank – all alumni of IIT Delhi.   Source: Yourstory.com   Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: Unitus Seed Fund, IAN back handicrafts e-marketplace GoCoop

Bangalore based online marketplace for co-operatives and community based enterprises GoCoop has raised funding from Indian Angel Network and impact investor Unitus Seed Fund . The IAN investment was led by member Nagaraja Prakasam. The company will use the funds raised to further develop its online platform and build out its marketing operations. Unitus Seed Fund was advised on the transaction by Unitus Capital and Impact Law Ventures.  Founded in 2011 by former Accenture executive Siva Devireddy, GoCoop is a marketplace for cooperatives and community-based enterprises to list and sell their produce online. The marketplace currently offers handicraft and handloom products and is primarily active in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. It also has a small presence in Odisha which it plans to grow in the next few months.  From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: Other VC-backed startups in handicrafts e-tailing include Shopo (acquired by Snapdeal), Industree and Craftsvilla.

Deal Alert: Unitus Seed Fund backs eye screening startup Welcare

Chennai-based eye screening starutp Welcare Health Systems has raised seed funding from impact investor Unitus Seed Fund. Welcare operates low cost screening services in existing health centers making them accessible to patients at high-risk for eye diseases.  The company is now looking to expand to other cities. To begin with, the company is targeting 60 million diabetics in India, who are at high risk of eye diseases.  Source: Nextbigwhat   Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: Gaurav Burman invests in Singapore-based Bitcoin exchange itBit

Dabur scion Gaurav Burman has invested in itBit, a Singapore-based Bitcoin exchange, and plans to bring the platform to India over a period of time. The exchange is building a global platform for trading in Bitcoins with US dollars, Singapore dollars and the euro with technology support from Nasdaq. The start-up has raised $3.25 million in its latest funding round, and $5.5 million in total, led by Canaan Partners and RRE Ventures with participation from Liberty City Ventures. Source: Times of India Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: Ennovent, Ankur Capital, others back Assam eye care chain ERC

Ennovent Impact Investment Holding and Ankur Capital along with Ennovent Circle members, Beyond Capital Fund and Sadeesh Raghavan closed an angel investment round in Assam-based eye care company, ERC Eye Care Pvt. Ltd (ERC) today. The investment in ERC is the second investment made by Ennovent’s Impact Investment Holding and also the third deal facilitated by the Ennovent Circle – an exclusive group that collaborates to accelerate innovations for low-income markets – since it’s launch in April 2012. According to the World Health Organization, 18.8% of Indians suffering from cataracts belong to the state of Assam. Founded by Guwahati based ophthalmologist, Dr.Parveez Ubed, ERC provides affordable, quality eye care to underserved communities in North East India through a hub and spoke model with vision centre's, satellite clinics and a hub hospital. ERC also offers primary medical services such as optical retail, pharmacy and consultation services. ERC's current setup includes

Deal Alert: Online art firm Springr gets seed capital from TiE-Kerala

Springr, a Kerala based start-up platform for Art, today received an angel funding of Rs 3.5 lakh from TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) Kerala in the form of an interest-free loan. This is said to be the first startup project to officially receive TiE funding. The one year-old startup is planning a community based Art project. Springr is also raising funds for the Malayalam movie 'Oraalpokkam' through the crowdfunding route.  Springr converted about 10,000 square feet space in a 100-year-old spice warehouse at Mattancherry for setting up a Music Recording Studio, Artists Residency and Events venue.  Source: Financial Chronicle   Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: Moody’s buys KPO Amba Research; deal size estimated at $90-M

Global credit rating agency Moody's has acquired knowledge process outsourcing (KPO) services firm Amba Investment Services which provides investment research and quantitative analytics for global financial institutions. Post-acquisition, Amba will operate as part of Copal Partners, Moody’s Analytics majority-owned subsidiary. Avendus Capital was the sole financial advisor to Amba for this transaction. Amba is expecting to generate close to $39 million in revenues in 2013.  Based on this, media reports estimate Moody’s to have paid between $80-100 million towards this acquisition. Amba was founded in 2003 by four senior executives from Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank, and JP Morgan Andrew Houston, Mohan Alexander, Brad West, and Anand Aithal. It has around 1,000 employees with delivery centres located in Costa Rica, India and Sri Lanka.  From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: In 2007, Amba had raised $10 million from Helion Venture Partners. Source: Press R

Deal Alert: IDG Ventures leads Rs.21-Cr second round for financial data firm Heckyl

Financial data analytics startup Heckyl Technologies has raised a second round of funding led by IDG Ventures India. The Mumbai-based company will receive INR 21 crore with participation from existing investor Seedfund and angel investor Rajiv Dalal. Venkatesh Peddi, vice-president at IDG, joins Paula Mariwala of Seedfund on the board of Heckyl.  The company, founded by four former Merrill Lynch executives in 2010, provides a real-time news and data analytics platform for traders and brokerages.  Source: Times of India   Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: Unilazer to lead Rs.36-Cr in lingerie e-tailer Zivame: report

UTV founder and entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala's Unilazer Ventures is leading a $6 million, or Rs 36 crore, investment into Bangalore-based Zivame , a lingerie e-commerce startup. Existing investors too are participating in this round. The latest funding would be deployed to bolster technology backbone - to improve personalization, recommendations and visual merchandising - as well as marketing to get more tier II women buy online.  Zivame has now raised $9 million including $3 million from IDG and Kalaari Capital in January this year.  Source: Times of India Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: Villgro invests in three social enterprises – OneBreath, Ecozen Solutions and Artoo

Social enterprise incubator Villgr o has invested in three companies – OneBreath, Ecozen Solutions and Artoo.  OneBreath , co-founded by Vijay Simha, Matthew Callaghan and Bryan Loomas, is a medical device company that is developing an innovative low-cost mechanical ventilator intended to improve acute ICU care for patients across all communities. Ecozen Solutions , founded by IIT Kharagpur alumni Devendra Gupta, Prateek Singhal and Vivek Pandey, is a renewable energy company, focusing agriculture and rural communities. Ecofrost Technologies , an affiliate of Ecozen, is working on a solar micro cold storage system. Artoo, founded by entrepreneurs Sameer Segal and Indus Chadha, has developed an Android and Cloud-based platform that allows financial institutions to take all field processes online and track their business with real-time input.  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity,

Deal Alert: DSG Consumer invests in ethnic snack maker Tierra Food: report

Singapore-based venture capital fund, DSG Consumer Partners, has invested in Tierra Food India Pvt Ltd , a food processing and ethnic snack food company based out of Kochi. Tierra would utilise the funds to expand sales network, increase consumer promotion spends, introduce innovative products and for market research and development. The company has launched its products in select cities of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andaman in May 2013 and has a retail outlet network of 30,000 in Kerala, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. It has planned an investment of Rs 10 crore in the next 12 months.  Source: Business Standard   Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: Nine Indian startups in Startup Chile’s latest batch

Start-Up Chile, the start-up accelerator run by the Chilean government, has announced the list of selected startups for its 9th batch and Indian startups account for 9% of the list. The Indian startups in the selected group include:  Field Assist – a secondary sales automation solution that monitors performance of salesmen on a real time basis using QR Technology.  ReportGarden - helps users create reports using their WYISWYG editor.  TeliportMe - an Android app, that lets users explore places through images and panoramas taken by other users.  TechChamp – start-ups would be able to reach out to their early adopters and evangelists using TechChamp.  TommyJams - aims to provide venues and performance spaces for artistes from across the world in India.  TAO Education - uses open source content to help users with personalized learning.  Zestbuds - A food discovery and restaurant review app for mobile devices. Etyacol - a mobile app development start

Why NEN's Srikrishna wants Indian entrepreneurs to stop reading Techcrunch

From Srikrishna's blog post (emphasis mine)     Every time I hear an entrepreneur in India tell me “It’s Angel List meets GitHub” I try not to grimace...Silicon Valley, even within the context of the United State is in many ways unique – and unlike anything in India...Many of their assumptions are not grounded in the reality of today’s India – may not even in today’s America. All they see is that a startup to sell tampons online raised $250K with just an idea on a napkin. Or Pinterest raised whatever astronomical amount of money without any real monetization strategy and Fred Wilson invested in Zemanta (who’d by then acquired a million downloads) even whilst acknowledging that none of them were clear how they’d make money.     The reality of the Indian entrepreneurial ecosystem is that we are yet to see more than one turn or “generation” of tech entrepreneurs. A large amount of money is following very few quality deals. The VCs are acting as PE players would elsewhere. Angel g

Deal Alert: Lightspeed invests $550-K in mobile spam blocker maker Phone Warrior

Lightspeed Venture Partners has invested $550k in New Delhi -based start-up Phone Warrior, an application that blocks spam calls and text messages on the mobile. Founded in 2012 by Chandan Gupta and Vaibhav Padlikar, Phone Warrior claims to have a user base of a million across the globe and the funding will be used to market the product further. It competes with services like Truecaller.  Source: Yourstory.com Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: ah! Ventures invests in uFaber Edutech

Mumbai-based online education marketplace uFaber Edutech has raised Rs 37 lakhs in funding from ah! Seeders, the seed investment network of Club ah! uFaber lists courses on professional skill-development, hobbies, crafts, academics as well as vocational courses for students to build on their skills. Users can learn from individual resources, engage one on one with experts, participate in projects and courses with them and interact with peers.  Source: Nextbigwhat.com   Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: Matrix Partners India invests in TechMed

Matrix Partners India today announced that it has picked up significant minority stake in TechMed, a Hospital Lab Management (HLM) pathology chain based out of Chennai. TechMed has partnered with hospitals across South India to provide testing services for patients within hospital premises. Each HLM center in the hospital is supported by a proximate state-of-the-art mother center to provide results for a wide array of tests quickly. Dr. T.G. Rajaramanan, a general surgeon, started Techmed in 2009. “As a budding surgeon, I saw that getting reliable tests quickly at the hospital doorstep is a hassle. In addition, retaining manpower was tough, and training them tougher. Hospitals mostly outsourced high-end tests affecting both commercials and turnaround time. My desire to find a commercial, operationally viable solution led me to the HLM model. Joining hands with Matrix Partners India is an important milestone in our journey”, said Dr. T.G. Rajaramanan, Founder and Managing Director

Deal Alert: Matrix Partners India invests in Traffline

Matrix Partners India today announced that it has invested in the first institutional round of funding for Birds Eye Systems Private Limited, which offers real-time traffic and travel information for Indian cities through a variety of mobile and internet channels under the Traffline brand.  Brijraj Vaghani, the co-founder and CEO, has extensive experience in the mobile sector with Qualcomm and Nextwave Wireless in the US, before moving back to India and starting Birds Eye Systems. His co-founder and CTO, Ravi Khemani, has worked previously with careerbuilder.com in the US and Sears International in India. “Getting access to accurate and real-time traffic, travel and local information is a large problem for millions of Indian commuters in major cities. We want to address this problem using an approach tailored to Indian ethos and travel conditions. We partner with private players, government, police, public transport utilities and our users to ensure that information is real-t

Deal Alert: ASAPP Media acquires B2B magazine IPF Online

Mumbai-based ASAPP Media Information Group, a B2B media & information group, has acquired the entire shareholding of IPFOnline Limited and along with it the entire print and online business of the company. The deal involves acquisition of the stake held by IPF Online's founder and publisher RV Pandit besides equity investors IL&FS Investment Management (IIML) and HDFC.   Indus Advisors acted as the financial advisor to the sellers while BDO India acted as the financial advisor to the buyer.  From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: In August 1999, IIML had invested in IPF Online.  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: Triodos invests Rs.50-Cr in MFI Grameen Koota via NCDs

Microfinance firm Grameen Financial Services Private Limited (GFSPL), better known as Grameen Koota, has received Rs.50 crore through listed non-convertible debentures (NCDs) from Triodos Fair Share Fund and Triodos Microfinance funds managed by Triodos Investment Management. Grameen Koota’s total NCD outstanding now stands at about Rs.131.90 crore. Bangalore-based GFSPL began in the 1990s as an NGO and became a Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC-MFI) under its present name.  Source: apnnews.com   Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: Info Edge hikes stake in Meritnation.com to over 50% with addl Rs 10-Cr investment

Applect Learning Systems, which runs the e-learning site MeritNation, has raised Rs 10 crore investment from Info Edge (India), the publicly listed firm which runs online classifieds web sites including Naukri.com. The investment is likely to be used for brand building, updating content and expansion of the sales team. With this investment, Info Edge has invested around Rs 71.5 crore into Applect across five different rounds – a Rs 6.5 crore round in July 2008, Rs 5 crore round in May 2010, Rs 20 crore round in September 2011, Rs 30 crore round in February 2013 and a Rs 10 crore round now. It currently owns 55.81% stake in Applect, up from around 54% stake it owned in February 2013 after the Rs 30 crore investment round. MeritNation caters to K-12 students across various state educational boards as well as pan-India boards such as CBSE and ICSE. It also helps students prepare for entrance exams such as JEE. The portal had reported operating revenues of Rs 9.82 crore for the finan

Deal Post: Photography start-up Flatpebble raises funding

Hyderabad-based photography start-up Flatpebble has raised funding from angel investors including Raghu Bathina, Lax Gopisetty of Hyderabad Angels, Ram Jayam and Sitaram Banda. Flatpebble, owned by TechClove Technologies, offers a platform where one could hire the services of a photographer on the web. The company claims to have facilitated nearly 185 jobs for photographers across 75 cities. About Rs 90 lakh has been transacted on the site. The company now covers 175 cities in India with over 800 portfolios. The funding will be used to acquire new customers, improve the product and expand the team. Source: NextBigWhat.com Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: Wipro to acquire US-based mortgage risk mgmt firm Opus CMC for $75-M

Listed IT services firm Wipro is to acquire US-based mortgage due diligence and risk management service provider Opus CMC (Opus Capital Markets Consultants) for $75 million (Rs 465 crore). The amount includes a deferred earn-out component. Portico Capital Securities served as the exclusive financial advisor to Opus CMC with respect to this transaction.  Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Lincolnshire, Illinois, Opus CMC provides comprehensive risk management solutions to the mortgage industry in the US. It offers loan level due diligence, valuation support, forensic analysis, and advisory services on all classes of mortgage products, residential and commercial ranging from re-underwriting whole loans to collateral reviews of securitized pools. Its customers include top global banks, mortgage conduits, mortgage investors, and independent mortgage originators. It has over 490 employees, including over 315 loan underwriters, spread across 5 centers in the US.  Venture Intelligen

Deal Alert: Accel, Kae Capital invest $500-K in Eventifier

Eventifier, an 18 month-old startup that provides event archiving service, has secured an investment of $500,000 from Accel Partners and KAE Capital. Founded by Jazeel Badur Ferry, Nazim Zeeshan and Mohammed Saud from Mangalore in June 2012, Eventifier is a social media content aggregator tool, which enables event organizers and attendees to get a quick glimpse of all audience-generated social media content related to an event. It has grown to archive more than 2,000 events across the world. The firm’s client list includes Clinton Foundation, Pearson, WWW Conference, NASA and Twitter. The company will use the funds to scale up marketing and sales and also implement analytics for creating better reports. Source: Times of India Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal D

Deal Alert: Accel, Ventureast invest Rs.48-Cr for 30% in K.Ganesh’s in-home healthcare firm Portea

Accel Partners and Ventureast have together acquired 30% stake in Portea Medical, a tech-enabled, in-home healthcare services company, majority-owned by serial entrepreneur duo Krishnan Ganesh and Meena Ganesh. Accel and Ventureast will invest Rs.48 crore ($8 million) split equally in the company. Portea, targeted at a senior citizens and undertakes more than 2,000 home visits in Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai at present. It will expand operations to Hyderabad, Chandigarh and Pune. It has over 150 doctors, nurses and physiotherapists on rolls. Source: Times of India Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Rajiv Bajaj, The Maverick Scion

From the Business Today cover story profile of the Bajaj Auto Managing Director in the context of Bajaj Auto's plans to launch a controversial Quadricyle: The company had already proved itself to be an outlier by not taking on an equity partner who would feed it technology. Each of its rivals had one. Hero and Kinetic had Honda, TVS had Suzuki, Escorts had Yamaha and LML had Piaggio. Bajaj had Kawasaki, but only as a technology supplier, with no equity. "Not having an equity partner that provided the technology, such as Honda for Hero, gave us the opportunity to learn. What we got was technical drawings from Kawasaki. The process, the why and the how, and the manufacturing were not transferred completely from Kawasaki. We made mistakes, but we learned," says Joe.... By the turn of the century, Bajaj began to become self-reliant in technology. The last motorcycle it built with Kawasaki's technology was the Eliminator in 1999. ...The well wishers of In

Startup Events Galore

From a Business Today article on the phenomenon : Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: RVCF, IvyCap join existing investor IDG in follow-on funding for security tech firm Aujas

Information risk management services company, Aujas Networks has raised Series B funding from Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund (RVCF), IvyCap Ventures and existing investor IDG Ventures India. Girish Gupta of RVCF and Vikram Gupta of IvyCap Ventures will join the company’s board. The current investment will be used to fuel organic growth.  Aujas, founded in 2008 was incubated by IDG ventures through an Entrepreneur in Residence program. The company now has presence in India, Middle East and the United States and serves customers in the banking and telecom sector. Aujas also works with the government on cyber security. Nearly half of the company’s business comes from the United States and Middle East. Aujas currently employs 180 people.  Source: Press Release   Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our p

Deal Alert: Freshdesk raises $7-M funding from Accel Partners, Tiger Global

Chennai-based online customer support and helpdesk solution company Freshdesk has raised $6.99 million from venture capital firm Accel Partners and Tiger Global in a fresh round of funding. From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: In November 2011, Accel India had invested $1 million and in April 2012 Tiger Global and Accel India had invested $5 million in Freshdesk  Source: NextBigWhat.com   Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: Omnivore buys minority stake in aquaculture diagnostics equipment firm Eruvaka

Agri-business focused Investment firm Omnivore Partners has bought a minority stake in Eruvaka Technologies Pvt. Ltd, a Vijayawada-based maker of diagnostic equipment for aquaculture farmers. Eruvaka Technologies, founded last year, has developed a solar-powered product that integrates sensors, mobile connectivity and decision-making tools to monitor aquatic farms. The product allows shrimp and fish farmers to monitor their ponds and remotely control automated equipment such as aerators and feeders thus reducing cultivation risk.  Source: Mint Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: Experifun, Sudiksha receive seed funding from Edupreneurs

Education start-ups Experifun and Sudiksha Knowledge Solutions have been selected for seed funding in the inaugural ‘Edupreneurs’ programme, a partnership of Pearson and Village Capital.  Led by a team of alumni from the IIT and IIM (A), Experifun helps science teachers bring their subject to life by providing them with kits and activities to conduct classroom experiments. Designed in its R&D lab in Bangalore, Experifun products are patentable, affordable and suited to both urban and rural schools.  Sudiksha operates pre-schools in underprivileged urban neighbourhoods through an innovative model that recruits local women to run branches under an incentivised profit sharing scheme.  Source: Newswiretoday.com   Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest

Deal Alert: KKR invests $200-M in Gland Pharma

Gland Pharma Limited ("Company" or "Gland Pharma"), a leading Indian pure-play generic injectable pharmaceutical products company, today announced an agreement under which KKR, a leading global investment firm, will acquire a minority stake in the Company for approximately US$200 million, including KKR's acquisition of the entire stake held by Evolvence India Life Sciences Fund ("EILSF"), an existing private equity investor in Gland Pharma.  Established in 1978 and based in Hyderabad, Gland Pharma develops and manufactures generic injectables primarily for the US market, and also for India and other semi-regulated markets. In 2003, Gland Pharma was the first company in India to get US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for pharmaceutical liquid injectable products. Gland Pharma has also pioneered pre-filled syringe technology in India and exports products in this format to the US market. Having pioneered Heparin technology in India, Glan

Deal Alert: SVB releases report on Indian angel investments

Silicon Valley Bank has released the India Halo report providing a snapshot of investments made by angel groups in India from 2005 to 2012. The report shows that the Median Angel Round Size in India is Rs.1.52 crore (compared to about Rs.3.72 crore in the US). The Pre-Money Valuations in pre-Series A rounds is Rs.10 crore in India (compared to Rs.15.5 crore in the US). The report also provides a split up of angel investments by City (Mumbai and Bangalore accounting for about a quarter share of the pie each) and by sector (IT & ITES and Telecom/Mobile related sector accounting for more than 65% of the pie; followed by Manufacturing at 9%, Education at 7.9% and Life Sciences at 7.3% )  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most

Zomato investment signals ascent of Corporate VCs in India?

In the context of online restaurants review service Zomato raising about $20M with revenues of less than $2M, seed investment specialist Anand Lunia has a quora post on how corporate VCs (like Naukri, One97, etc) have more " courage, belief and patience" to take such leaps of faith than pure commercial VCs. Extract: That a large proportion of Consumer Internet companies, at least in the past, have been funded by Corporate Investors. Perhaps regular VCs have preferred topline first businesses like restaurants, healthcare chains, pharma manufacturing (!). The early stage VCs in India have done a decent job, however, of following these corporate nurtured ventures  with Series B/C investments, in a slightly herd like behaviour (the way everybody queued up recently for a certain on-line fashion co was funny.) ...The operating word for the failed ones was 'revenue'. The operating word for the successful ones was Product and Usage. Revenue is the best strateg

Deal Alert: Education content firm InOpen raises funds from Japan’s Benesse Holdings

InOpen Technologies, an education content company incubated in Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay (IIT-B), has raised a strategic investment in return for a small minority stake from Japanese education firm Benesse Holdings. Benesse has made this investment from the Benesse Social Investment Facility (BSIF), which invests in companies focused on solving social issues in education, child care and other related fields in emerging Asian countries and Japan. InOpen is the first investee of BSIF. InOpen and Benesse will collaborate to jointly develop products for the global education market, starting with the USA and Japan. Unitus Capital advised the company on this transaction. InOpen is also looking to attract an investment from a financial and/or impact investor.  In August 2011, venture capital firm Ventureast had invested $500,000 in a seed round for a minority stake in InOpen. Co-founded by Rupesh Kumar Shah and Dr Sridhar Iyer in 2009, InOpen's flagship product is ‘Com

Deal Alert: Rajan Anandan invests in online food ordering service TravelKhana

Google India head Rajan Anandan has acquired minority stake in TravelKhana , an online food delivery service for railway passengers. Anandan and associates of Pushpinder Singh, chief executive of New Delhi-based Duronto Technologies Pvt Ltd, which owned and operated TravelKhana, have together invested about Rs 3 crore in Travelkhana. In October, Duronto Technologies had raised an undisclosed amount from Palaash Ventures.  Source: Business Standard   Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: First Light invests in pre-school chain Sudiksha

Sudiksha Knowledge Solutions , which runs 22 pre-schools in and around Hyderabad, has attracted an investment from US-based First Light Investment. Sudiksha works mostly in slums and among low-income communities with 600-odd students. From the Venture Intelligence Social VC Investments database: In Nov-12, Sudiksha had raised capital from Impact Circle.  Source: Business Standard   Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Deal Alert: Trivone Digital acquires Godot Media

Trivone Digital Services, a digital media and content company backed by Accel Partners, has acquired Bangalore-based content services company Godot Media. Trivone will now use services offered by Godot Media such as article and blog writing, copyright and SEO services, apart from handling social media accounts for clients to expand its offering. Godot is self funded and includes companies such as ING, Sotheyby’s and Slide.ly among others as clients.  Source: MediaNama Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Entrevista with Cosmic Circuits Founder Ganapathy Subramaniam

Cross posted from the Entrevista Blog Interview with Ganapathy Subramaniam, Founding-CEO of Bangalore-based semiconductor tech company Cosmic Circuits. (Cosmic was acquired in early 2013 by Silicon Valley-based, Nasdaq-listed electronic design giant Cadence.) The interviewer is fellow entrepreneur Chandu Nair. The Podcast can be downloaded from here . (Use Right Click > Save As to save the file to your desktop) Highlights Reading the Wind How Ganapathy, as part of visiting customers in October 2012, realized that Cosmic Circuits could no longer remain an independent company. (Its customers and partners wanted a strong Number 2 player in the segment to provide a balance to the Number 1 player, Synopsis.)  Making the company Due Diligence ready How Cosmic's decisions to rope in a Big 4 audit firm (just five years into its existence) and go in for an ISO certification, stood it in good stead when it came to due diligence at the time of its acquisition.