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Is there Any Downside to Active Entrepreneurs Making Angel Investments?

In an article titled "The Curious Case of Entrepreneur-Angels" , Santosh Sreedhar of Avalon Consulting and Neeraj Gupta of Excubator explore whether the founders Flipkart, SnapDeal, CommonFloor, etc. should be turning Angel Investors "even as their core venture has still not turned around profits". Extracts: However, there are a few who believe the trend should not be encouraged as it distracts the entrepreneur from the core business, which in many cases is still not profitable. They feel that even though some of these entrepreneurs have “made money”, many are still to prove their capability to “build businesses”. As one leading VC put it - “Its not a business if its not profitable”. They argue that such investments are bound to distract the entrepreneurs from focusing on turning their core business profitable. Putting a clause in the term sheets restricting entrepreneur investments in outside ventures is not a norm in India or elsewhere. However, disclosu

What went wrong at Avigo Capital? An Analysis of the Firm's Portfolio

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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Dr. Lal Pathlabs Signs off a Good Year for Private Equity-Backed IPOs

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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Why Does India Celebrate Rahul Yadav?

The reason, according to Sumanth Raghavendra - in his post titled " Why a prize idiot like Rahul Yadav is precisely the kind of startup hero India deserves…and exactly the opposite of the one it needs " - is our "obsession with funding". First a quick extract from Sumanth's post : Despite all the buzz around India having arrived as a hot startup destination, there have been precious few aspirational startup exemplars since the halcyon days of  Sabeer Bhatia and Narayan Murthy. A false dawn if ever there was one… Equally tragic is the fact that folks who could potentially be startup heroes—a Sachin Bansal or a Vijay Shekhar Sharma—seem to be idols with feet of clay…either backing the likes of Rahul Yadav with angel investment to continue this cringe-worthy charade of faux startup-ism or needing him to fill seats at their own events. How I wish the media highlighted the story of a Santosh Panda who has diligently persevered to build Explara over sever

Startup Failures of 2015

Techinasia has rounded up a list of 11 startups that gave up in 2015. The list includes From Foodtech: Dazo Investors: Rajan Anandan of Google, Amit Agarwal of Amazon, Kunal Shah of FreeCharge and Founders of CommonFloor, TaxiForSure, and Yo China. Spoonjoy Investors: SAIF Partners; Sachin Bansal of Flipkart From E-Commerce: DoneByNone Investors: Seedfund From HR Tech: TalentPad Investors: Helion Ventures From Hyperlocal: Townrush Investors: Lightspeed Ventures From IoT: Lumos Interestingly, Yash Kotak, a co-founder of Lumos, has published a detailed article in YourStory  listing "7 Reasons Why My IOT Startup Failed". 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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Private Equity Exits Via Public Markets on the Rise

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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Private Equity Investments Down For The Fourth Straight Month

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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Why do Bill Gurley & Jason Fried Hate Unicorns?

Silicon Valley VC and Benchmark Capital partner Bill Gurley has been calling a bubble for a couple of years now. Gurley explains why he is so concerned with bubbles in his latest interview to Technology Review magazine: Great entrepreneurs are relatively disadvantaged in these markets where so much capital is available. In a market where capital is hard to come by, they can still raise money. In this market, they can raise a ton of money, but so can a lot of [less capable] competitors that wouldn’t be in business otherwise.  ...Imagine two companies. One is told, “I want you to get to $100 million in revenue and you have to be profitable when you get there.” The other is told, “I want you to get to $100 million in revenue and I don’t care if you lose $40 million getting there.” Which of those two exercises is harder, and by how much? I would argue it’s at least 10 times harder to do the first. Until you can prove that you can generate cash flow, you don’t have a sustainable busin

Businessworld article on Startup Acquisitions

Businessworld has an article based on Venture Intelligence data on VC-backed startups acquiring their peers. 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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Why won't NSE & BSE eat their own dog food - aka become listed entities themselves?

The Firm show on  CNBC-TV18 has a report enquiring into why the leading Indian stock exchanges - BSE and NSE - haven't gone public themselves - especially after raising Private Equity capital with a clear understanding that such investors would seek profitable exits within a few years. With no revert from SEBI on clearances for the exchange IPOs, the PE investors in these exchanges have written to the Finance Minister and speak openly about their frustration. View the report video here  and  text version here . Extracts: Sohil Chand, MD, NVP India: “I think what is important is to see what has happened to the multiple and the Rs 3,950 represents a multiple of only 14 times trailing earnings. When we look at comparable stock exchanges, the listed stock exchanges whether it is Hong Kong or Singapore or other comparable markets, they traded 30 times forward earnings. So, in our estimate the NSE right now, the private markets are undervaluing it by 50 percent.” ...“The list

VC-backed Startups Solving Exit Problem?

Economic Times has an infographic based on Venture Intelligence data on the phenomenon of VC-backed startups acquiring their peers. The Venture Intelligence infographic on the same 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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

How Many E-Tailers Will Remain Standing by Diwali 2016?

Alok Goyal of SAIF Partners (and prior to that CEO of FreeCharge and redBus) writes in Economic Times : According to various industry sources, the total burn rate across the top 10 ecommerce players appears to be ~$9 million per day...If we were to assume a year-on-year growth of 150%, by next Diwali, the top 10 companies would need about $22 million per day to sustain business with the current unit economics. That means companies will burn about $6 billion to sustain the current trend until next Diwali.   There are hardly any investors out there who can support that pace of cash burn.  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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

TinyOwl Tamasha Triggers Advise Avalanche

A lot of pontification is flying around for TinyOwl, the food ordering startup that's landed in big trouble - much like the other young IIT Bombay alumni founded startup Housing.com. (Prior to the latest " layoffs triggered hostage crisis " at the company, one had noticed TinyOwl - apart from its remarkable back-to-back funding announcements - mainly for  a tweet on how, between cash backs from it and Paytm, one could get paid to eat!) Arvind K. Singhal, Chairman and MD of retail consulting firm Technopak, has used the goings on at TinyOwl, to ring the death-knell for startups across categories. "These incidents highlight some bitter realities about the Indian startup ecosystem, which have so far been overshadowed by the multi-billion dollar valuations of a handful of companies, and the multi-million dollar funding rounds they have done. I believe that such ugly incidents are in store for several other companies in India’s fledgling startup ecosystem. In fact, t

CanBank Venture Capital Fund to manage Government of India's Electronics Development Fund

From the Press Release: As part of  Digital India Agenda, Government of India it  is envisaged to develop the Electronic System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) and IT Sector to achieve net zero imports by 2020. As part of this initiative, Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), Ministry of  Communication and Information  Technology, Government of India has appointed CanBank Venture Capital Fund Limited (CVCFL)  as Fund Manager to house and manage  the Electronics Development Fund (EDF). EDF as a “Fund-of-Fund” shall participate in “Daughter Funds” which in turn will provide risk capital to companies developing new technologies in the area of Electronics, Nano Electronics & Information Technology. The corpus of the EDF could be up to Rs.2,200 crore  to be committed  in select Daughter Funds by March 31, 2017.  CVCFL organized a pre- launch event -Symposium on Electronics Development Fund in Mumbai (on November 5, 2015) for announcing the EDF to Angel/V

Why Uber is Not Going to Stop Anyone (in India) from Owning A Car Anytime Soon

Deepak Shenoy of Capital Mind has an interesting post on MediaNam a titled "The Economics of Using Uber in India". Extracts: Uber advertises its lowest fare in Bangalore at Rs. 7 per km charge but that is utter bull. For an average 10 km ride in the city, it costs much more: a Rs. 35 base charge that has no free usage, which would be Rs. 3.5 per km. Rs. 7 per kilometer run Rs. 1 per minute as a driver fee. For an average of 3 minutes per kilometer this comes to Rs. 3 per km. These add up to Rs. 13.5 per kilometer. That’s how much you pay for an auto as well. ...The annual costs of a car are tiny nowadays (Rs. 1 per kilometer, assuming Rs. 12,000 service costs for Rs. 12,000 driven). So if my car gives me 12 kms to a liter of petrol, i’m still paying just Rs. 5.5 per km for petrol and Rs. 1 for parking. Add to this the convenience of owning a car, the ability to get groceries from hypermarkets that can’t or won’t deliver, the ability to drive your kids to a location

Why Private Equity Investors are Very Hungry!

If Venture Capital (VC) investors are busy chasing Internet & Mobile companies, how are their Private Equity cousins keeping busy? Some of them at least are gobbling up food businesses: 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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

VC Firm Ventureast invites Pitches via Twitter!

Ventureast brings to you “The 160 character Pitch” challenge. If you are an entrepreneur looking to get your start-up funded, or have a disruptive business idea, pitch to us in ONE TWEET! Remember to tag us with @Ventureast. If your’s is among the best entries selected, you will be invited for a private chat with the Ventureast team at the upcoming TiECON Chennai 2015. For more details about this challenge, please visit our website .

Surge in Early Stage deals powers Venture Capital investments to all time high

Early Stage investments cross $1-B mark for first time; Internet & Mobile Cos continue to rule the roost  In just the first nine months of 2015, Venture Capital investments in India – at 323 deals worth $1,438 million - have crossed the previous historical high of 2014 (which had witnessed 304 investments worth $1,170 million across the entire year), according to data from Venture Intelligence  , a research service focused on private company financials, transactions and their valuations. (Venture Intelligence classifies Venture Capital as first to fourth round of investments of not more than $20 million each by financial investors into companies not more than 10 years old.) Venture Capital firms invested $536 million over 111 deals in India during the three months ending September 2015 – again record figures for a single quarter, the Venture Intelligence analysis showed. The investment activity during Q3’15 was 41% higher compared to the same period in 2014 (which had witness

What's Up with the Canaan India Team?

Ever since US-based venture capital firm Canaan Partners decided (in 2014) to scale down its India operations,    Venture Intelligence  has been keenly tracking what its India team - headed by one of the country's first entrepreneur-turned-VC Alok Mittal- would do next.  The answer is now in... To track the progress of these ventures and all other happenings that matter in the Indian Private Equity/Venture Capital ecosystem, just Sign Up for the Venture Intelligence Deal Digest - India's longest serving Transaction Update newsletter.

Beauty and the VC

The Modi - Private Equity Connect. Brought to you by VI !

Lots of   Venture Intelligence data coverage on ET and elsewhere today. Let the good times roll! 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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Record Jul-Sep quarter poises PE investments to cross all time high in 2015

Q3’15 tally up 125% to $5.9-B; IT & ITES Cos Grab Majority of the pie; Buyout deals make a comeback  With the nine month investment tally touching $13 billion (across 504 transactions), Private Equity investments in India for 2015 are poised to cross the historical highs of 2007 (which had witnessed $14.7 billion being invested across 535 transactions), shows data from Venture Intelligence ( http://VIonWeb.com ), a research service focused on private company financials, transactions and their valuations. PE firms invested a record $5,893 million (across 177 deals) during the quarter ended September 2015, up 125% over that invested in the same period last year ($2,621 million across 126 transactions) and 38% higher than the immediate previous quarter (which had witnessed $4,272 million being invested across 151 transactions). The nine month PE investment tally for 2015 is 82% more than the $7,131 million across 387 transactions in the first nine months of 2014, the Venture I

Are Corporate Accelerators a Farce?

Anand Sanwal of CB Insights believes they are. Extract from his recent newsletter article . When I see a big corporation launch a buzzwordy accelerator program, I hear the sound of money getting flushed down the toilet. They launch these to get some buzz/look cool and, in theory, support and learn from startups. But here's the rub: if you're a giant, slow-moving company not known for being particularly innovative, the startups attracted to your accelerator are going to be 2nd or 3rd tier.  ..That said, if you are focused on trying to "look innovative," here is the full list of tactics..:  * Build a startup-y office with an open floor plan, showers, and an Xbox/Playstation...  * Launch an innovation lab or accelerator. It doesn't matter what it does (if anything) — but do this.  * Tell people that you don't wear suits and that you wear jeans to work. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Tra

Why Flipkart & Snapdeal Can't IPO and Why the Chinese are Invading the Indian Internet Market

The latest $700 million funding for Flipkart got announced not in the form of press releases as on previous occasions, but through leaks and confirmations . Also, the new round does not seem to have attracted any new investors. The closure of rival Snapdeal's $500 million round is reported to have been protracted over mismatch in valuation expectations. Why the seeming nervousness among investors over India's two E-Commerce poster children? Is it the crash of Alibaba's stock price in recent months? Or something else? Media executive-turned-Private Equity investor Haresh Chawla has some answers in his new post at Founding Fuel . Extracts: On why an IPO is impractical for Flipkart, SnapDeal Most listed Unicorns in the West eventually trade at earning multiples that range between 40 and 60 times their earnings. Listed Indian internet companies like Naukri, Justdial and Makemytrip trade at similar multiples....Flipkart, now eight years old, to justify its $15 bill

Do VCs need to be "good" guys to succeed?

Y-Combinator founder Paul Graham thinks so. Citing the example of uber angel investor Ron Conway (Google, Facebook, Twitter), he explains why in his recent blog post  (emphasis mine): The startup world became more transparent and more unpredictable. Both make it harder to seem good without actually being good.  It's obvious why transparency has that effect. When an investor maltreats a founder now, it gets out. Maybe not all the way to the press, but other founders hear about it, and that means that investor starts to lose deals.  The effect of unpredictability is more subtle. It increases the work of being inconsistent. If you're going to be two-faced, you have to know who you should be nice to and who you can get away with being nasty to. In the startup world, things change so rapidly that you can't tell. The random college kid you talk to today might in a couple years be the CEO of the hottest startup in the Valley. If you can't tell who to be nice to, you have

Will InMobi Continue to Rejoice its Spurning of Google's $1-B Offer?

Silicon Valley lore has several famous episodes of acquisition talks that did not materialize: from that of Google by Excite (whose CEO apparently refused to pay up $75,000) and by Yahoo  (when the Google founders walked away from a $3-B offer) and that of Yahoo (for $44.6 B) by Microsoft . In March 2015, the lore extended to Indian shores when,  InMobi - which dares to combat Google and Facebook in the mobile advertising segment - walked away from a $1 billion offer from the search engine giant (according to multiple media reports, sample:  Business Insider ). Will  InMobi CEO Naveen Tewari's decision to walk away  turn out as well as that of Google's own or more Yahoo like? Only time will tell. But questions are being raised as to why, when other Indian startups like Flipkart, Snapdeal and Ola are able to attract investments at   valuations of multiple billions of dollars with seeming ease  over the last couple of years, hasn't InMobi (that last raised a  reported

Zero in on Cos Seeking Angel Funding in Your City

With enthusiasm for angel investments in India at an all time high, Venture Intelligence is happy to announce a new feature to its Angel Investments database: the ability to search listings of companies seeking angel / seed capital in your city. Integrating company and investor profiles from the world’s best known angel deals platform - AngelList - the Venture Intelligence Angel Investments database allows its users to further search and filter listings by company name, city and amount of funding sought. To look up companies seeking angel capital in your city right away, just login to the Venture Intelligence PE/VC Deal Database . Don’t have a login? Contact Us for a demo.

Zoho Founder on Competing with Companies Raising "Series QE" Funding

From the article by the Zoho founder Sridhar Vembu in Economic Times : Another day , another hot tech company raises $500 million (or is it a billion?) in Series D, Series E -I propose we just call all of it Series QE, because that is where all the money comes from anyway , right?   ..If you are in one of those hot companies burning cash, enjoy the ride as long as it lasts--and make sure you have a safety net if, heaven forbid, something bad happens. But what about companies that cannot or don't want to raise that kind of money?  ...In the world of business and finance, following fashion is the path to the poorhouse. Avoiding the fashionable location, the fashionable field and, dare I say , fashionable employees, may be the best way to survive a bubble. 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 Sign Up for the FRE

Why Angels & Seed Funds Might Be Better For Seed Rounds

With  Tiger Global  and other global investors straying into VC territory in the hunt for the next set of Unicorns, the (  Lee Fix(el)ated  ? ) Indian VC firms - whose fund size mathematics earlier disallowed them from "writing cheques" of less than $1-2 million - have been actively foraying into seed funding zone competing and often co-investing with angels and seed funds. But what type of investor should entrepreneurs prefer for their seed round - if they have the luxury of a choice between angels, seed funds and VC firms? Mukund Mohan, the former head of Microsoft Ventures, recommends going with angels and seed firms. Extracts from his post titled " Does raising institutional money at the seed stage help or hurt? ": If you are looking to raise money and you have an interested later-stage VC investor willing to put money in your company, by all means you should take it. Assuming they will invest later is a big leap of faith. There are, like most things in th

Is Mr.Tata Risking Too Much Capital on Startups?

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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Is Angel Investing Worth the Bother?

Haresh Chawla, an angel investor in Housing.com, has a list of do's and don'ts for fellow angel investors in Founding Fuel . Extracts: 2. Don’t do it for the money. Most angel portfolios won’t beat returns on Indian small-caps and mid-caps. Plus you’ll save a mighty load of your time. So learn to play the guitar if you are bored. 3. If you still persist, choose a style or a combination from here: Spray and Pray: Put in Rs 5-25 lakh—do tens of deals. Eight angels in a start-up means you are hardly going to have a say, or the inclination to spend time. But sure you’ll meet interesting people, and be covered in business newspapers. Sometimes you’ll also be mentioned in the same breath as *trophy* investors. Consortium: A new structure that has cropped up lately—everyone can be an Angel now! One guy fronts 20-30 of you investors. It works. Downside? The front is usually too busy monitoring than mentoring. Oh, and you’ll miss out on the PR as well. The Real Deal: You’re ready

Will the Education Sector Throw Up a Billion Dollar Company? Yeah, Fine "Unicorn".

Siddhartha Jain has a nice analysis on why we haven't seen an Indian Education Unicon emerge yet. And why we still might. 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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Forbes India "Hidden Gems" List

  Forbes India has put out its latest "Hidden Gems" Cover Story profiling 13 interesting businesses -from bus operator Prasanna Purple to lifestyle brand Hidesign, jewellery maker Kalyan Jewellers to coaching firm Resonance Eduventures and pharma venture Laurus Labs. For the fourth year running, we at Venture Intelligence, are happy to have partnered Forbes journalists in putting together this list by leveraging our  databases  on Private Company Financials, Transactions their Valuations.

Healthy Sign: IPOs Do Well Despite Shaky Secondary Market

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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Logistics: The "Shovels & Pickaxes" of E-Commerce Gold Rush?

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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

IT Deals Dominate M&A Landscape

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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Snapping the Deal

It all seems to have started with Snapdeal's Kunal Bahl and Mr Ratan Tata (in Aug 2014)      Source: NBW And then Paytm/One97's Vijay Shekhar Sharma took it international with Alibaba's Jack Ma (Feb 2015)      Source:   FirstPost According to  Economic Times , the latest $500 million investment in Snapdeal (led by Foxconn, Alibaba and SoftBank ) -  which has been reported about for several months now  - faced "protracted negotiations" over the company's valuation. Another angle journalists might want to consider (for such delays) is how long it takes to synch up schedules of international personalities (who seem to call all the shots in Indian E/M-Commerce these days) to line up something like this:       Snapdeal founders with Alibaba's Jack Ma and  SoftBank's Nikesh Arora The Venture Intelligence PE/VC Deals Database  currently captures 25+ data points for  private company transactions - with valuation multiples enjoying pride

On Indian E-Commerce Valuation

In an interview to Mint , Aswath Damodaran - the well known US-based valuations expert  - has opined that India’s e-commerce and consumer technology start-ups "may be collectively overvalued". "The size of the macro story may not justify the micro-valuations," he says. Economic Times (in its Corporate Dossier supplement) had earlier featured the views of two local practitioners - Sharad Sharma, Angel Investor and Jacob Mathew, Founder of MAPE Advisory - on the same topic. Sound Byte from Sharad Sharma : "Unfortunately, due to just one individual - Lee Fixel of Tiger Global - Flipkart has gone from being a poster child to being the single biggest risk to the technology ecosystem."  His main argument: Right now, Flipkart is valued at about $500 per transacting user. This is comparable to what Vodafone paid for Hutch in 2007 - the most expensive mobile operator acquisition ever. Built into the Vodafone offer at that time was a belief that the hocke

Where's the Best Growth Among Privately Held Companies?

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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Will Private Equity Exit Party Last Till Year End?

h 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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Recommendations for Email Marketing by VCs

Anand Sanwal, Founder of US Venture Capital databased firm CB Insights, has an interesting critique of email pitches he receives from VCs  (which, going by number of email types he's quoting, happens quite a lot. Ah, the US market!).  Extract: Strategy 4: The Warning Hey Anand, Joe here from Scary Partners.  Love CB Insights and what you guys are doing. I know there has been a lot of companies getting funding in your space so was wondering if you have more seriously begun to think about fundraising.  I know you’ve grown out of revenue to-date but as competitors get funded, raising might make some sense to ensure you stay ahead of them. I would love to chat. Thanks, Joe The Review  .... Cons: For us, someone else raising doesn’t mean much. We’ve seen a bunch of companies come and go in our space with a lot more money than us. The new entrants will be the same.  And so while this email gets a response, it doesn’t do anything to frame why the firm might be an interesting partner

Justdial's Mani on Making Real Money Online

In an interview to  Mint , local search firm Justdial's founder VSS Mani talks about building an Internet business that actually charges customers enough money to make an actual positive bottom line : It would be fair to say that Mani comes across as a contrarian; one who doesn’t believe in the view that an e-commerce business must lose money. “JD did Rs.600 crore of revenue last year. That is equivalent to roughly Rs.60,000 crore revenue of an e-commerce company in terms of GMV,” he says. Gross merchandise value, or GMV, is a term used in online retailing to indicate total sales of merchandise through a particular marketplace over a certain time frame. "Commerce means making money. You cannot have deep discounts; you cannot buy things for Rs.100 and sell at Rs.80. Or (give) cash back."  ..."we are extremely worried about the way things are,” says Mani. “Today we have the talent pool. In the dotcom days, it was a big challenge. People used to join organizations

Where Indian Private Equity investors can tread without fear - well almost!

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 Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Khaitan & Co. Tops League Table for Legal Advisors to M&A Transactions in H1 2015

AZB & Partners, Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas complete the Top 3 slots Khaitan & Co topped the Venture Intelligence League Tables for Legal Advisors to M&A transactions for the first six months of 2015 advising deals with a value tag of $2,237 million (across 14 qualifying transactions). Khaitan & Co. was followed by AZB & Partners which advised deals worth $1,970 million (across 16 deals); Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas ($1,353 million across 9 deals). Amarchand & Mangaldas, before its split, had advised M&A deals worth $1,084 million (across seven deals). The Venture Intelligence League Tables, the first such initiative exclusively tracking transactions involving India-based companies, are based on value of PE and M&A transactions advised by Transaction and Legal Advisory firms. The Khaitan & Co. advised M&A deals during the period included the $315 million buyout of Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals by Advent International & Temase