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Showing posts from March, 2015

Deal Alert: Aspada invests Rs. 20 Cr in horticulture firm INI Farms

Aspada Investment Company has made a commitment of INR 20 Crores to Mumbai-based InI Farms Pvt Ltd which operates across fresh fruit value chains in crops such as pomegranate and banana. The company provides farm extension services for small-hold farmers coupled with post harvest management and processing for both domestic consumption and export markets. Aspada’s investment will allow the company to continue to build scale in the pomegranate and banana business units while expanding into other fruit categories.  The company has previously received venture investments from Unilazer Ventures and Aavishkaar along with angel investors like Pavan Vaish and Ashish Gupta. 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 Transact

Deal Update: Ennovent and Upaya Social Ventures invest in Anant Learning

Ennovent Impact Investment Holding and Upaya Social Ventures have made a seed investment in Delhi based Anant Learning & Development. Anant Learning has been working amongst communities in the skill building space. With the primary focus on post training space in impact analysis, employment/livelihood facilitation, mapping of skilled manpower and assessments, the company has pioneered a technology-based post placement tracking and impact analysis tool enabling real time access to data collected from the field. 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.

Impact of Finance Bill 2015 on Private Equity in India

By Sesh AV, Managing Director, Basiz Fund Services The finance bill of 2015, proposed by Shri.Arun Jaitley has made some important big bang reforms for the Private Equity & Venture capital Industry in India. An Industry that invests into the entrepreneurial community every year, has finally been recognized by the government as one of the important contributors to “The Make in India” Programme.   I would opine that this bill gives impetus to channeling domestic capital to vehicles like Alternate Investment Funds, that invest into risky areas that need venture and growth capital by introducing a level playing field between domestic and foreign capital. However there are shortcomings still, which one would hope will be considered for suitable rectification / modification.  Analysis of impact on Private Equity & Venture Capital industry  in India: • Foreign investment allowed in AIF The bill proposes to allow foreign investment into AIF. However a 10% withho

Why TaxiForSure had to sell out

Mint has a blow-by-blow account. Hats off to Raghunandan G for being so open. Extracts from the article - that reminded me a lot of the John Maynard Keynes quote "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent": Ola’s rival, across town, TFS, was watching the firm’s every move closely. Ola’s logic was clear. The company had raised Rs.250 crore in a round of funding in July 2014 and was burning money to get more customers and drivers on its platform. In the process, it was losing as much as Rs.200 on every ride.  ...On 1 November, TFS decided to play the game. It came up with a simple strategy. Thanks to the higher per km rates, consumers weren’t using the service for short distance travel. So, at the consumer end, TFS dropped rates. To Rs.49 for the first 4km and then Rs.14 per km. But at the driver’s end, it needed to incentivize drivers to pick up rides. So it held on to the old rates for drivers (Rs.200 for the first 10km). So if a customer was pa

Deal Alert: YourNest to pick up 20% in GolfLAN.com for Rs.2-Cr

YourNest, via YourNest Angel Fund-Scheme I, is to invest up to INR 2 crore for a 20 % stake in Delhi-based GolfLAN Technology Solutions Pvt Ltd which runs golflan.com , an online community for golfers. The fund will subscribe to 92,212 Series A Compulsorily Convertible Preference Shares and 100 Equity shares at INR 217 each aggregating to INR 2 Cr, regulatory filings reveal. The target company has created an ESOP Pool which would constitute 15% of the share capital of the company on a fully diluted basis. Sunil Goyal of YourNest joined the board of the target in February 2015.  GolfLAN offers subscription based membership to golfers which allows them to play golf in various countries as well as e-tails golfing equipment. It clocked revenues of INR 1.43-Cr in FY14 compared to INR 60 Lakhs in FY13. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations i

Deal Alert: RVCF invests in mobile card payments firm Mosambee

Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund (RVCF) has invested in Synergistic Financial Networks Pvt. Ltd which owns Mosambee, a Mumbai-based provider of mobile card payment services. Mosambee, founded in 2008 by Alok Arora, Bhushan Thaker & Sameer Chugh, enables mobile phones to function as card reading machines for real-time bill payments. The company plans to have over 250,000 users across India in the next two to three years and a presence in 10 geographies within the next 12 months.  From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: In April 2013, Mosambee had raised INR 4 Cr from SIDBI VC. (Subscribers to the database can login to view the valuation, deal structuring and other transaction details.)  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

Coming This Summer: Desi Startup Masala Gets Spicier

March 11: Snapdeal in talks to acquire Komli Media for $300-M Economic Times March 12: Foxconn may invest $600-M in Snapdeal Business Standard March 16: Snapdeal in talks to acquire logistics firm GoJavas for Rs 200 crore PTI What's today's snap deal? Flipkart seems so last week! Actual / rumoured deals by these guys are what fills Page 3 of the business papers (formerly Page 1 - before Housing.com / Olacabs / Hotstar took that over). And of course, there's  the Uber style bad behaviour . 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.

Off Topic: How Indians Buy Shares

Anuvab Pal has a funny - but so true -  article  in Economic Times on how the average Indian buys (typically when high) and sells (typically when low) equity. Extracts: We think differently. A broker told me, "Boss, all that Buffett-Shuffett doesn't work in India. Annual reports, company's patents, customer base, who is competition — too complicated. Customers just ask: will it go up or down? And on what I say, they put money." With that logic, the public are better off putting their money on Sleeping Beauty at the 3:45 derby.   Respected mutual funds consistently try to do their best to inculcate an investor mindset: invest when stocks are down, don't run when stocks fall and buy 32 gold necklaces. Stocks are here forever and the returns outmatch any asset. Read the prospectus. Read anything, something. What the Indian 'investor' hears is 'Blah blah blah.'   One such 'investor' told me, "I put in money because my wife's co

Under Promising & Over delivering is for Amateurs?!

Clearly, our entrepreneurial ethos and role models are going through a massive generation change. The quotes from Infosys founder N.R. Narayana Murthy that entrepreneurs in the 1990s took to heart included: ``Under promise and over deliver. Investors respect this.''  ( On why Infosys gets the kind of valuations it does)  " Revenue is vanity; profit is sanity; cash is reality " and " PSPD: Predictable, Sustainable, Profitable and De-risked " Cut to 2015. Mukund Mohan, Head of Microsoft Ventures, writes : Amateurs under promise and over deliver. They are the ones I hear always complain about valuations. They fail to realize that the “professional” entrepreneur friend they have is growing at an insane rate, but they choose to only compare “valuations” and dilution. And what do the "Professionals" do to make "investors chase them"? Professionals over commit and outperform.  They are the ones that get the best valuations and

A follow-on investor's take on Seed Capital sources in India

Sandhya Hegde of Khosla Impact  has listed out the seed capital sources she likes in India and why. Extracts: I have categorized them in 3 different groups — angel networks, fundraising platforms and seed funds. Over time, group 2 will eat group 1 (à la Angel List).   ... I am really excited about the potential of angellist-like platforms in India where startups are more geographically dispersed and it’s often harder to get meetings quickly for founders. Platforms are efficient, help standardize terms and give more power to entrepreneurs. We need some of that. I already see IAN members rapidly signing up on these sites☺   ... Everyone’s doing seed investments at this point so nothing, apparently, is too early for institutional capital. Accel, SAIF, Kalari, IDG, Accel, Helion, Sequoia, Matrix, Nexus.. I begin to think even Tiger Global might make a seed investment in the right team given the exuberant environment in India. If you have their attention, you are winning. Venture I