In 2004, up to November, venture capital and private equity funds invested over $820 million in India-based companies, according to data from TSJ Media, the Chennai-based firm that tracks venture capital investments and mergers. But less than 10 per cent of this money found its way to start-ups.
The pendulum is starting to swing the other way again because new investors are coming forward to invest in the several start-ups that have sprung up in the last two years or so. Explains Arun Natrajan, editor at TSJ Media : “The founders and early employees of IT services companies who have made it big are beginning to make serious investments in local companies.”
He cites the example of Infosys co-founder N.S. Raghavan’s Nadathur Holdings which invested $7 million in the apparel design subsidiary of the Bangalore-based Reach Technologies in March 2004, adding that successful non-resident Indians like Vinod Dham and Tushar Dave of NewPath Ventures, their venture capital company, have incubated companies like Nevis Networks and InSilica and in 2004 helped them raise significant second round investments from global investors like Nokia Ventures and Flextronics.
Click Here to read the full article.