The Venture Intelligence Blog

While Private Equity and Venture Capital gets more than adequate coverage in the general business and entrepreneur-targeted media, there has been a surprising lack of "how to” manuals for entrepreneurs who are serious about raising this type of capital. For instance, while entrepreneurs might have heard of terms like “term sheets”, “due diligence”, etc., it is not very easy to research online on what exactly is these involve in the Indian context . (Most of the material available is typically US-centric). Which is why New Delhi based consultant and entrepreneur Pankaj Sahai's “Smooth Ride to Venture Capital – How to get VC Funding for Your Business” stands out. Published by Vision Books; and prices at Rs. 495/, the book is also well laid out on good quality paper. Key sections in the book that entrepreneurs can benefit from significantly (typically stuff the popular press/online sources don't cover): Chapter 15: Understanding Ownership, Dilution and Rounds of Financing Wh

Sanjay Sethi, ED & Head of Infrastructure Group, Kotak Investment Banking has an article in the Economic Times on the current challenges in raising PE funding for infrastructure projects and what's needed to boost such transactions. What India needs: India could well do with more pure-play specialist infrastructure funds with long-term investment horizon and reasonable return expectations (in the midto-late teens).This may attract infrastructure developers who would otherwise consider listing themselves,most of them somewhat prematurely,and raise capital even at the cost of higher dilution. SPV-level investors in greenfield projects: Most PE as well as infrastructure funds are currently focused on entity-level deals with a mix of operational,under implementation and under development projects with clear visibility of an IPO in the next 3-4 years which provides them an exit opportunity.While a couple of SPV-level investors are currently operating in the country,there is room f

In the context of Azim Premji of Wipro and N.R. Narayananayamurthy of Infosys carving out funds for VC-type investments from their family offices, here is an extract from an article in Institutional Investor on how Family Offices in the US are now preferring to directly invest in private companies and the benefits of such an approach. The tectonic shifts in the venture economy are placing a heavy premium on new investment. The drought in funds, combined with the need among family offices for uncorrelated and outsized returns, is creating a perfect landscape for those with the ability to implement a solid venture strategy. ...Having suffered market losses in 2008 and early 2009 from investments in supposedly safer asset classes, family offices are focusing on venture capital and private equity. Rather than rely on external managers, family offices are now investing themselves, rapidly becoming a critical source of new venture capital. This is not a new idea. The great founding industr

A slightly modified version of the longer article that appeared on WSJ's India Chief Mentor Blog : An article in IBD's Investors.com highlights the strong rise in the popularity of video advertising among brand advertisers in the US as well as the potential headroom for further growth. (Hat tip: Paul Kedrosky ) Online video ads are more engaging than other types, say ad executives. Woolford says a good example is Toyota's "Swagger Wagon" ads for its Sienna minivan. In one, a father and mother relate, in rapper style, about how cool their minivan is. It's a viral hit, nearing 1 million views on YouTube in two weeks...The rise of more portable devices such as Apple's (AAPL) iPad tablet computer will only accelerate the amount of video viewed online, which should boost ad rates, says Retrevo co-founder Manish Rathi. This strong growth trend should spell good news for Indian VC funds Helion Ventures and Nexus Ventures, which have, among them, invested into t

In an article for AltAssets, Charles Fletcher of US law firm Taylor Wessing describes how, in the absence of VC funding for capital intensive projects, cleantech compannies can look at alternative financing sources, including state-sponsored finance, licensing techniques and other models of co-development, which take their cue from the biotech sector. Arun Natarajan is the Founder & CEO of Venture Intelligence, the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A deals in India. View free samples of Venture Intelligence newsletters and reports. Email the author at arun@ventureintelligence.in

Fidelity Growth Partners India (FGPI), the private equity arm of Fidelity International, has taken a significant minority stake in PL Engineering, a leading engineering services outsourcing player with a focus on oil & gas, power and infrastructure. PL Engineering is a subsidiary of Punj Lloyd Limited, a leading global engineering, procurement and construction conglomerate. Through this investment, Raj Dugar, Senior Managing Director of FIL Capital Advisors (India), the private equity advisory company for FGPI, has joined PL Engineering’s Board of Directors. “We believe PL Engineering is well positioned to benefit from the strong growth in offshoring of engineering services to India. The company has a solid platform, an outstanding management team and strong track record in the attractive process engineering services segment. We are delighted to partner with PL Engineering as the company enters its next phase of growth” said Mr. Dugar. Mr. Sanjay Goel, CEO, PL Engineering said,

US-based Cloud.com, formerly VMOps, has raised an $11 million Series B round led by new investor Index Ventures. Current investors Redpoint Ventures and India-focussed Nexus Venture Partners also participated in this round, bringing the company’s total funding to date to $17.6 million. Cloud.com provides the latest and the most advanced software platform to bhttp://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=5421892&postID=8828431598215020283uild highly scalable, highly reliable cloud computing environments. http://cloud.com/company_company_release.html javascript:void(0)