The Venture Intelligence Blog

Saxon Global Inc., an Irving (Texas) based Data and Analytics consulting company, has acquired Bangalore-based Ideas Software and Consulting Pvt. Ltd. (ISAC Global), a boutique big data and web intelligence solutions firm. As part of the transaction, Haricharan SM, CEO and co-founder of ISAC Global, will join Saxon as COO. Sudhir Patavardhan, Founder and CTO of ISAC Global, will continue to lead technology development and engineering efforts of Saxon Global. ISAC Global owns Siteanalytix, a web analytics platform currently deployed at customers such as Rediff and Carwale. The company recently launched a proprietary Big Data platform for the US Insurance sector. Source: Yourstory.in Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First ...

Multiples Private Equity is to purchase a significant stake for Rs.100 crore in Mogae Media , a Mumbai-based mobile advertiser owned by former Dentsu India chairman Sandeep Goyal and his wife Tanya Goyal. The deal marks Multiples’ sixth investment since launch in 2011.Mogae Media, started early this year, is now the sole and exclusive partner of Airtel to sell its advertising inventory across voice, text, data and also Direct to Home (DTH) to its 186 million subscribers across India. Sandeep Goyal had sold his undisclosed stake in Denstsu India to Japanese Partner Dentsu Inc for Rs.240 crore earlier. Source: Economic Times Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Private Equity firms invested $8,853 million over 406 deals in India during the 12 months ending December 2012, compared to the $10,378 million across 483 deals during the previous year, according to analysis by Venture Intelligence, the leading research service focused on private company transactions and financials. These figures - which include VC investments and exclude PE investments in Real Estate - take the total investments by PE firms over the past five years to about $41.4 billion across 2,036 transactions. The latest Venture Intelligence data reveals that PE investments in October-December 2012 declined by over 32% to about $1,010 million (across 82 deals) compared to the $1,490 million invested (across 121 deals) in the same period in 2011 and $3,849 million invested (across 108 deals) in the immediate previous quarter. “PE managers are more being judicious and taking longer period to deploy their funds,” commented KEC Raja Kumar, Founder & CEO of leading Bangalore-...

From the post by Alok Mittal - who incidentally wears both hats - at VentureWoods: The venture capital industry in India is relatively small. And besides sporadic instances of “spray and pray”, it has mostly remained tight and focused its resources on one or two bets in a given area. That means that not more than 3-4 companies in any given space get to Series A. Angel investors need to understand this dynamic, and hence not just look at whether a company could build a good business, but also whether it has credible chances of raising the next round of capital to get there. A small VC industry also poses the issue of volatility - couple of VCs talking about an area being over-invested in enough to create a sudden negative sentiment. ...Is the Indian angel investor ready to lead? Are we ready to step up to the plate and make bets that we know VCs don’t like/understand today? Are we simply going to follow what we expect VCs to do 12 month down the line, or are we going to show them...

Yourstory.in   Kalaari Capital (formerly IndoUS Venture Partners) has invested in Gurgaon-based Power2sme , a buying club for SMEs. The fund has joined hands with the company’s existing investor, Inventus Capital Partners, in extending the Series A fundraising. The new funds will be used for scaling the company’s presence across newer geographies including Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad and Chandigarh; hiring talent and increasing the company’s brand visibility. Kalaari Capital MD Vani Kola will join the Power2sme board.  Having started operations in January 2012, Power2sme provides a platform that enables the SMEs to cut costs and build efficiencies in their business processes, thus allowing them to compete on an equal footing with large enterprises.   From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: Inventus had invested $1.8 M in the company in Jul-12. (Subscribers to the database can login to view the company valuation, deal structuring and other transaction d...

Press Release   Hyderabad-based publicly listed software development company Kellton Tech Solutions Ltd. is to acquire New Delhi-based outsourced product development focused IT Services firm Skan Dbydx Software Pvt. Ltd. The target company specialized in Mobile Application, Rich Internet Application (RIA) Development & Quality Assurance.  DbyDx was founded by its MD Nitin Verma and CEO Abhishek Vinod Singh.  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Business Line   Birla Institute of Technology and Science-Pilani, Hyderabad, is setting up a technology incubator in its campus to encourage entrepreneurship. The Institution will provide 10,000 sq ft of built-up area to the incubators in biotech, pharma, ICT and healthcare segments.  The incubator, which will be operational in a few months from now, is being set up with Rs.5 crore grant from the Department of Science and Technology besides Rs.2.5 crore from the institution. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Business Line Kolkata-headquartered and private equity-backed rural hospital company Glocal Healthcare Pvt Ltd , is planning to raise equity for its Rs 400-crore project for 50 new units across six States. The project would be funded by both debt (65%) and equity (35%). The equity will be raised from a mix of investors including PE funds Sequoia and Elevar, who are current investors. The remaining Rs 280 crore will be debt. SIDBI has already committed funds.  Glocal, which currently runs five affordable rural hospitals in West Bengal, would locate the new units in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha. Each hospital will have 100 beds built on 15,000 sq.ft. From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: In January 2011, Sequoia Capital India and Elevar Equity had invested $1.33 M in Glocal Healthcare Systems. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A tran...

Press Release   Norwest Venture Partners has sold its remaining 719,581 shares of publicly listed IT services firm, Persistent Systems Ltd. on BSE worth Rs.36 Crores at Rs.500.72 per share on Dec 21, 2012. This constitutes 1.80% of total outstanding shares of Persistent Systems Ltd.   From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: In Nov 2005, Norwest Venture Partners invested INR 63.06 Cr for 15.01% stake and made its first part exit Nov 2012. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

nextbigwhat.com   Online sports product retailer, PlaygroundOnline and B2B company, Sportsnest have merged and the combined entity has raised funding from Blume Ventures. Post merger, PlaygroundOnline will be the consumer face of the entity. PlaygroundOnline was launched in 2008 and focused mostly on B2C segment. It has serviced more than 50,000 customers and post merger, will focus on categories including cricket, badminton, tennis, football, outdoor and adventure, cycling, running and golf. Sportsnest, focused on institutional segment, plans to enhance its presence in sports nutrition, apparel, foot wear and gym equipment. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter....

Economic Times   Japanese advertising agency Dentsu is in advanced talks to buy out digital advertising agency and consulting firm Webchutney . Network18, which holds 70.06% stake in the Sidharth Rao-promoted Webchutney Studios, is looking to exit. The deal size is estimated at between Rs.40-60 crore for Network18's stake . Network18 had invested in Webchutney through its investment arms, Capital18 Ltd and Capital18 Fincap. The promoters of Webchutney will continue to hold their stakes.  From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: In November-2007 Capital18 had invested $2.13 M in Webchutney. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Economic Times Mumbai-based Squeakee , a yet-to-be-launched search engine for offers, has raised funding from Kae Capital and Mumbai Angels. The hyper-local search engine, which digs out online and offline discounts and offers based on location, will be launched later this week. Kae typically invests $200,000 (about Rs.1 crore) to $500,000 in the first round, while Mumbai Angels invests up to Rs.2 crore.  Squeakee was founded earlier this year by Abrar Shaikh, who previously worked with consumer TV guidance channel What’s-On-India and digital advertising network Komli Media. The company, which currently lists offers mainly in Mumbai, intends to expand to Delhi, Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai by end 2013. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including ...

Catalog Educational Services Pvt. Ltd., the Noida-based company that operates the online career guidance service MeraCareerGuide.com , has raised capital from Unilazer Ventures , the family office of UTV founder Ronnie Screwvala. Abhishek Shah of Unilazer joined the company's board as of October 31, 2012. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

NSE Norwest Venture Partners has sold an additional 1,845,000 shares of publicly listed outsourced product development firm Persistent Systems Ltd. on NSE worth Rs.90.41 crores at Rs.490 per share on Dec19, 2012. This constitutes 4.61% of total outstanding shares of Persistent Systems Ltd. Of these, another PE investor, SAIF Partners bought 1,120,000 shares (or 2.80%) worth Rs.54.88 Crores.  From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: In Nov 2005, Norwest Venture Partners invested INR 63.06 Cr for 15.01% stake.  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Press Release   Times Internet has made a “7-figure” investment in New York-based e-commerce company Fab.com . As part of this investment, Fab will work with Times Internet to explore and execute its India market strategy.  Investors in Fab.com include A Grade Investment, Andreessen Horowitz, Atomico, Baroda Ventures, Cinco Capital, Docomo, First Round Capital, Mayfield Fund, Menlo Ventures, Pinnacle Ventures, Phenomen VC, RTP Ventures, SoftTech VC, SV Angel, VTB Capital, The Washington Post Company and Zelkova Ventures.  From the Venture Intelligence M&A Deal database: In Nov-12 Fab.com had acquired True Sparrow Systems. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Tran...

Economic Times   Times Internet Ltd, the internet and mobile venture of The Times Group, has picked up a minority stake in Bengaluru-based ZipDial Mobile Solutions . ZipDial gives brands a toll-free number that their consumers can give missed calls to and get SMSes with more information on marketing campaigns.   From the Venture Intelligence Angel & Aceelerator Deal database: In April 2011 Mumbai Angels had invested in ZipDial. In December 2012, US-based accelerator 500 Startups announced ZipDial as its tenth deal in India, Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

HT Media is to acquire a 40% stake in MyParichay , an online recruitment business. HT Media will acquire equity shares from MyParichay’s existing promoters and by subscription of CCPS in three separate tranches over the next two years. The deal is projected to augment HT Media’s existing online recruitment portal Shine.com, which was launched in 2008. J Sagar Associates advised HT Media while PXV Law Partners advised MyParichay.  Founded by Ranjan Sinha and Vivek Sinha in December 2011, MyParichay has built a network within Facebook that allows members to apply for jobs, companies to recruit, and employees to refer friends for internal job postings.  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaust...

NextBigWhat   The Morpheus, a Chandigarh-based accelerator, has added 12 more startups to its portfolio, as part of Batch 8. The batch concluded its initial 4 month startup acceleration program recently.  The companies include:  Memetic Labs (Airwoot), founded by Prabhat Saraswat and Saurabh Arora. The company’s smart engagement helpdesk product Airwoot empowers businesses to connect with their customers on social media channels, solve their complaints and leverage deep customer support analytics.  Online Prasad, founded by Goonjan Mall. The site offers prasad at the temple of your faith and home-deliver it for your family.  CVBhejo, founded by Nikhilesh Tayal. It is a mobile based recruitment platform for Indian Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Currently its working in Udaipur and shortly will expand to major towns in Rajasthan.  MotorPaneer, founded by Saurabh Mathur and Jigyasa Makkar. It offers tools for new car buyers to explore ...

MediaNama   Indiagames founder and angel investor Vishal Gondal has invested in Examify, a new education focused online service that uses algorithms and crowd sourcing to generate intelligence around various examinations, allowing students to identify important topics and questions. The site covers CBSE, IGCSE, IB and ICSE Board examinations, as well as IIT-JEE and BITSAT examinations.  Examify is founded by Angad Nadkarni and Samudra Neelam Bhuyan. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Press Release   San Jose, CA-based video advertising network Vdopia has raised $3.4 million in a Series B round, according to a filing with the US SEC. Vdopia started raising capital from December 3, 2012 and is looking to raise $7.4 million ($7,391,863). The capital is being raised through preferred stock which is convertible to common stock.  From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: Vdopia had previously raised $4 million from Nexus Venture Partners in September 2008. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Yourstory.in  Entrepreneurs Sonia Manchanda and Kush Medhora have launched an incubator called DREAM:IN that seeks to incubate ‘amazing ideas’ from across the nation. Gray Matter Capital, Helion Ventures, Seedfund, Accel Partners and a few other VC firms have invested in the project and would be actively looking at the companies graduating from it.  The focus is on youth and DREAM:IN plans to capture 10,000 ‘dreams’ from around 250 colleges in South India with whom they’ve already tied up. Around 1770 ideas have already been captured and the process of nurturing and shaping them is under way.  Manchanda is a graduate from the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad.  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly:...

Business Standard  InOpen Tech, an IIT-Bombay based educational startup, is looking to raise Rs.20 crore. The company provides computer science content to 300,000 students across 130 schools in India. Its flagship product, Computer Masti, is a program to teach computer science in schools.  Within three years of operation, it has achieved profits, clocking revenue of Rs.2.32 crore in FY12, compared to Rs.70 lakh the year before. Rupesh Shah, chief executive and co-founder of the company, is an IIT-B alumnus, while Sridhar Iyer, another co-founder, is a professor in the department of computer science and engineering at IIT-B.  The company was formally incorporated in October 2009 and incubated at the Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship at IIT-B. Starting with seed capital of Rs.25 lakh, it raised $500,000 from VenturEast last year. Founders Shah and Iyer own a majority stake while IIT-B has a small minority stake. Venture Intelligence is the leadi...

A new Grant Thornton report titled “ Global Private Equity Report 2012 " says "India is the most challenging market globally for this sector". Extracts from the Grant Thornton press release on the report : On the Fundraising Outlook The most dramatic decline in optimism from 2011 is evident in the BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. This year, 78 percent of respondents in these markets described the fundraising outlook as “negative” or “very negative”. In 2011, the figure was 39 percent. On Cross-Border Buyers ...Globally, China and Japan, Europe and North America are the regions from which most GPs expect non-domestic strategic buyers to originate. Regions as expected sources of non-domestic acquirers China, Japan, Korea 31% Europe 24% North America 22% South East Asia 11% India 10% MENA 1% Africa Less than 1% Latin America L...

Business Standard   Online bus booking portal Ticketgoose. com is expecting to close a Rs.25 crore second round of funding by mid 2013. It closed the first round of about Rs.4 crore in August this year from US-based angel investors.  The company had started operations in tier two cities across south and west India, including Visakhapatnam and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. The company claims to have over 500 bus operators as partners and a network over 3,000 channel partners who serve the customers without internet access. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Economic Times Ananda Mukerji, the former CEO of Firstsource Solutions, along with other executives will buy out the listed BPO firm’s stake in Anunta , a Mumbai-based technology start-up Firstsource incubated two years ago.  Mukerji and former Firstsource CTO Sanjiv Dalal will be co-promoters of Anunta, which does cloud-based application delivery and helps organizations implement desktop virtualization. Mukerji and Dalal are among Anunta’s promoters. The company includes two former Firstsource employees in its senior management team. Mukerji continues to serve on the Firstsource board as non-executive vice-chairman.  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter. ...

India Infoline   MobME Wireless , a Thiruvananthapuram-based mobile Internet company, is to launch an IPO on the NSE SME exchange. The company has appointed IDBI Capital Market Services as the Merchant Banker and Desai & Diwanji as its lawyers for the issue. Gyan Magnus Associates are also the advisors of the IPO.  MobME was co-founded by its CEOs Sanjay Vijayakumar and Sony Joy.  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Yourstory.in   Chennai-based ChargeBee , a subscription billing solution for online businesses (SaaS and Retail), has secured $350,000 funding from a group of US-based private angel investors. These include senior executives working in large enterprises and a few entrepreneurs. ChargeBee has acquired more than 100 private beta users to date, out of which 11 of them have gone live with the billing system. The company was set up in June 2011 by its CEO Krish Subramanian, KP Saravanan, Rajaraman and Thiyagarajan, who are former Zoho employees. It will use the new funds to unveil a slew of new features, invest in operations and to expand across verticals which includes SaaS, Digital Media and Retail Subscription Commerce. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list incl...

Yourstory.in   Online Fashion retailer MiraiStore.com has raised angel investment from Prem Kumar M, the Chairman and Managing Director of Uniworld Logistics. The investment will help MiraiStore.com in scaling up its operations and will be used for product development, improving logistics and backend systems; and for marketing.  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Yourstory.in   Sharedcab , a technology venture in cab services industry, has raised angel investment under Rs.5 Crores from Anupam Mittal, Sasha Mirchandani (Kae Capital), Blume Ventures and others. The funds will be used for product development, marketing and building the organization.  Founded by Prakash Sikaria and NV Subramanian, Sharedcab was a part of the recently concluded GSF Accelerator batch. Sikaria was earlier an investment banker in Barclays, New York and Subramanian was a Business Head at Big Bazaar.   From the Venture Intelligence Incubation database: GSF Accelator had incubated Sharedcab.com. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter...

Economic Times   Gurgaon-based Giveter , an online gift finding service, is looking to raise VC funding. The company was launched by Avinash Saxena and Mayank Bhangadia, both IIT-Delhi alumni, in July 2012. Currently, the business, with 10 employees, is generating daily revenues of Rs.1 lakh. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Bar and Bench   Hyderabad-based Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. (TASL) has acquired a majority stake in Bangalore-based Aurora Integrated Systems (AIS), which is developing indigenous technology, manufacturing and integrating state-of-the-art airborne systems with a focus on small Unmanned Aerial Systems. PXV Law Partners advised AIS while AZB & Partners advised TASL.   From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: Aurora was incubated at IIT-Kanpur SIIC.  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Yourstory.in , Economic Times   Angel network Mumbai Angels is to invest in Pune-based startup MaxiMojo , which provides cloud-based distribution and revenue management solutions for hotels. As part of the deal, Jai Advani, a hotelier with multiple properties, will join the Maximojo board. The round was led by Ashpi Gupta.  The investment amount is estimated as under Rs.5 crore Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Economic Times   Sequoia Capital is leading a Rs.50 crore investment in Bangalore-based banking data analytics software and services startup iCreate Software . iCreate plans to use the funds to expand its product portfolio and enter new geographies. The firm had earlier raised funding of Rs.15 crore from IDG Ventures, which also participated in this round.  Founded by Anup Pai in 2006, iCreate has developed business intelligence products for various banks including Bank of America, Gulf Investment Corporation, Indonesia's Bank Mandiri and HDFC Bank. From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: iCreate had raised $3.3 M from IDG Ventures in Dec-09. It raised another round of funding from IDG in Apr-12. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including...

SVB India Finance has provided a venture term loan to Bangalore-based fabless semiconductor company Saankhya Labs Private Limited .  Saankhya is focused on product design and development for the consumer electronics segment and has designed a microchip which is capable of supporting global television standards.   From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: In March 2011, Intel Capital had invested $7.5 million in Saankhya Labs.  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Press Release   Simplibuy , a Pune based startup, has raised funding from Silicon Valley-based Ecosystem Ventures. The company’s flagship product, WiC (“Where is Cheapest Price?”) uses User Generated Content and Vendor data to enable users to search product across various categories in Pune, Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.  Ecosystem Ventures primarily invests in companies during the seed round and works with entrepreneurs to grow their businesses until the first institutional (“Series A”) investment. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Business Standard  Attune Technologies , a Chennai headquartered, SaaS-based healthcare software company, has raised $6 million from Norwest Venture Partners. The funds will enable the company to accelerate the growth of its cloud-based model in India and in key global markets. The company has web-based products that help management of hospital, clinics and diagnostic chains.  From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: Attune had raised funds from Singapore-based Mercatus Capital in Jan-10. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Rochester, US-headquartered BPO firm Sutherland Global Services is to acquire Chennai-based healthcare BPO firm Apollo Health Street Ltd . (AHS), an associate company of listed entity Apollo Hospitals Enterprises Ltd. The transaction is expected to close by February 2013.  The acquisition is projected to position the combined organization as a leading healthcare service provider with comprehensive IT and business process integrated solutions and consolidate its presence as a dominant player in the $38 billion US healthcare BPO market.  Apollo Health Street provides customized strategic support services to more than 150 healthcare partners throughout the US from 10 global operational centers of excellence.  From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: Investors in Apollo Health Street include Temasek and JP Morgan (who had together invested $7.5 M in Jan-2005 and $25 M in Sep-2007). Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis...

Economic Times  The promoters of KPO Evalueserve are preparing to sell their majority stake 12 years after founding it. Swiss family office IHAG Holdings, which has a minority stake in the company, is also exiting. UBS and Deutsche Bank are advising the promoters on the selloff.  Marc Vollenweider, a former McKinsey professional, and Alok Aggarwal, an IBM alumnus, co-founded Evalueserve in 2000. Together with Ashish Gupta, the COO, who has been with the firm since its inception, they hold around 75% in the firm. IHAG holds another 11% and the rest is with employees. In 2011, it posted revenues of around $105 million and an EBIDTA of $20 million. It has a revenue per employee of $40,000, compared with the peer group average of $25,000. The promoters are believed to be expecting a valuation of 12-15 times EBIDTA, or $220-250 million.  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions...

MediaNama Blume Ventures, along with First Light Ventures, has invested $500,000 in MadRat Games . Adit Parekh from Blume will join the MadRat board. Bangalore-based MadRat Games makes offline and online/mobile Indian language learning games focused on K-12 students. The company was founded by Rajat Dhariwal, Madhumita Haldar and Manuj Dhariwal. Gautam Gandhi, Head of New Business Development for Google India, has been an advisor to the company.  MadRat has a 15-member team, and is developing apps for mobile and web, in addition to board games. The company’s flagship is Aksharit, an Indian language board game, which started out as a Hindi word game. It is now available in all the 11 major Indian languages including Punjabi, Bengali and Telugu. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to vi...

Naya Ventures, a venture capital fund specializing in early stage companies in the mobile and cloud markets, has announced the first closing for its $50 million fund. Headquartered in Dallas, with offices in Silicon Valley, Seattle and Hyderabad, Naya’s current portfolio consists of seven companies in the mobile and cloud market including BoxFish (formerly Mixaroo), Zoomingo and Glympse.  Source: Press Release Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

I was recently a guest at the Insead "India Business Dialogue" event at Bangalore. The event aimed to provide Insead grads - who are naturally mostly employed at large corporations - on starting up, attracting venture capital and, if the entrepreneurial plunge is too much of a risky leap, getting hired by a startup. If the grads thought getting hired by a startup sounded safer, they had anothing think coming. The last session (on joining a startup) had one representative each from a VC firm, a HR Services firm and a veteran entrepreneur. And here's a sample of what they had to say about startup hiring techniques: The Entrepreneur: One of my friends makes sure to pour coffee on the candidate and takes a call based on how the candidate reacts. The HR Person: We offer to send a cab for picking up the candidate. And we generally don't bother to. We - and out clients - like to see whether the candidate turns up late and cribs about the taxi or figures...

And other vignettes from TiECon Chennai-2012 "I'm going to just stay still like you," said the rabbit to the owl on the tree branch above. And proceeded to stay still. Just then, a fox happened to pass by and got to enjoy a nice (effortless) dinner. - Satguru Jaggi Vasudev to emphasize that entrepreneurs can afford to delegate depending on the level at which their company is. (If the company is operating at a vulnerable level - like the rabbit - then they better be "running around" focusing on even the smallest details. But if the startup has taken off, they can afford to perch themselves and run their companies with an owl's eye view.) Keep your eyes on the immediate next milestone (say, Series A funding) and focus on what you need to get there. Everything else is a distraction. - K. Ganesh , Founder of TutorVista & CustomerAsset You have one life to live. And it is too short to worry about building a legacy and be wedded to one company forever....

Economic Times     Qyuki , the fledgling digital media venture promoted by director Shekhar Kapur and composer AR Rahman, is looking for strategic investors in a second round of funding. It had earlier raised Rs.27 crore from Cisco.  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

NYSE-listed Equifax Inc. has acquired a controlling stake in NettPositive , a Bangalore-based provider of analytics and business intelligence solutions to the financial services, insurance, retail and telecommunications industries.  NettPositive, co-founded by its MD Viraj Tyagi and ED Nitin Gupta, offers solutions specially adapted to the evolving data maturity of emerging markets. Since its 2007 launch, the company has consulted & implemented its products and services across developed and emerging markets including Fortune 500 companies.  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Yourstory.in  MindHelix, a Startup village Cochin incubatee, has been selected to be a part of the Menlo Park, California (USA) based Alchemist Accelerator. MindHelix is a new generation Enterprise Cloud Application Development company and the first firm from Kerala to be a part of an international incubator.  Alchemist is focused exclusively on startups whose revenues come from Enterprises (as against consumers)  Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Yourstory.in   Bangalore-based startup CipherGraph Networks which provides enterprise cloud security solutions, focusing on cloud security and accessibility has raised money from US-based former Fecebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya. The funding raised will be utilized to strengthen the technology and ramp up hiring. Founded by Jitender Sharan, CipherGraph is also one of the 11 startups selected for the Microsoft Accelerator for Windows Azure.   Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

From the post titled "Why Mobile First is not the Right Strategy!" on being practical: There are some brilliant mobile apps created by startups in recent years, the biggest challenge for all of them is discovery....Google’s Android has over 700,000 apps in Play Store. Apple’s iOS App Store has over 700,000 apps. Assuming these were unique, as a entrepreneur, your startup has to fight with over 699,999 competitors on user’s smartphone, who on an average has only 65 apps installed . Another trend, many users regularly uninstall apps they do not use; once uninstalled – it is very unlikely they will install it again! Building a successful startup requires two skills – building a product and marketing it. Turn around and look at web – what are the ways you can get your start up discovered – Natural Search, Paid Search, Display Marketing (Advt based or Behavior based targeting), Social, Email Marketing and so on. Most of these is very flexible, you can do it all. On...