The Venture Intelligence Blog

Scions of five very wealthy Marwari business families - the Kanorias, Salarpurias, Dalmias, Patodias and Kayans - have formed an angel investment group, christened Calcutta Angels . The group has formed a strategic tie-up with Mumbai Angels. Source: Economic Times   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.

Prana Studios, backed by Mukesh Ambani and Anand Mahindra, has won the bid to purchase bankrupt Rhythm & Hues , which recently won the visual-effects Oscar for Life of Pi, pipping other contenders such as BSE-listed Prime Focus and China's Jian Yamning. Prana, with a big presence in Mumbai and Los Angeles, will acquire the company through its new operating company 34x118 Holdings.  Credited with editing many award-winning films, R&H filed for bankruptcy under US law's Chapter 11 in February.   From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: Sherpalo Ventures and Nexus Ventures had invested in Prana Studios in Jan-07 and Dec-07, respectively. Source: Economic Times   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 ...

A good summary of the Stanford ecorner talk by the publisher-conference organizer-venture capitalist is available here . Audio/Podcast version and shorter video segments are available from the Stanford ecorner web site here 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.

Another fun show. McClure mentions during the interview how and why 500 Startups is headed to India (and is skeptical of China).     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.

Chris Sacca of Lowercase Capital is an investor in several well known US consumer web, mobile, and wireless technology startups like Twitter, Kickstarter, Uber, etc. A lawyer by education, he earlier worked at Google. Highlights:   Personal story Amazing story of how he lost millions in leveraged trading and how he clawed his way back. "Fake it till you make it": Highly entertaining story about how, when he was out of job, he created a fake management consulting company, The Salinger Group, and handed out its card at various networking forums (including TiE). He even offered to let his friends who were also out of jobs to use the company's name! On Entrepreneurs  Truly Disruptive Entrepreneurs: Failure is not part of the options for them. They never doubt the outcome. They just think "the world will be a better place if this product gets built". "If I'm the one asking the entrepreneur 'how can this be bigger', then...

UK-based digital brand integration specialist MirriAd has attracted a £3.6 million (about Rs.30 crore) as a strategic investment from publicly listed Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited and Zee’s wholly owned subsidiary Asia Today Ltd (ATL). MirriAd’s digital solution enables brands to be integrated into programming remotely and independently of production schedules. The deal will help MirriAd deploy across India and other markets in Asia on broadcast, cable and satellite. Zee TV in the UK has used MirriAd technology to integrate UK brands into the Indian-produced popular daily soap ‘Pavitra Rishta’.  Launched in early 2008 by CEO Mark Popkiewicz, previously a director of BBC Ventures, MirriAd is headquartered in London with offices in Mumbai. Its institutional investors include Edge Investment Management, Edge Group, Oxford Technology Management, Oxford Capital Partners, STV Group PLC, Seraphim Capital and South East Growth Fund and angel investors Bruce Smith and Steph...

In its meeting of March 6, the FIPB has approved SIDBI Social Venture Trust, Mumbai to allot Class A units of the fund to bring foreign investment worth Rs.285 crore.   SIDBI Venture Capital Limited , a wholly owned subsidiary of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), is setting up a social venture capital fund with SIDBI and DFID as sponsors with a target corpus over 300 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.

Bangalore-based Tuebora, which provides security software as a service to businesses, will become the second Indian venture (after Grexit in 2011) to join US-based Citrix Startup Accelerator. Apart from a seed capital of $250,000, Tuebora - founded by Sanjay Nadimpalli, Ashish Jhunjhunwala and Prasad Bhamidipati - will now gain access to Citrix's products, partner channel and global customer base apart from office space in Silicon Valley for the next 18 months. Source: Times of 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.

Karnataka is set to launch a Rs.1,000 crore fund to help create 1,000 startups in the next seven years. The fund is conceived on the Israeli model, which has successfully spawned many startups. The proposal by Karnataka Information Communication Technology Group 2020, submitted to the government, says the fund must have a contribution from both central and state government and banks and PE funds. The ICT Innovation fund (ICTIF), comprising an R&D fund, seed fund, growth fund and a debt fund, will be managed by a group of people including internal project evaluation committee, an investment committee and the board of state run venture fund Kitven. Among other things such as infrastructure development activities, the report also proposes to spend Rs.146 crore to build incubation facilities, launch business plan competition, give startups subsidized memberships to industry bodies, provide access to events and roadshows and partner with Nasscom. Part of the infrastructure develop...

Lalit Bhagia has quit as Vice President and Head, Digital (Internet and Mobile) at STAR TV, which he had joined in 2010. . He now plans to start up in the digital space and is working on launching a global online business from India catering to a global audience.  Earlier, he had worked with Publicis Groupe, NIIT and Times Internet. Bhagia started his career as an entrepreneur during his college days with service4u.com which was subsequently closed down.  Source: Medianama   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.

E-commerce firm Snapdeal has raised a term loan of Rs.8 crore from SVB India Finance. The company last raised equity of Rs.200 crore in July 2011 and is actively scouting for more money.  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.

Naspers-owned Tradus has bought out Hyderabad-based e-commerce portal BuyThePrice.com , a little over a year after it had invested Rs.8.5 crore in the company. Launched in March 2010 by Ranjith Boyanapalli, who previously worked with eYantra, along with Tharachand Suryadevara and Jagdish Kothapalle, BuyThePrice has claimed to have generated Rs.3 crore revenue in the first year with plans to reach Rs.100 crore by the end of fiscal 2013.   From the Venture Intelligence Angel Investments database: Rajan Anandan, Rehan yar Khan and Sunil Kalra had invested in BuyThePrice in Dec-10.  Source: Medianama 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.

New Delhi-based DholDhamaka.com Retail Pvt. Ltd., an e-commerce service supplying products for parties, festivals and weddings, is seeking to raise venture capital funding. The company claims to cater to customers in around 7500 pin codes across India with around 3000+ products. It was incorporated in March 2012 with Chandan Sharma and Sanjay Gour as its founding directors.  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.

SVB India Finance has provided a Venture Term Loan to Pune-based Brainbees Solutions India Private Limited, the company which operates the online and offline kids products retailer FirstCry.com . The company also has an online portal for personal care and beauty products (goodlife.com) that was launched in December 2011. Brainbees engages in an offline franchisee model that was started in June, 2011 with 16 operational franchisees across India. It has a target to reach up to 50 within a year's time. Currently 20% of the company's sales are through their own logistics network but the plan is to move this to 80% by the end of the year. The company also plans to expand its product range to household goods which will increase margins at goodlife.com. From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: In April 2011 Saif had invested $4 million and in February 2012, Saif and IDG Ventures had invested $14 million in FirstCry. Source: Press Release Venture Intelligence is the...

Mumbai-based Games2win India Pvt. Ltd. has raised an additional round of funding of approximately $2 million (Rs.10 crore) from US-based Clearstone Venture Partners. This is Games2win’s third successful financing round in addition to a secondary sale of its shares to new investors last year.  The latest round of financing is to be used by Games2win for games acquisition and international team building. The company employs over 100 people. Its other investors include Silicon Valley Bank, Nirvana Ventures, Nexus Ventures and ICICI Venture.  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.

Mumbai based Biosense Technologies has raised $500,000 of funding from GSF India and Insitor Fund. The company, founded by Myshkin Ingawale, Abhishek Sen, Yogesh Patil and Aman Midha, plans to use the investment to improve the infrastructure around its products ToucHb and uChek. ToucHb is a handheld needle-free battery operated device that allows screening for anemia disease and allows treatment monitoring on a regular basis. uChek is a urine analysis iOS app which allows physicians and patients to analyze urine for various parameters like glucose, ketones and leukocytes. Biosense had raised $150,000 from GSF Superangels network in March 2012 and was one of GSF’s first batch of startups.  Source: Medianama 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 F...

Aranca , a Mumbai-based Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) firm, is looking at raising private equity in 8-10 months time to expanding its services to Latin America and China, both organically and inorganically. The company, which provides third party investment research and valuation for brokerages, financial institutions and private equity firms, plans to set up two delivery centers in these markets.  The company, which also provides research on IPRs.(intellectual property rights), is also doing due diligence on acquisitions and will be appointing a merchant banker soon.  Source: Business Line   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 Smart CEO: Through its network of mystery shoppers, Mumbai-based RedQuanta measures the quality of service, compliance to regulation and gathers specific information about products and services of its client companies. The mystery consumer’s specific identity is not known to the establishment that is being evaluated. Mystery shoppers perform specific tasks such as purchasing a product, asking questions, registering complaints or behaving in a certain way and then provide detailed reports or feedback about their experiences. ...The company’s team strength has grown from eight last year to 25 at present. It services over 50 clients across 15 different industries like telecom, apparel and jewelry. It also offers online and telephone audits for e-commerce companies. The company works with venture capital and private equity firms to evaluate their potential investments or build more data on the companies they have already invested in.  It also performs com...

Enterprise-mobility and mobile-SI company AgreeYa Mobility has secured new funding from Saama Capital. The additional financing will help AgreeYa Mobility expand market share for its enterprise mobility product, Onvelop, reaching companies using Microsoft products including Office 365, SharePoint and Lync.  Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Mountain View, California, AgreeYa Mobility is a leading mobile SI and technology organization, with development centers in the U.S., Canada, Poland, India, China and South Korea. The company caters to the requirements of telecom operators, handset manufacturers, chipset manufacturers and enterprise businesses. 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 Fi...

Mumbai-based payment processing start-up firm Citrus Payment Solutions Pvt . Ltd.,has revealed that it, has raised $2 million from Sequoia Capital in return for a minority stake and launched a new checkout service that will make online transactions quicker for customers. The money is the first Citrus has raised and will be used to expand its technology team and develop newer technologies.  Citrus, which was launched in 2011, has partnerships with the top 30 banks in India, including HDFC Bank Ltd, ICICI Bank Ltd and State Bank of India. Source: Mint 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.

Gurgaon-based HealthKart , which sells consumer healthcare goods online has raised $14 million in Series B funding from Intel Capital ($8 million) and Sequoia Capital ($6 million). Including the new round of funds, the company has raised a total of $22.5 million from venture capital firms. Healthkart was launched in March 2011 with initial capital of $1 million from Kae Capital and Sequoia. The company had later raised $7.5 million from Omidyar Network and existing investors Sequoia Capital and Kae Capital. Source: Nextbigwhat.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.

Akhil Gupta, Blackstone Group “I have always told my international colleagues that India will not be a linear growth story - we will take three steps forward and two steps back. And hence, if we take a long term view on the country, we will do well. But with the governance crisis over the last few years and with elections looming (especially with expectations of an uncertain mandate), I'm super cautious now. ” For the more detailed APEX'13 Summit Highlights, Click Here For the more detailed APEX'13 Awards Highlights, Click Here 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.

As part of his speech at the Venture Intelligence APEX'13 Awards, Ashish Chauhan, CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange, described how PE/VC investors were like the mythological character Abhimanyu  who knew "how to enter (the Chakra Vyuh ), but not to exit". He suggested that they could, at time of their investment into an SME company, insist the company list on the BSE's SME Stock Exchange. "Then, you can create an exit (route) at the time of the entry itself," Mr.Chauhan said. The added benefit is that the various governance related provisions that investors desire - from declaration of financial results, etc - is ensured by the exchange and enforced by SEBI and other regulatory agencies. "Protection of minority rights - i.e., ensuring corporate democracy - is the primary job of the exchange. If the majority owner takes away most of the profits and shares only the losses with the minority, then the faith in the public markets will collapse,”...

  Special Guest at the Venture Intelligence APEX'13 Awards, Ashish Chauhan, CEO, Bombay Stock Exchange provided a witty account of his experiences as an entrepreneur including in founding two startup ventures: ExchangeNext (under which he launched multiple exchanges for trading petrochemicals, steel, paper, etc) with financing from the Reliance Group and a venture that created back office systems for brokerages (which was acquired by BSE which then asked him to join the exchange). For the more detailed APEX'13 Awards Highlights, Click Here For the more detailed APEX'13 Summit Highlights, Click Here 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 & Mo...

  Sandeep Naik, General Atlantic at APEX'13 Summit & Awards “The sense of complacency - in terms of assuming foreign investors somehow have to invest in India - has cost us dearly in the last couple of years. It was very clear at the recent World Economic Forum at Davos that India has lost favor with international investors. India's image has been over sold and it's high time we start delivering on those claims. Even the larger Indian corporates are deploying their incremental investments in countries in Africa, Indonesia and other emerging economies. So, why would foreign investors bother to invest here? We need a credible India and not Incredible India.” For the more detailed APEX'13 Summit Highlights, Click Here For the more detailed APEX'13 Awards Highlights, Click Here Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactio...

  Special Guest at the APEX'13 Awards, Dr.Subir Gokarn, Noted Economist & Former Deputy Governor, RBI, pointed out that the surge in productivity, thanks to dramatic rise in the telecom penetration in the country, has now petered out and that we are awaiting the next "technology shock" (to boost productivity again). Dr.Gokarn highlighted Food as another area where technology advances and entrepreneurial efforts could contribute significantly. "There is a complete stagnation of productivity in proteins and vegetables and the supply response has been negligible. This has been a key hindrance to containing inflation," he said. For the more detailed APEX'13 Awards Highlights, Click Here For the more detailed APEX'13 Summit Highlights, Click Here Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Fina...

K.P.Balaraj, WestBridge Capital; Vijay Pattabhiraman, JP Morgan; Akhil Gupta, Blackstone Group; Srivatsa Krishna, IAS; Sandeep Naik, General Atlantic; Ashish Dhawan, ChrysCapital; Neeraj Bharadwaj, Carlyle   For the more detailed APEX'13 Summit Highlights, Click Here   For the more detailed APEX'13 Awards Highlights, Click Here 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.

Ashish Dhawan, ChrysCapital "If we were to shut down the Mauritius route (for investments), there is a real danger that we will destroy Private Equity in the country. And it's not just PE; the recent tax claims against MNCs like Shell, Microsoft and Nokia pose a much bigger question on overall FDI. What does it take for a company like Walmart with over $450 billion in sales to write off India for the next 10 years? I would say not a lot. But can we as a country - with our deficits running so high - afford it? We are playing with fire here. "   For the more detailed APEX'13 Summit Highlights, Click Here For the more detailed APEX'13 Awards Highlights, Click Here 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...

From a recent Business Today Cover Story : There was a rush of foreign direct investment into Indian real estate when the sector was first opened, but that is now drying up. Private equity (PE) players, foreign and domestic, have greatly reduced their exposure - their investments in real estate fell by 36 per cent in 2012 over 2011, as compared to a 19 per cent reduction in such funding in India as a whole. And those still backing realty projects, such as Motilal Oswal PE or IIFL Private Wealth, have started offering loans instead of acquiring equity charging interest of more than 20 per cent and seeking collateral often twice the size of the loan. ...Even a veteran realtor such as the Mumbai-based Oberoi Realty, while venturing into the National Capital Region, has been looking for a local developer or landowner, so it only has to invest in the building of the project. Or take Nitesh Estate, a newcomer in the field, but one which has already done a successful IPO - it...

Falguni Nayar, former MD and CEO of Kotak Investment Bank, has launched e-commerce portal, Nykaa.com . The venture, which went live in late 2012, offers wellness and beauty products. It is currently self funded and will be looking to raise external funds sometime next year.  Source: iamwire    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.

Gurgaon-based start-up Bright Lifecare Pvt Ltd, which runs the online health store Healthkart.com, is about to close a Series B funding round of up to $14 million led by Intel Capital with Sequoia as a co-investor. Healthkart started in March 2011 with seed round of $1 million from Kae Capital and Sequoia. Omidyar Networks and Sequoia together invested $5.2 million in Jan 2012 in the company’s Series A round. Currently Healthkart’s monthly revenues are about $1 million and pre-money valuation for the round is reported to be about 2.5x of the current run rate.  Healthkart sells products across fitness, health and personal care categories such as nutrition, diabetes, home devices, eye and personal care. It was founded by IIT Delhi alumni Prashant Tandon and Sameer Maheshwari. The company acquired MadeInHealth in May 2012.  Source: iamwire.com Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactio...

Multilateral funding agency ADB has made an investment of $2 million (about Rs.1.08 crore) in Bangalore-based Simpa Networks , which offers a prepaid payment platform to enable affordable clean energy solutions for under-served consumers in India. Simpa was established in 2010 by Paul Needham, Jacob Winiecki and Michael MacHarg - entrepreneurs with a track record in energy access, micro-payments and information technology.  Simpa’s customers make a small initial downpayment for a high quality solar home system and then pre-pay for their energy service, topping up their systems in small user-defined increments using a mobile phone. Each payment also adds towards their final purchase price. Once fully paid, the system unlocks permanently and continues to produce electricity.  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 & Valuat...

The Karnataka government has proposed to set up a venture capital fund with a corpus of Rs.50 crore targeting the pharmaceutical sector. The proposed Pharma VC Fund will have 26% contribution from the state government, while the balance will come from private investors and financial institutions.  The move to set up an exclusive VC fund for the pharma sector had been spelt out in the Karnataka Pharma Policy 2012.  Source: Business Standard   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.

Sequoia Capital is set to invest another Rs.120 crore in cookware and kitchen appliances company Stovekraft . Sequoia will raise its holding in the company to about 40%, up from the 27% stake that it bought five years ago. Stovekraft is expected to end the current fiscal with Rs.580 crore in revenue.  Sequoia has valued the Bangalore-based maker of Pigeon and Gilma branded products at around Rs.750 crore, which is a fourfold jump in the valuation since its initial investment. The company is India's third largest pressure cooker maker and is poised for leadership in the non-stick cookware segment. It has two manufacturing facilities in Karnataka and in Himachal Pradesh.   From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: In March 2008, SIDBI VC had invested $5.6 million (and exited the company in 2010). In February 2010, Sequoia Capital had invested $11 million in Stovekraft.  Source: Times of India Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of dat...

TLabs, a Times Internet Ltd. initiative that aims at nurturing and supporting the ideas and projects of Internet and mobile entrepreneurs, has launched Batch 3 with seven startups. These include:  Happay: Happay offers a mobile wallet, which enables people to pay anyone by just using their phone.  GradeStack: Aims to become a comprehensive store of courses and deliver faster interactive learning on mobile devices. GradeStack is trying to fill the big void left in optimizing learning crafted for mobile devices. It enables this by offering courses on native apps currently available for Android & iOS.  Langhar: Langhar is a web/mobile app to discover delicious and nutritious dishes cooked by real people at their amazing homes. Offermandi: OfferMandi is a marketing platform giving local retailers of a city an online presence to advertise their business. Ooogwave: Oogwave is a collaboration platform that encourages a shift away from using email as...

Nadir Godrej, managing director of Godrej Industries, has invested in LocalCircles , a community-based local social network. The Delhi-based start-up enables citizens to connect with local communities, including neighbours, colleagues and teachers, and find assistance during emergencies through web or mobile phones. Besides Godrej, Maruti Suzuki chairman RC Bhargava has joined the company as member of the advisory board. 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.

The Indian Angel Network (IAN) has invested in Nagpur-based RankJunction , a ranking platform for competitive exams. IAN members Jay Chopde and Ravi Kiran led this round of investment and will join the RankJunction board. Sameer and Rashmi Gautam founded RankJunction in 2011 to create an innovative platform to take a ‘live’ test which is a pre-scheduled online examination taken by thousands of users together. The investment raised will be primarily used for strengthening product development, scaling up the business by launch of more paid tests and creating alternate distribution channels and additional new courses for the students. 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 Exhaus...

Mumbai-based SkoolShop.com , a portal that brings together products related to school and education, operating on both B2B and B2C models, has received an investment from Blume Ventures and angel investors including Sunil Kalra, Srikant Shastri, Vikas Choudhury and Puneet Deora.  SkoolShop.com was founded by two HBS alumni, Satya Raghavan and Anusha Mahalingam. It has more than 50,000 SKU’s, sourced from over 300 vendors. These products range from stationary to uniforms to educational tablets. With offices in Delhi, Chennai and Bangalore apart from Mumbai, SkoolShop is supplying to more than 200 schools. From the Venture Intelligence Angel Investments database: In Dec-2011, Skoolshop had raised an angel round from Rajan Anandan and Jaspreet Bindra. 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 i...

From the profile in The Smart CEO : Today, Manipal Health Enterprise’s network encompasses 10 corporate hospitals with 1,600 beds and five teaching hospitals with 3,300 beds, across Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Goa. The employee strength across these regions is over 6, 000 nurses, doctors and other administrative staff. The company recently raised private equity to the tune of US id="mce_marker"80 million from India Value Fund, with the intention of channelising this towards strategic expansion.  Over the next three years, the hospital expects to add around 3,000 beds to its network and triple its revenues from Rs. 700 crore to over Rs. 2,500 crore. ...Until today, the group’s expansion has been limited to Tier-II and Tier-III regions in South India, mainly because of acquisition and brown-field opportunities like unmet demand and rapid growth, which these markets offer. “Growth in India is going to take place in the Tier-II and Tier-III cities with an increas...

ShopClues raises third round of funding; Nexus Venture Partners and Helion invest ShopClues.com    India’s first and largest managed marketplace has successfully completed its third round of funding. In a tough market, the company raised close to $10 million (Rs. 54 crores) from Helion Venture Partners and Nexus Venture Partners. Nexus Venture Partners had previously led the Series A investment in the company in Feb 2012. With this round, ShopClues.com has raised over $15 million in capital so far. Anup Gupta from Nexus Venture Partners had joined the board last year which has now been expanded with Sanjeev Aggarwal from Helion.  ShopClues has a line-up of world-class investors. Series B investors include top VC firms Helion and Nexus and also a leading Japanese Internet company. In Feb 2012, the company had raised Series A from Nexus and founder of one of the largest marketplaces in the world. Prior to Series A, ShopClues had raised a round (in Aug. 2011) fr...

VC firms Helion Venture Partners and Nexus Partners, along with Netprice.com CEO Teruhide Sato, have invested Rs.54 crore ($10 million) in Vadodara-based online sales facilitating e-commerce firm Shopclues.com . ShopClues, founded in 2011 by former Wall Street analyst Sandeep Agarwal along with three e-commerce professionals, helps third party merchants to sell online The new funds will be used to expand into more cities. It had earlier raised Rs.20 crore in the first round from investors including Nexus. The promoters own a majority stake in the e-commerce company, which is expected to clock Rs.120 crore sales by March 2013.  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 Exhausti...

TalentEdge , an education company that was acquired by Gurgaon-based PE player Lumis Partners in February 2012, is looking for acquisitions in India and abroad. The company is also looking at expanding its presence with an investment of Rs.40 crore in two years. It would acquire companies in the same or newer domains.  Source: Business Standard   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.

Info Edge, the company that runs Naukri, 99acres and Jeevansathi, plans to write off its entire Rs.29.3 crore investment in the boutique online shopping site 99Labels during the current quarter.  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.

Mumbai-based property search portal Housing.co.in has raised a second round of funding from former Network 18 CEO Haresh Chawla. The startup had raised an undisclosed amount from a group of angel investors led by Zishaan Hayath, the co-founder of Chaupati Bazaar, three weeks ago.  Chawla is a partner at PE firm India Value Fund. Housing.co.in, co-founded by Advitiya Sharma, has taken a data and map based approach to real estate hunting. It gives users information on the location like the amenities around it and other details on a map.  Source: NextBigWhat   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.

Gurgaon-based enterprise messaging service provider ValueFirst Digital Media has acquired mobile video service clk2c.com. Clk2c.com, a unit of Samadhan Systems, offers personalised video mobile messaging and advertising solutions for enterprises and individual consumers. The all-cash deal will enable ValueFirst to execute media campaigns on its opt-in consumer base of more than 25 million.  Mobile video greetings offered by the platform will be integrated with FullOnSMS. com, a Valuefirst website that allows users to send free text messages to any mobile phone user in India. Clk2c.com is ValueFirst's first buy after the exit of its former chief executive, Kumar Apurva, in September, and the third acquisition after buying Bangalore-based mGinger and Indyarocks in June last year. In May 2012, ValueFirst had bought Hyderabad-based Way2Online for Rs.150 crore, but the deal was reversed in January this year after ValueFirst found evidence of graft related to the sale.  S...

Former Shopperstop VP Vivek Mathur has launched a new venture giftease.com. The company, based out of Pune, is in the space of offering merchandise and experiences in the gifting space offered via offline and online mode. Giftease is also expected to open gifting stores in the malls in all Metro cities of India and will enrich customer experience in the gifting space in the country. Its first store would be launched in the Phoenix Market City Pune shortly.  At Shoppersstop, Vivek had headed the e-commerce initiative.  Source: iamwire.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.

Bangalore-based online broking firm Zerodha is in talks with US-based brokerages to raise about $1 million. The firm is looking for a strategic investor who would double up as a technology partner. Zerodha’s daily business is about Rs 2,500 crore in equities, out of which about 95% is in F&O segment and rest in cash. Besides, the daily turnover in commodities is about Rs 500 crore. A zero-debt firm, Zerodha’s capital base is Rs 15 crore, all from promoters.  Source: Deccan Herald   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.

PE firm Indus Balaji is to invest an undisclosed sum in Perfect Pincode , after having funded it about $3.5 million so far, to allow the Hyderabad-based search company add services for non-resident Indians or even buy another firm.   From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: Indus Balaji had invested in the company earlier in Mar-12. Source: Mint 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.

Hyderabad based personal finance website InvestmentYogi has raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding in January 2013 from Silicon Vally based angel investor Safa Rashtchy and others. The investment is between $100k – $500k.  This is the second round of investment from Rashtchy. InvestmentYogi is a financial portal and services company. Its tax filing website Taxyogi.com is one of the largest in the country. Rashtchy will now be the Chairman of the company’s board.  Source: NextBigWhat   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.

Property website bestpropertydeals.co.in is looking to raise about $1 million from VC funds or angel investors. The site seeks to find discounts for buyers by directly negotiating with builders.  Source: Mint 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.

Former Futurebazaar president Kashyap Deorah has launched a mobile payments company focused on the American markets. Deorah had led FutureBazaar for around two years and left the company in November to start his new venture called Chaloapp. According to the new company’s website, the venture is still in semi-stealth mode with more features coming soon. Futurebazaar, the online portal run by the Future Group, will now be headed by Future Group promoter Kishore Biyani’s nephew Vivek Biyani. Source: NextBigWhat   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.

Kranthi Vistakula-founded Dhama Innovations, a maker of specialized garments and lifestyle products, is looking to raise $10-12 million from an international investor. The firm's turnover of Rs.50 lakh (2011-12) is expected to grow to Rs.80 lakh to Rs.1 crore in 2012-13. Dhama had raised Rs.90 lakh from Reliance Ventures and from Mumbai Angels, in 2009. Together, they had picked up an around 19% stake in the company. They were bought out by a group of 3-4 HNIs within two years. Source: Business Standard 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.

Playcez , a local events discovery app, has raised funding in a seed round led by angel investors Rajesh Sawhney (GSF) and Mukul Singhal (SAIF Partners). The funds will be used for driving penetration of the company’s product in the smartphone market. Playcez was among the 15 startups inducted in the inaugural batch of GSF Accelorator.   Founded by Ashwani Gaur, Playcez is an event discovery platform that relies on social media and location checkin services to get events data. Playcez does this by identifying locations such as bars, restaurants, night clubs, among others and, by tracking the highest consumer traffic in those places, it recommends events and activities that are popular. The platform also allows users to check events and activities based on distance and time.  Source: Medianama 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 & Valu...

Accel Partners backed Bigtree Entertainment, which runs the online ticket company BookMyShow.com, has acquired Chennai-based entertainment ticketing portal, Ticketgreen.com . The deal will give Bigtree access to partnerships with over 100 regional cinemas that Ticketgreen.com has forged in the southern states, where it sells nearly 1 lakh tickets per month.  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.

Nashik-based Lakhotia Polyesters has filed the DRHP to issue 14,52,000 equity shares at Rs.35 per share aggregating to Rs.5.08 crore, forming 38.82% of the post issue paid up equity share capital of the company. Intensive Fiscal Services is the lead manager to the issue. The company, which will be traded on the BSE-SME exchange, is engaged in manufacture of polyester lacquered / coated films and slitted M type yarns.  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.

Chennai-based e-commerce portal Cbazaar.in is planning to expand operations to the Middle and South-East Asian nations by the end of next fiscal. Currently, the US, India and the UK account for a chunk of the company’s sales. The company began operations in the US and the UK , before entering the Indian market in 2011. The online portal specialises in Indian ethnic wear. It raised $3.5 million (around Rs.19 crore) funding from Inventus Capital and Ojas Ventures.  Source: Business Line   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.

InteractionOne Solutions, a start-up that lets magazine publishers launch a mobile version of their publication, has raised $ 1 million in seed funding from SDSS Management Services.  Launched in February 2012, the company provides magazine publishers with tools they can use to create and customize digital versions optimised for mobile devices and tablets. The firm will use the capital for recruitment and company expansion.  Source: Strategyeyedigitalmedia.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.

My Care Health Solutions, incorporated in 2012, aiming to provide cheap healthcare services using cloud computing, digitised health records and mobile phones, is in talks with external investors for raising funds. Dhirubhai Mehta, a former director at Bajaj Auto and the Jagjivan family, which owns the brokerage Brics Securities, are ready to back promoter Rajan Mehta.  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.