The Venture Intelligence Blog

Bangalore-based Kuliza , a social technology firm with expertise in building web, mobile and social media apps, has received an investment from Blume Ventures. Kuliza will be utilizing the raised funds in further expanding globally and building digital marketing tools.  Founded in 2006, Kuliza is focused on helping companies leverage technology support in the areas of social software, community platforms, mobile apps, and cloud computing. In 2011, it had acquired another Bangalore based startup Gizapage, which provides a social platform for brands.  Source: Iamwire 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.

Gramco Infratech Pvt Ltd (Gramco) , a rural-focused company that creates infrastructure to support farmers, has raised Rs 15 crore in its first round of equity funding from Samridhi Fund. The funds raised will be used to construct agri-warehouses in Madhya Pradesh and to meet its working capital requirements. Intellecap was the sole financial advisor to the deal.  The Samridhi Fund has been launched as a private sector development programme by Department for International Development (DFID) in partnership with Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). 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.

Edited extracts From the  Press Release: VoxApp, a Delhi-based startup that has developed a platform to enable brands & research companies  undertake consumer feedback studies on the mobile phone, has raised a round of funding from a syndicate of domestic and foreign investors including Blume Ventures, Narayanan Shadagopan (MD, Pragati India Fund), Palaash Ventures, Sachin Bhatia (entrepreneur, co-founder - MakeMyTrip), US-based investors Ramesh Haridas (CEO, Parakweet, NY), Vikas Taneja (MD, BCG Boston). The startup is also backed by Sidharth Rao, CEO, Webchutney.  VoxApp will use the funds for further product development.  The startup was founded in December 2012 by Madhu Sudhan, formerly Principal at Pragati India Fund with co-founders who have worked in Slideshare and SAP Labs. The company has completed the beta launch of its enterprise product and is working with leading research agencies in deploying the product. "We started VoxApp to provide r...

Mumbai-based online beauty and personal care e-tailer Purplle has raised its first round of funding from seed fund Blume Ventures and angel networks Mumbai Angels and The Chennai Angels. The company, founded in early 2012 by Manish Taneja and Rahul Dash, offers personal care products ranging from make-up to electronics from over 400 global brands.  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.

New Delhi-based Airwoot , a startup that helps brands provide customer support on social media, has raised funding from investors led by Kae Capital. Top angel investors like Google India managing director Rajan Anandan, Sasha Mirchandani, Sunil Kalra and Samir Sood participated. The company, which enables businesses to engage with their customers in real-time, will use the funding to develop technology and hire talent. Saurabh Arora co-founded the company in 2012 along with Prabhat Saraswat. 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.

Seed fund Blume Ventures has disclosed that it has invested in 12 ventures in the first six months of 2013.  Infollion: Delhi-based Infollion brings together buyers and sellers of research services or products on the same platform. Batchcar: Mumbai-based Batchcar (earlier called SharedCab.com) is a provider of shared taxi service. Co-investors: Kae Capital, individuals. NowFloats: Hyderabad-based NowFloats is a location-based mobile service which looks to provide relevant and contextual information to users based on their current location and time. Co-investors: Mumbai Angels, individuals. Explara: Pune-based Explara (earlier called Ayojak.com) is a platform for event ticketing. Co investors: Harvard Business Alumni Angels. SkoolShop: Mumbai-based SkoolShop aims to help parents and children access educational products in a convenient manner.  Paletly: The Mumbai-based company’s e-commerce website allows women to buy apparel and other accessories cre...

Drums Food International, owner of the Hokey Pokey brand of ice cream, has raised less than a million dollars from investors led by Peter Rajsingh, a partner at New York-based Castellar Partners and Professor at New York University. Other investors include Shripad Nadkarni, a former marketing head at Coca-Cola India and Apurva Salarpuria, director at the Salarpuria Group. The company, promoted by Rohan Mirchandani, plans to raise more funds by end of the year.  Hokey Pokey has 20 outlets across Mumbai, Thane, Pune and Nashik and the national capital region (NCR) in partnership with Barista and plans to have 50 outlets by end of the year.  Source: Mint   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 Trans...

Cross posted from the Entrevista blog at http://www.entrevista.in Interview with Ratish Nair, Founding-CEO of Interactive Avenues (IA), the Mumbai-headquartered, Sequoia Capital India-backed digital marketing agency which was acquired in March 2013 by US- and Europe-based ad agency Interpublic. Interview focuses on the company's founding (5 co-founders who earlier worked at another digital agency Mediaturf); Angel Funding (from Anupam Mittal of Shaadi.com); VC Funding and relationship with Sequoia Capital; and, of course, the Exit (how IA ran the process, the role of the VC, the role of the intermediary, internal dynamics, etc.). The interviewer is fellow entrepreneur Chandu Nair . (Chandu earlier founded, successfully raised venture capital for and exited from Scope eKnowledge, one of the earliest KPO firms in India.) The Audio (podcast) version can be downloaded from here   Other Highlights Synergistic Co-founding team How, having worked together in the past (a...

Sequoia Capital and Norwest Venture Partners are backing Bangalore-based outdoor-gear maker Wildcraft with a $10-million investment. The funds are valuing the backpack and rucksack brand at nearly $50 million. The fund raising is part of the strategy to transformWildcraft from mostly a technical outdoor gear to a broader lifestyle and leisure business. Wildcraft's sales are nearing Rs 100 crore up from just Rs.1 crore in FY07. The company operates over 60 exclusive stores, over 200 shop-in-shop formats and is present across 1,000 multi-brand channels across 50 cities. Source: Times of India 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.

Cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni has invested in sports goods and apparel brand Fitsoul, a venture backed by ex-Reebok honcho Sajid Shamim and entrepreneur Parvinder Singh. Fitsoul, launched seven months ago, has six stores and aims to be a sports goods retailing vertical selling multi-brand products. The company has developed both online and brick-and-mortar stores. The company hopes to clock revenues of over Rs 300 crore and may also look at overseas expansion. Dhoni had earlier invested in Sportsfit, a gym chain, along with Shamim and Pankaj Guliani.  Source: Business Line   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.

New York based travel intelligence and information portal, Skift , has raised funding from Times Internet Limited. The terms of the deal do not involve a board seat. Skift, which offers news, information, data and services related to travel, raised $1.1 million of funding in May this year in a round led by Lerer Ventures with participation from a group of eight angel investors along with seed funds Ironfire Angel, MESA+, Advancit Capital and Grow lab+LX Ventures. From the Venture Intelligence Angel Investments database: In August 2012 Vishal Gondal and Sanjay Parthasarathy had invested $0.5 million in Skift.  Source: Nextbigwhat   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.

ATM outsourcing company Electronic Payments and Services (EPS) has raised $6 million (Rs 36 crore) from Social VC fund Aavishkaar. This is the second round of funding for the start-up which has received the mandate to set up machines all over Maharashtra by public sector banks. EPS plans to deploy around 5000 plus ATMs by 2014 with 500 installations every month.  Last year, Aavishkaar had invested $4million in EPS through two of its funds -- Aavishkaar Goodwell II, a financial inclusion fund and Aavishkaar II, a rural and semi-urban India focused fund.  Source: Times of India   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.

Crickter Sachin Tendulkar has picked up an 18% stake in Smaaash Entertainment, the sports simulation venture, started by serial entrepreneur Shripal Morakhia. Morakhia earlier founded brokerage firm Sharekhan and investment banking firm SSKI. Smaash offers augmented reality simulators to play cricket and race F1 cars among other sports at its gaming arcade in Mumbai’s Lower Parel. Smaash is also trying to raise PE funding. 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.

Sequoia Capital has bought a minority stake in Ahmedabad-based Vini Cosmetics Pvt. Ltd for Rs.110 crore. Of this, Rs.35 crore was used to purchase the stake of an unnamed investor. Rest of the funds raised will be used for diversifying into over-the-counter (OTC) products and nutraceuticals.  Founded by Darshan Patel in 2010, Vini Cosmetics makes Fogg deodorants and talcum powder White Tone and Jinjola and has an annual turnover of about Rs.175 crore. Source: Mint 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.

PE funds including Tata Capital and Morgan Stanley Global Private Equity will pick up a significant minority stake in fourth round of funding for urban micro-lender Janalakshmi Financial Services for Rs.350 crore. Janalakshmi, promoted by former Citibanker Ramesh Ramanathan, offers services to 50,00,000 customers across 47 cities and has applied for a licence to transform itself into a bank.  From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: In March 2007 Lok Capital and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation had invested $.70 million, In March 2009 Bellwether and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation had invested $1.58 million in Janalakshmi. In March 2010, Tree Line Asia Master Fund and Bellwether had invested $8 million. In June 2011, Citi and Tree Line Asia Master Fund had invested $14 million and in July 2012 Citi, India Financial Inclusion Fund, Tree Line Asia Master Fund and GAWA Microfinance Fund had invested $14.5 million  Source: Economic Times   Ventu...

Canaan has already invested in Indian online classifieds firms like Bharatmatrimony, Cartrade and Indiaproperty and is hungry for more investments in the segment. Alok Mittal who heads the US headquartered venture firm's operations in India explains why and the dynamics of the sector in an interview to BusinessLine . Extracts (emphasis mine): Exits have been attractive both in India and globally. In fact, in India, online classifieds has been the only Internet segment to have thriving public companies in form of InfoEdge and Justdial.  ...Globally, this has been borne out with listed online classified businesses trading at 6-7 times revenue on an average, and commanding around 25 per cent operating profits . Within the Indian context, classified businesses such as Naukri.com and Justdial.com have demonstrated similar profitability, defensibility and valuation multiples. ...Amongst Indian online classified sectors, jobs, local and matrimony have been demons...

From a post by Mukund Mohan of Microsoft Ventures As we start to invest in the early stage startup ecosystem in India, it is important to calibrate the possible returns and allocate funds associated with the returns. If most entrepreneurs in India are okay with smaller returns, it makes sense for us to allocate fewer fund here than China, Israel or Africa. From our experience at the accelerator, where, over the last year we have “invested” our time, resources and energy in 23 startups, we know that the risk appetite is much lower among startup founders in India, compared to those in Israel for example. We have already had 2 small “exits” and 3 closures in India. Israeli companies are still out there, fighting for their series A and beyond, while 1 company had pivoted dramatically in Israel, only to start again. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A...

Mukund Mohan of Microsoft Ventures has a numbers-based post on the probability of funding and the equity dilutions Indian entrepreneurs face depending on whether they go to an Accelerator first versus VCs and Angel Investors. The first scenario for you, the entrepreneur, is to get funded directly by a VC . The chances of that happening in India are low – 1.4%.  The other challenge is that those companies got relatively poor valuations (average about $1.4 Million pre money). Only 19 out of 1300 entities got funded last year to raise their series A through a VC directly. In this case you will possibly dilute 30-40% and still own >60% of the company . I have used 30% dilution in the chart below. The second scenario is to get angel funding and then in 18 months get VC funding. The chances are better that you might go through this scenario (2X more – 43 companies got angel funded last year), and then venture funding. You will end up owning 56% of your company (by g...

Microsoft will take on board 8 companies as a part of its winter batch for 2013. The companies are:  AdSparx: Enables monetization for digital video delivered through the Internet for mobile devices, PCs and connected TVs. ShieldSquare: Helps identify, detect, assess and protect against any account breaches on user accounts.  Chance: An iPhone & Android application that will allow users to make short video interactions.  Frrole: Extracts meaningful, relevant and informational social conversations from twitter in real-time.   Native5: Enables developers to rapidly create and manage scalable applications across multitude of devices.  SignEasy: A convenient way for businesses and professionals to legally sign documents from smartphones and tablets TommyJams: Provides inexpensive and transparent technology to connect artists, venues and fans on a web-platform. Whale Logix: A shopper engagement platform which drives higher conve...

Zodius Capital has invested $3 million (around Rs 18 crore) in Bangalore- and Singapore-based big data and analytics company Antuit . Part of the investment has been used by Antuit, founded by Arijit Sengupta, to acquire a US-based analytics firm Marketwell in a part cash and stock deal. With this acquisition Antuit gets a presence in the US as well as access to 10 clients, of which three are fortune 500 companies. Bhargava will join Antuit as chairman. Antuit will initially target customers in CPG & Retail including E-commerce and Transportation & Logistics, with plans to build out new industry practices through strategic client relationships and acquisitions.  Source: Business Standard   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 ...

Intel Capital has invested $9 million (Rs.54 crore) in Bangalore-based start-up NxtGen Datacenter and Cloud Technologies that offers data storage services to corporations in India. This is the first round of institutional investment for NxtGen. NxtGen was founded in May last year by AS Rajgopal, who has previously worked with Tulip Data City and Reliance Communication's data center business. The company has a cloud data center in Bangalore and plans to launch another in Delhi and Mumbai. The company is targeting revenues of Rs.500 crore in next three years and has acquired around ten acres of land in the outskirts of Bangalore for setting up an advanced facility. 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 & ...

eBay-backed online marketplace Snapdeal has raised $75 million from Softbank. Three months ago, Snapdeal had closed a $75 million investment round from Ebay, Intel Capital, Russian venture fund ru-Net, Saama Capital, Recruit Co, existing investors like Nexus Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and IndoUS Venture Partners and a few angel investors. Earlier, it had raised $12 million from Nexus Venture Partners and Indo-US Venture Partners in Jan 2011 and $40 million from Bessemer Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners and Indo-US Venture Partners in July 2011. The company has raised $202 million until now.  With more than 20 million registered users, Snapdeal claims to be clocking a gross turnover of more than Rs 100 crore a month.  Source: MediaNama 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 ...

Confectionary chain Cookie Man, promoted by SBP Pattabhi Rama Rao, has bought into ID (standing for idlidosa), started in 2010 by SPI Diners, an arm of Chennai’s theatre chain Sathyam Cinemas. Till January this year, ID ran only one outlet, inside Sathyam Cinemas. Since then, it has started six more - two in Coimbatore and four in Chennai. Cookie Man plans to increase the total number of ID outlets to 12 by end of 2013-14 in Chennai and Coimbatore. Next financial year, the brand would be taken to Bangalore and Hyderabad. Each ID, with seating typically for 100 customers, gets footfalls of over 1,000 during the weekends (double that of the weekdays), and entails an investment of over Rs 1 crore. 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 Week...

Caravan Craft Retail Private Limited, a Bangalore based apparel and home décor company, has raised Rs 1 cr from United Seed Fund. Co-founded by former Hidesign Chief Executive Officer Kunal R Sachdev, the company is set to launch a ‘single brand’ concept in India and will soon open up its first store in Bangalore focused on women.  Source: Nextbigwhat    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.

Head Held High Services Pvt Ltd has raised a first round of investment of Rs 2.5 crore from Unilazer Ventures, five angels from the Intellecap Impact Investment Network (I3N). The angels included Pravin Gandhi, Jayesh Parekh, Reena Mithal and Sanjeev Shah, and US-based investors like Kartik Kilachand.  Head Held High runs three initiatives - RubanShakti, a talent transformation platform where rural youth undergo a residential five-month programme that transforms them into knowledge-economy professionals; RubanSource, a platform that enables rural youth to deliver services like BPO, market surveys across sectors like agriculture, health, etc; and the Ruban Entrepreneur Forum that builds capacity in rural entrepreneurs and enables them to provide last-mile capability across sectors.  The company, founded in 2012 by Madan Padaki and Rajesh Bhat, is already in talks for a Series A round of Rs 15-20 crore. The non-profit Head Held High Foundation will remain the single la...

Organic products e-tailer, Organicshop.in, has raised an angel funding of Rs 30 lakh from Rajasthan Angel Investor Network (RAIN). 13 investors from the network have picked up a total stake of 30% equity stake in the Jaipur-based Organicshop.in that works on a marketplace model and does not stock any inventory. It currently features more than 1300 products across various categories such as organic clothing, food, cosmetics and wellness. Founded in November 2012, it currently fufils 10-12 orders per day, with an average ticket size of Rs 500. The margins on organic products are 15-30% depending on the product category. It plans to launch its own private label brand “ITSORGIC” soon. The new funds will be invested in marketing, technology and customer experience and expansion into global markets. Organicshop.in is co-promoted by US-based Jaipur Inc, which runs Onlineorganicmart.com targeting the US market.  Source: NextBigWhat   Venture Intelligence is the leading pro...

Vikram Malhotra, the former CEO of Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, has ventured into an independent studio model under the banner Abundantia. He has raised Rs.150 crore from two investors - a Hong Kong-based private equity firm, which is making its debut in the Indian media and entertainment space, and a high net-worth individual ( HNI) from India who is not connected to the film world. Malhotra has signed multiple film deals with filmmakers Nikhil Advani (director of D Day and Kal Ho Naa Ho), Neeraj Pandey (Special 26 and A Wednesday) and Shoojit Sircar (Vicky Donor).  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.

One97 has acquired Mumbai Angels- and Bangalore Angels-backed, Bangalore-based regional language messaging app startup, Plustxt . Plustxt allows text messaging in Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, Malayalam and Kannada.  Source: NextBigWhat   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.

New York & Mumbai based online lifestyle retailer Squarekey has raised funding from 500Startups and Devaraj Southworth, Executive Vice President of US-based payments firm Zipmark. Squarekey is a editorially driven ecommerce play, providing Indian users access to range of international brands and curated services at the same price as available in the west.  Source: iamwire   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.

Bangalore based, online home decor retailer Urbanladder has raised Series A round of funding led by the Saif Partners. With this round of funding Deepak Gaur, Partner at Saif Partners has also joined the board of Urbanladder. Urbanladder which was co-founded by Ashish Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa in January 2012 had raised $1 million in seed funding from Kalaari Capital in August 2012. The company is a private label player and deals across furniture categories including beds, sofas, dining tables, tables, shelves, seating, accessories, etc. with its operations in Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi/NCR, Chennai and Pune. The company also plans to soon launch its operations in Hyderabad.  Source: iamwire 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 ...

Mumbai based payment technology startup LivQuik Technology (India) Pvt Ltd has raised funding from Snow Leopard Technology Ventures. The funds will be used to expand its team in engineering, operations and marketing. Chris Kolenaty, partner at Snow Leopard, has joined the board.  LivQuik was founded by Mohit Lalwani and Yudhajit Nag Sen in April 2012. It provides a mobile wallet called QuikWallet that allows users to store their credit card, debit, loyalty, and prepaid cards. The app allows to make a payment by using technologies such as QR codes, NFC, or browse the store to make a payment online. The company plans to launch the app on Smartphone platforms. Source: Medianama   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 & M...

The FIPB has cleared Noida-based Curadev Pharma Pvt Ltd’s proposal to raise Rs.25 crores from a Venture Capital fund registered with SEBI. In March 2011 Curadev Pharma was incubated at IIT Kanpur. It does research in pre-clinical space to make IND (investigational new drugs) and pre-IND packages.  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.

Economic Times has raised the "danger" flag on the bubble building up in the sector in a full page feature . "The hype around impact investing far outweighs reality," warns Vineet Rai, founder and chairman of Intellecap, with over a decade's experience in funding and handholding social entrepreneurs through the Aavishkaar funds. "The expectations being raised are just beyond the capability of the system to deliver." ... The noise around impact investing reached a crescendo in November 2010, when JP Morgan categorised it as a distinct asset class and estimated an investment opportunity between $400 billion and $1 trillion (about Rs 20,00,000 crore to Rs 50,00,000 crore)over the next decade. The profit potential estimated for the same period was a stupendous $183 billion to $667 billion. The study also indicated that in emerging markets, impact investments could fetch annual returns of 8-11% for debt investments and 20-24% for equity i...

Indian Angel Network’s (IAN) virtual incubator has incubated eight new companies since January this year including: Evomo Research & Advancement: the Ahmedabad-based startup is building ‘Saavaj’, a rural utility vehicle (RUV) that aims to replace the Jugaad, an unsafe motor vehicle used for transportation in the country’s hinterland. Evomo, founded in 2008 by Abhinav Kumar,was incubated at the National Institute of Design.   Tutoring ‘D’ Street: a Delhi-based low-cost vocational training company that provides practical online and offline training programs in Microsoft applications such as Excel. Tutorials are customized by job function and contain case studies, mini simulations and tests. The company was founded in 2010 by Abhinav Verma and Rajat Singhal. Buntea & Bubbley: a Bangalore-based company that retails beverages such as bubble tea and healthy desserts such as frozen yogurt. The company was founded in 2012 by husband-wife team Prerna Singh and Gau...

Sequoia Capital India has invested Rs.3.22 crores in Chennai-based online accounting services firm Reach Accountant . The company issues 10 equity shares and 6,143 preference shares of face value Rs.10 at a price of Rs.5,230.31 each to Sequoia Capital India Investment Holdings III, regulatory filings reveal   From the Venture Intelligence Angel Investments database: In Feb 2012, Reach Accountant had raised funding from Rajan Anandan and Rehan yar Khan.  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.

Times Internet’s city guide TimesCity has “acqui-hired” the Pune-based restaurant recommendation mobile app Gawbl , which was launched four months ago on Android. The Gawbl team will be joining TimesCity’s mobile team, where they will be working on improving TimesCity’s mobile apps. Gawbl founder Chiragh Kirpalani will be joining TimesCity as the head of mobile. Founded in January 2013, Gawbl aimed to offer restaurant suggestions based on the user’s mood (quick bite, fine dining, experimental or chilling with friends) and his current location. The company had launched an Android app in April 2013, which offered suggestions based on the proximity and the serving time of these restaurants. Source: MediaNama 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: Ind...

Ernst & Young and Unitus Capital topped the Venture Intelligence India League Tables for the Most Active Transaction Advisors to Private Equity deals during the six months ended June 2013. Unitus was the financial advisor to as many as nine PE transactions during the period (earning 34 League Table credit points), while E&Y was the financial advisor to three PE transactions (with 12 points). Including Due Diligence, Taxation and other advisory services, E&Y advised as many as 26 PE transactions (earning 36 points). E&Y was also the financial advisor to six M&A transactions during H1’13 (earning 22 points) and as many as 26 M&A transactions (earning it a total of 42 points) if other advisory services were to be included. The Venture Intelligence League Tables, the first such initiative exclusively tracking transactions involving India-based companies, are based on volume of PE and M&A transactions advised by Transaction and Legal Advisory firms. ...

Omidyar Network, via ON Mauritius Business, has picked up a 29.33% stake in NeoGrowth , a Mumbai-based NBFC which lends to small and medium sized retailers, for Rs.17 crore. NeoGrowth has allotted 74,625,870 preference shares at Rs.22.78 per share and 100 equity shares at the same issue price to the investor. As part of the deal, Dimple Sanghi has joined the board, regulatory filings reveal. NeoGrowth's founders had earlier founded VC-backed electronic payments processing firm Venture Infotek (acquired by AtoS in mid-2010).    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.

AZB & Partners topped the Venture Intelligence India League Tables as the Most Active Legal Advisor for Private Equity deals during the six months ended June 2013. With 74 qualifying League Table points across 19 PE deals, AZB’s score was more than double than that of the next highest firm. Khaitan & Co. (with 50 qualifying League Table points) was the tied with AZB for the Most Active Legal Advisor for M&A transactions in the same period. The Venture Intelligence League Tables, the first such initiative exclusively tracking transactions involving India-based companies, are based on volume of PE and M&A transactions advised by Transaction and Legal Advisory firms. Private Equity Deals The PE deals advised by AZB during H1’13 included KKR’s investment in Alliance Tire Group and Baring Asia’s investment in Lafarge India. Other legal advisors who advised a significant number of PE transactions during the period include IndusLaw , Tatva Legal and Samvad ...