The Venture Intelligence Blog

Sovereign Wealth & Buyout Funds Step Up Activity even as Mega Deals dry up for Internet & Mobile Cos Private Equity firms invested about $3,602 million across 129 deals during the quarter ended June 2016, according to early data from Venture Intelligence , a research service focused on private company financials, transactions and their valuations. The investment amount was 16% lower than that invested in the same period last year ($4,278 million across 169 transactions) and 7% lower than the immediate previous quarter ($3,890 million across 169 transactions). The latest figures take the PE investments in the first six months of 2016 to $7,492 million across 298 transactions - comparable to the first six months of 2015 which had witnessed $7,340 million across 370 deals. ( Note: These figures include Venture Capital investments, but exclude PE investments in Real Estate.) Only six PE investments worth $100 million or more were reported during Q2’16 compared to...

Venture Capital firms made 94 investments worth $324 million in Indian companies during the three months ending June 2016. The investment activity in Q2’16 is 16% lower compared to the same period in 2015 (which witnessed 112 investments worth $491 million), according to analysis by Venture Intelligence. The activity level was also 9% lower compared to the immediate previous quarter (which witnessed 103 deals worth $299 million). VC investments during Q2’16 were led by fashion e-tailer Voonik which raised a $20 million second round led by existing investor Sequoia Capital India, followed by the $16 million third round investment in playschool company KLAY Schools (led by Peepul Capital with participation from existing investor Kaizen PE). Other start-ups that attracted significant capital during Q2’16 included healthcare products e-talier 1MG (that raised a $15 million second round from Sequoia Capital India, Maverick Capital and Omidyar Network) and online tax filing comp...

Mint quotes Venture Intelligence data in an article covering S Chand (which has also become an active strategic investor in Education startups): In the last five years, private equity investors have invested almost a billion dollars in the education sector, according to data from Venture Intelligence, a private company financial database. Related Reading: PE/VC Investments in Education spike up in 2016 Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. 

A Business World article titled  Healthcare Sector At Inflection Point discusses trends in Healthcare Industry as Private Equity interests in the sector continue to gain in recent times: Over the last few years, many PE funds have set-up dedicated healthcare-focused funds viz. Asian Healthcare fund, Quadria Capital, Sabre Partners, etc. For the 12-month period that ended in May 2016, the Indian Healthcare sector attracted investment of over $780 million from PE investors — 4.2 per cent of the total PE investment of $18.7 billion, according to deal database Venture Intelligence. Trends to be seen: 1. Consolidation of Healthcare Companies Availability of large capital, on the back of recent IPO success, increased PE investment in the sector and increasing global strategic investors in India will consolidate the share of organised players. e.g. IHH Healthcare, Malaysia acquired the majority stake in Global hospitals for over $200 million. Other players like Netcare (leading...

A Mint article titled Should Indian e-tailers be overawed by Amazon’s huge cash flow? quotes Venture Intelligence data on funding in E-Commerce companies: In 2015, Indian Internet and e-commerce companies received funding worth $5.8 billion from private investors, according to research firm Venture Intelligence . (Compared to $7.3 Billion of Amazon Inc's Free Cash Flow) Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India.  Click Here to Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Mint quotes Venture Intelligence data on latest investment in PrettySecret and RB investments in India . The Singapore-based venture capital firm (RB Investments) has made close to half a dozen investments so far. Some of its recent investments in India include food-tech start-up Swiggy, online retailer of branded Indian food products Delight Foods, online furniture start-up CapriCoast.com and laundry services start-up 5-a-sec. In the last three years, around seven online lingerie retailers have managed to raise funds from venture capital investors, according to data from Venture Intelligence. Last year in September, in the biggest investment in the space, online lingerie store Zivame, owned by Actoserba Active Wholesale Pvt. Ltd, raised Rs.250 crore in a series C funding round from Zodius Technology Fund and Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the investment holding arm of the government of Malaysia. Existing investors Unilazer Ventures, IDG Ventures India and Kalaari Capital also participa...

US-based AgFunder has a podcast interview with Mark Kahn, Co-Founder of  pioneering India-focused agri-business focused VC firm Omnivore Capital. In the interview, Kahn contrasts the Indian agtech startup scene with that in the US and what he expects for the sector going forward. Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

A Mint article titled  FDI in pharma to boost mergers, PE investments, say experts ,  quotes Venture Intelligence data on transactions in Private Equity and M&A in the Pharma space. Click here to read more. Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India.  Click Here to Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

A Mint article titled, BTI Payments looking to raise Rs250 crore from PE funds , quotes Venture Intelligence data on PE/VC Investments in ATM and Payment Technology Service businesses. In the last five years, PE investors have invested around $194 million in ATM and payment technology services businesses, shows data from Venture Intelligence. In the largest transaction in the space, AGS Transact Technologies raised $40 million from Actis in 2012. The previous year it had raised $32 million from TPG Growth. Other transactions in the space include Apis Partners’s $25 million investment in Electronic Payment and Services earlier this year and CX Partners’s $22 million investment in Transaction Solutions International in 2012. In November 2013, ICICI Venture invested Rs.140 crore in BTI Payments. The investment took place together with a Rs.110 crore infusion by the Australian promoter in the company for branching out into setting up white label ATMs in India. BTI’s competitors in...

In a Mint article titled  Kedaara Capital in advanced talks to buy Sutures India stake , journalists Swaraj Singh Dhanjal and Reghu Balakrishnan quote Venture Intelligence data on the investments made by Kedaara Capital in India. Kedaara Capital has so far invested in companies such as Parksons Packaging Ltd, Mahindra Logistics Ltd, Au Financiers India Ltd, Bill Forge and Manjushree Technopack, putting into action around $172 million, according to data from Venture Intelligence. Its latest investment was the buyout of Au Housing Finance, the mortgage arm of Au Financiers, along with Swiss private equity firm Partners Group, for around $140 million, the data shows.  To view company valuations, transaction multiples, financials of investments by Kedaara Capital or portfolio details of other PE/VC funds investing in India, subscribe to the Venture Intelligence PE/VC Deals Database. Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Com...

While Softbank hit the headlines in 2014 with its big ticket - leading multi hundred million dollar rounds - in growth stage companies like Snapdeal and Ola, 2015 saw the entry of lesser known Japan-based investors - like Beenos Partners and Rebright Partners - entering the early stage segment in India. Beenos Partners investments include ShopClues.com (Series B), Voonik (Series B), Droom (Series A) and CitrusPay (Series B). (Click to View) Both the number of Japanese investors - both Venture Capital and Strategic Investors - as well as startup companies in their portfolio has only grown in 2016. Active Japanese investors in India include Beenos Partners, Rebright VC, Digital Garage and GMO. With some of them teaming up for bigger investments.... And what's more, newer funds from Japan have announced plans to enter India soon like Gree Ventures and Dream Incubator or made single/strategic investments like impact investor Arun Llc, DeNA, Zenrin and Nihon...

A Mint article , uses Venture Intelligence data to chronicle the investments of Piramal Structured Investments Group and Morgan Stanley Private Equity whose top executives have put in their papers: Apart form its private equity arm, Morgan Stanley through its infrastructure investment platform has made several investments in India in companies such as Asian Genco, Continuum Wind Energy, Hathway Cable & Datacom and Indus Concessions amongst others, data from Venture Intelligence shows.   Its infrastructure platform has made two exits so far in India, from IHHR Hospitality and Hathway Cable, Venture Intelligence data shows. Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India.  Click Here to Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

An ET Article titled,  Private Equity players looking to invest in Operational hotels   quotes Venture Intelligence data on PE/VC Investments in the Hotel Industry: In the last two years, funds have invested over $100 million in several hotel chains in India, data by Venture Intelligence showed.   Other factors influencing the trend are i) the relaxation through automatic FDI route into the segment and ii) many hotel chains in the country being burdened with huge debt. Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India.  Click Here to Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Update by Arun Natarajan, Founder, Venture Intelligence: I recently (in September 2016), for the first time, had the opportunity to try out rail food delivery (when I was traveling from Alleppey to Chennai). Unfortunately, the first online service I headed to - TravelKhana - said they don't service this route and RailYatri's site didn't work at all. I then chose a company from the non VC-backed list - YatraChef . While no one turned up at the station at which they were supposed to deliver (!), someone from their cell center called (immediately at the departure time) to check if I had received the food and once I said no, apologized and said they would deliver at the next major station. And, thankfully the delivery person (from their affiliate restaurant) at the next station, did not only deliver, but actually called 5 minutes before my train arrived and said he was waiting. Whew! Spared embarrassment with the family for suggesting we would use food tech instead of gett...

An Economic Times article titled, " New fintech companies drawing interest from investors and customers alike " quotes Venture Intelligence data to track VC investments in Fintech space. Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India.  Click Here to Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

In an Economic Times article chronicling the worries of PE Industry in India,  " Private equity: Worst over for industry but old worries remain ", journalists Sneha Shah & Rica Bhattacharyya use Venture Intelligence data to track Fund Raising in India: Interested in tracking Fund Raising in India, LP investors in funds, etc - take a trial to the Venture Intelligence PE/VC Deals Database. Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. 

In an article titled " Tata Power-Welspun deal brings focus back to M&As in renewables ", Mint's Swaraj Singh Dhanjal uses Venture Intelligence data to forecast consolidation in the green energy space: 1. According to Venture Intelligence, the year 2015 saw 14 M&A deals in the renewable space worth $2.27 Billion. (2016 has seen only 3 M&A deals in the Renewable Space including the Tata Power - Welspun Deal) 2. Opportunities for M&A exist in renewable project companies that were built in the in earlier waves of renewable energy development. (Want a Peek into the List? Try out our Cleantech Deals Database ) 3. Large Companies are actively pursuing M&A route to scale up due to the long time scale required for pre-development work, such as in wind, or the uncertainties of competitive bidding in solar (e.g. solar bids routinely attracting 60-70 bidders). M&A guarantees scaling-up in a manner that green-field development cannot. 4. Highly...

Education related companies have already attracted PE/VC investments worth $184 million (across 11 deals) in the first 4.5 months of 2016 – 2.75 times compared to the $67 million across the whole of 2015 (17 investments). The sector is well on its way to surpass the highest ever figures ($235 M reported in 2012). Recent Deals The month of May has already witnessed three investments in test preparation and tutoring companies: EduPristine - Certification Courses - Raised $8 million from Kaizen PE & US-based DeVry Education Group Tabtor - App based Math Tutoring firm - Raised $3.7 M Series A led by Syven Capital Prepathon - Test Prep App - Blume Ventures Sector Focus In the non-regulated sectors, Test Preparation (like Byju's Classes) and Vocational Training & Certification firms (like Simplilearn & Edupristine) have been the most favored sectors by investors. The $70 million attracted by Byjus in March 2016 l...

In an Economic Times Retail article titled " Hyperlocal start-ups - The Road Ahead ", Zopper CEO Neeraj Jain quotes Venture Intelligence data on funding in Hyperlocal delivery startups: According to Venture Intelligence, 26 investments worth $171 million were made in these delivery startups. (The data point was earlier carried by The Hindu article titled  End of the road for Hyperlocal delivery startups? ) Neeraj believes that, despite the recent challenges facing the sector - Spoonjoy , Roadrunnr, Tiny Owl, Grofers and Zomato -  hyperlocal startups hold great potential. Apart from suggesting ways for these startups to make their way out, he suggest the current crisis could be an Opportunity in Disguise for the sector. Unlike regular e-commerce companies which have found themselves head to head with brick and mortar retail stores hyperlocal start-ups can work to bring in more local retailers on board to help them increase their service outreach and be part of the vi...

Data from Venture Intelligence's VC Database  shows the month of May was the most brisk month for Venture Capital so far in 2016 - with investors making as many as 45 investments worth $300 million (including Growth Capital investments in IT & ITES companies of more than $20-M). While the value of the tech deals was less than the peak in January (when companies like CarTrade and ShopClues had attracted $145 million and $100 million respectively), the month saw companies like Stayzilla, Crown-it and Mobikwik attract significant follow-on funding. While Series A investments continued to be slow, specialized seed funds including Blume Ventures and YourNest Angel Fund as well as Kalaari Capital, which backed three companies as part of its seed investment program Kstart, were especially active. Angel investments also slowed down during May to 33 deals when compared to the peak of 49 in February. View Venture Intelligence founder Arun Natarajan discussing the trends during ...

Mint columnist, Snigdha Sengupta, who had written a piece titled " The trouble with Helion Venture Partners " in December 2015 (when three of its junior partners - Rahul Chowdhri, Ritesh Banglani and Alok Goyal - had quit to set up their own shop) has revisited the VC firm with a new article titled " The undoing of Helion Venture Partners "  covering the context and reasons behind their departure and its fallout. Extracts: “The fundamental premise they (the departing partners) were coming from was that they should be elevated to managing partners,” said (Sanjeev) Aggarwal, when Mint met with him and (Rahul) Chandra at the firm’s Gurgaon offices in the middle of April. The elevation would have entitled the younger partners to a larger share of the firm’s profits, commonly known as carried interest, and more influence in dealmaking. The founding partners didn’t think that the three were ready yet for the promotion. ...The old deal-sourcing networks when firms suc...