The Venture Intelligence Blog

SAM and CAM claim the No.2 & No.3 slots AZB & Partners (AZB) topped the Venture Intelligence League Table for Legal Advisor to Private Equity Transactions in 2021. The firm advised PE deals worth $29.8 Billion (across 179 qualifying deals) during the year. Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas (SAM) ($20.9 Billion across 68 deals) and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas (CAM) ($20.4 Billion across 142 deals) took the second and third spots. Khaitan & Co. ($17.8 Billion across 113 deals) and IndusLaw ($11.6 Billion across 190 deals) completed the top five. Among the larger Private Equity exit deals during 2021, AZB, SAM, and  Trilegal  acted as advisors to the  complete exit by PE-VC investors in Billdesk (via the digital payments provider’s acquisition by Prosus-Ventures-backed PayU) . SAM, CAM, Khaitan & Co., IndusLaw,  J Sagar Associates, Algo Legal, Latham & Watkins, Morrison Foerster , and  Shearman & Sterling  acted as advisors to the  p...

The Liabilities of Investor Nominee Directors in  Indian Start-ups Introduction India has seen an unprecedented number of private equity and venture capital investments in the year 2021 - Indian companies raised over US$ 62 billion, across nearly 1200 deals. While such high and continuously increasing numbers are indicative of the growing faith of investors in Indian technology companies, a worrying trend has also been noted with respect to investors not exercising their contractual rights to nominate a director on the board of an investee company, which is typically a non-executive director (i.e., a director who is not actively involved in conducting the affairs of the company). The right to nominate a director, if exercised by the investor, enhances corporate governance, and provides a formal platform for the investor and the founders to exchange key information on the business of the company in a secure environment established under the principles of fiduciary duties of director...

Press Release: Private Equity - Venture Capital (PE-VC) firms invested a record $63 Billion (across 1,202 deals) in Indian companies during 2021, registering  a 57% rise over the   $39.9 Billion (across 913 deals) invested in the previous year ,  reports  Venture Intelligence , a research service focused on private company financials, transactions, and their valuations. (Note: These figures include Venture Capital type investments, but exclude PE investments in Real Estate). India minted a total of 44 " Unicorn"  companies (VC-funded startups valued at $1 Billion or more)  in 2021, 15 of them during Q4'21. The $23.4 Billion invested into the Information Technology sector dominated list of  Unicorns  accounted for more than 37% of the overall value of PE-VC investments in 2021. The October-December 2021 quarter (Q4'21) saw over $5 Billion (across 25 deals) being invested in such companies.  2021 witnessed eight investments worth...