The Venture Intelligence Blog

To have a higher chance for raising funding, startup entrepreneurs need to target investors based on parameters such as: Age of the company Investment Size Stage of the company (Product fit, Market fit, Scaling etc) Investment round (Seed, Series A, etc) Sector e.g. While there are funds who are stage agnostic (e.g. Sequoia Capital), there are certain funds who prefer to invest at seed stage level (e.g. Blume Ventures). Which is why in the  Handbook on Venture Capital: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Early Stage Funding , we provide entrepreneurs with the lay of the VC land. You can download a larger list of investors based on the above infographic from the link below: Handbook on Venture Capital: An Entrepreneur's Guide to Early Stage Funding Incubators and Accelerators in India Angel Investors in India Seed Funds in India Early Stage (Series A & B) Investors in India SME-Focused Investors in India Impact Investors in India Deal Platforms ...

Cross posted from The Startup Journey Blog Writing in Founding Fuel , Baba Prasad, CEO of Vivekin Group who teaches entrepreneurship in B-Schools, bemoans the fact that a lot of the students would like to emulate the founders of companies like Facebook and Amazon and do not even bring up names like Narayana Murthy of Infosys or Azim Premji of Wipro, leave alone older names like Laxmanrao Kirloskar or Jamsetji Tata. "So, if business models for Indian entrepreneurs are fashioned in the West, and business heroes are not Indian, the question comes up: What is Indian about the Indian entrepreneur?," he asks. According to the article, the crux of an Indian Entrepreneur is: 1. Balancing profit-making with the burdens it is imposing on society and the benefits it can deliver to society  2. The entrepreneur is solving problems, that are not uniquely Indian, but the scale is Indian.  Contrasting the Western/Capitalist model and a not-too-practical Gandhian/Socialist mod...

Cross Posted from the Entrevista blog . Interview with Raj Nair, Founder-Chairman of Avalon Consulting , the Mumbai-headquartered, international consulting firm and also research and analytics firm Ugam Solutions and artificial intelligence software firm . Interview begins with how Ugam Solutions' founding & funding - especially how the company "pivoted" to completely new business in 50 days flat! 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   Highlights: Striking balance between Flexibility & Measurement in the Early Years: In the initial years of starting up,  it’s important to have the flexibility to course correct and not put pressure on the business with a rigid business model, ambitious target, etc. “There is (however) a difference between cha...

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...

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...

To start with Mumbai- & Pune-based entrepreneurs Harsh Mariwala, who has steered Marico to grow in sales from Rs. 40 lac in 1971 to Rs. 4,000 crore today, has launched a foundation - ASCENT (short for Accelerating the SCaling up of ENTerprises) - that will identify entrepreneurs with potential and enable them in their growth journey. ASCENT offers a unique and powerful ” self-help” platform through the formation of TRUST GROUPS of 10 Entrepreneurs each. Each Trust Group will comprise non-competitive, diverse groups of entrepreneurs. We aim to start with 10 TRUST groups in Mumbai and Pune, and over the next few years scale up ASCENT to a much larger size pan-India. The interaction in the Trust Groups has been designed to provide value to entrepreneurs , using the power of learning in a Group , specifically through the following: · Facilitation – ASCENT will provide experts who will play a value adding role as Initiators and Trainers for the Group in its first...

Cross-posting from the Venture Intelligence Entrevista series: Lessons from the Startup to Scale-up to Successful Sale of iMetrex Technologies, a building technologies and security venture catering to the Indian enterprise market - The Venture Intelligence Team Rajeev Mecheri, Managing Director, Mecheri Smart Capital ( Bio & LinkedIn ) Interview by Hari Krishnan of Venture Intelligence, followed by interaction with students at the Department of Management Studies IIT-Madras on November 9, 2011. Highlights: Please click on the links below to view corresponding video snippets: Importance of Customer Touch Point “What works for the company, works for you (the founder)” Founders should separate their lifestyle needs from that of the business Invest Appropriately - in infrastructure, etc. Decision to exit and the "strength of a brand" Decision to integrate vertically (getting into manufacturing) Following the Customers Innovative holding structure for acquiring a product co...

From the article in Forbes by Journalist Rebecca Fannin. India’s entrepreneurial journey is at least five years behind China’s path. There’s no Jack Ma or Robin Li in sight or a big-time IPO like Youku. India lacks the entrepreneurial buzz and fast pace of China tech clusters. Indian entrepreneurship has been led by grassroots efforts, and the government hasn’t always been venture friendly. If India is ever to break through, it needs to ditch an image as just for outsourcing or low-cost engineering and business services—a major challenge for the world leader of the booming $500 billion global outsourcing market. But India could eventually become a tech minipower and grab some of the limelight from China. Contemporary corporate centers such as Whitefield on the outskirts of Bangalore and the Gurgaon satellite city in Delhi showcase that India is rising. For sure, India needs a lot more deals with the stature of online travel site MakeMyTrip, a deal that barely gets noticed next to Chin...

Cross-posting from the Venture Intelligence Entrevista series: Interaction with Raju Venkatraman, Founder & CEO, MEDALL Diagnostics Interview by Chandu Nair, Founder of Scope eKnowledge, followed by interaction with students and other entrepreneurs at the Department of Management Studies IIT-Madras on October 24, 2011. Highlights: The ability to "zoom in and zoom out" - As an entrepreneur, whenever the situation warrants it, you should be able to work in a hands on fashion and get involved in the details. Similarly, you should also be able to step back and focus on the bigger picture (and leave the details to others). Please click on the links below to view corresponding video snippets The motivation as an entrepreneur is not in "being the boss" - It's more about "getting to scale" (and hence the impact you can make) "There is no such thing as a right decision. You should make a decision and then make it right." The Esse...