The Venture Intelligence Blog

A Mint article quotes Venture Intelligence data on PE/VC investments and exits in JustDial: Sequoia Capital started selling its stake in Just Dial in the third quarter of the current calendar year. On 5 September, Sequoia Capital sold a total of 3.6 million Just Dial shares worth approximately Rs135 crore, thereby bringing down its shareholding by 5.17% to 4.11%. In 2016, Sequoia Capital sold shares worth around Rs60 crore, while in 2015, it offloaded stake worth about Rs1,218 crore in Just Dial, according to data compiled by Venture Intelligence , a research service focused on private company financials, transactions and valuations. Sequoia Capital first invested in Just Dial in 2009.  Tiger Global made a complete exit from Just Dial in 2015, data from Venture Intelligence shows.  Sequoia, along with venture capital firm SAIF Partners and Tiger Global made a investment of Rs16.44 crore in the company in 2009. In 2012, Sequoia invested Rs60 crore along with venture...

In an interview to  Mint , local search firm Justdial's founder VSS Mani talks about building an Internet business that actually charges customers enough money to make an actual positive bottom line : It would be fair to say that Mani comes across as a contrarian; one who doesn’t believe in the view that an e-commerce business must lose money. “JD did Rs.600 crore of revenue last year. That is equivalent to roughly Rs.60,000 crore revenue of an e-commerce company in terms of GMV,” he says. Gross merchandise value, or GMV, is a term used in online retailing to indicate total sales of merchandise through a particular marketplace over a certain time frame. "Commerce means making money. You cannot have deep discounts; you cannot buy things for Rs.100 and sell at Rs.80. Or (give) cash back."  ..."we are extremely worried about the way things are,” says Mani. “Today we have the talent pool. In the dotcom days, it was a big challenge. People used to join organizations ...

From elephants and snake charmers to software coders/coolies to app-toting delivery boys/dabba-walahs, the image of what's "happening" in India keeps morphing. And IIT-ians get added to the mix somewhere. " India is becoming the land of the errand app. " declared a recent Bloomberg News article that got featured in various international publications. Extracts: “People today want to do as much as possible with their phones,” said TinyOwl co-founder (Harsh Vardhan) Mandad, who graduated from Mumbai’s Indian Institute of Technology in 2012. “It is a friction just to go out – there’s the heavy traffic, pollution and waiting involved for a cab.” The startups are carving out niches by serving certain neighborhoods or parts of cities, realizing the “hyper-local” strategy long envisioned in more developed countries including the U.S. Larger e-commerce companies such as Flipkart and Snapdeal dominate online sales of more traditional goods, including books, apparel...