The Venture Intelligence Blog

As an email addict, I'm only happy to have my credit card get charged automatically by Google (for extra storage) and Boomerang (a cute little Gmail management tool) - both US-based companies who (understandably for them, unfortunately for me) bill me in US Dollars. I wish we at Venture Intelligence could charge our customers the same way for accessing our database services . But thanks to the RBI, it looks like we can't - unless we re-incorporate in Singapore or Delaware, USA. As today's Economic Times article indicates, this combined with the 0% Capital Gains tax (on sale of shares in private companies) in Singapore just makes the proposition almost a no brainer and explains why so many of the venture capital-backed SaaS/Cloud-based businesses are rushing out. Software product companies are also stymied by a RBI mandate - meant to protect credit card users- that prevent companies from debiting money without the customer approving every transaction. Enterprise softw...

Edited excerpts from the Press Release: TA Associates, a leading global growth private equity firm, today announced it has acquired a minority stake in BillDesk,India’s largest online payment services company. Dhiraj Poddar, Director, TA Associates Advisory Pvt. Ltd., will join the company’s Board of Directors. Founded in 2000, BillDesk partners with multiple banks, card issuers, service providers and merchants in providing electronic bill presentment and payment and online payment services in India. Today, BillDesk’s network is used by over 50 of India’s largest banks and by large merchants across diverse industry segments, including utilities, telecom, insurance, mutual funds, travel and e-commerce. “While India is today dominated by paper-based transactions, electronic transactions are quickly gaining favor,” said Naveen Wadhera, Director, TA Associates Advisory Pvt. Ltd.,“There is growing acceptance of online payments by retail consumers, for products and services procured both onl...