The Venture Intelligence Blog

From the Press Release: Varun Beverages (International) Limited (VBIL) has concluded a US$56 million private equity financing with Standard Chartered Private Equity Limited (SCPE). The funds would be used to accelerate VBIL’s growth in its beverages business in India and overseas. VBIL is promoted by the RJ Corp group which comprises diversified business interests ranging from beverages, fast food restaurants, ice creams & dairy products, breweries, education, health care and hospitality. VBIL is engaged in the business of bottling, distribution and marketing of soft drink beverages, sold under the trade marks owned by PepsiCo Inc., USA. VBIL, through itself and its subsidiaries, operates in India, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Morocco. Commenting on the development, Mr Ravi K Jaipuria, Chairman, VBIL, said: "To convert the huge opportunity of growth, penetration and enhanced territories domestically and internationally into reality, we need to build, year after year, large capacities...

Economic Times has profiles of 3 new VC-backed Life sciences companies: Cellworks Research FOUNDED: 2005 INVESTOR: Artiman Ventures ACTIVITY: Drug discovery using a proprietary computer simulation platform to find new uses for old drugs in inflammation and cancer POTENTIAL REVENUE STREAMS: Licensing drugs for development and marketing,selling its proprietary green chemistry technology to various industries Vyome Biosciences FOUNDED: 2010 ACTIVITY: Researching drugs for wound healing,skin pigmentation,finding new uses for old drugs in dandruff and acne treatments INVESTOR: Navam Capital POTENTIAL REVENUE STREAMS: Licensing drugs for development and marketing to larger companies Mitra Biotech . FOUNDED: 2009 INVESTOR: Kitven,Accel Partners,India Innovation Fund ACTIVITY: Diagnostics to personalise cancer medicine in partnership with hospitals and drug companies POTENTIAL REVENUE STREAMS: Offering testing services to cancer hospitals to match drugs to patients,partnering drug companies d...

Business Today has a profile of the latest Indian adaptation of the Kiva.org model that enables individuals lend to the poor. Micrograam , set up in February 2010 by Rangan Varadan, a former head of banking and capital market verticals at Infosys, has devised an innovative means of extending credit to the poor by creating a portal that brings investors and borrowers together, allowing them to work out their own deals. Micrograam's initiative has been a hit: in just 16 months it has found 270 investors and helped disburse loans of around Rs 87 lakh to 563 borrowers. The timing has helped too, since the microcredit sector is currently in crisis, and loans for the poor have dried up. ...Restricting its activities to Tamil Nadu and Karnataka, the Bangalore-based Micrograam has so far roped in 33 NGOs which identify borrowers. It puts up a list of prospective borrowers on its portal, along with each one's profile, the amount he needs and the maximum interest he can afford. ......

After focusing substantially on exits in 2010 (when it successfully exited its investments in Mahindra Finance and ABG Shipyard), StanChart PE has announced four new investments in the first half of 2011 (in GMR Airports, Bush Foods, Privi Organics and Innoventive Industries). Three of its other portfolio companies – Endurance Technologies, Powerica and Intergloble Technology - are on the IPO path. Venture Intelligence spoke to Nainesh Jaisingh, Managing Director of Standard Chartered Private Equity, who heads the bank’s proprietary PE investments team in India on the firm’s recent moves and his views on the current PE investing landscape in India. This interview first appeared in the latest issue of the Venture Intelligence India Private Equity Roundup Report . Venture Intelligence: In 2010, StanChart PE announced only one investment - the syndicated $217-M round in Coffee Day Resorts – but, this year, you have already announced four new ones. What’s changed in your outlook? Nainesh ...

Venture Intelligence spoke to Mohan Kumar, Executive Director, Norwest Venture Partners India, on the firm’s recent investments in the VC segment. Kumar, who had earlier worked for over 18 years at companies like Motorola and Texas Instruments, has led NVP's recent investments into medical devices firm Perfint Healthcare, tablet PC-based education services firm iProf and China-headquartered Smartphones maker Borqs. This interview first appeared in the latest issue of the Venture Intelligence India Venture Capital Report . Venture Intelligence: In recent months, we’ve noticed that Norwest is once again active in the VC segment with investments into companies like iProf, Komli, Quikr and Perfint. What is driving this? Mohan Kumar: NVP’s DNA has always been venture type deals. About 2 years back we had added two segments - financial services and infrastructure - where we started doing late stage deal with large size cheques. In Technology, E-Commerce, Med tech, Healthcare and Educati...

Venture Intelligence recently spoke to Vishakha Mulye, Managing Director & CEO of ICICI Venture Funds, on the firm’s recent investments and strategy going ahead. This interview first appeared in the latest issue of the Venture Intelligence India Private Equity Roundup Report . Venture Intelligence: In 2011, you have announced two significant-sized investments – in restaurants chain Devyani International and vocational education firm TeamLease Services. Can you tell us about them? Vishakha Mulye: Both were proprietary deals. Devyani (which runs KFC, Pizza Hut and Costa Coffee chains in various parts of India) was the outcome of existing relationships and our liking for the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) space. As India’s GDP continues to grow, our belief is that the QSR kind of businesses - which I term as a New Generation businesses - will also witness a tremendous growth. In other countries, these kinds of businesses have shown 30-40% growth over a long period of time and our bel...