The Venture Intelligence Blog

FirstPost.com   Bangalore-based Whistle Talk, an online employee referral site, has raised close to $400,000 (about Rs 2 crore) from Hyderabad Angels.  Whistle Talk uses social networking sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Google Plus, to facilitate referrals for job openings. The company also has a referral recruitment suite for enterprises. Whistle Talk was started in January 2012 and boasts of a clientele of five companies and over a thousand registered users. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Economic Times US-based 500 Startups, a seed fund that began investing in India just over a year ago, has closed its tenth deal in the country, backing Bangalore-based technology startup ZipDial. The company, which aims to reach $1 million in revenue this financial year, received angel funding in April 2011 from Mumbai Angels, Blume Ventures and a handful of US-based angel investors.  ZipDial, founded by Valerie Rozycki Wagoner, Sanjay Swamy and Amiya Pathak in 2010, has developed a mobile-engagement platform, which is based on a "missed call" concept. Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Yourstory.in   Voice and messaging applications platform provider Plivo has closed a $1.75M seed round from investment firms Andreessen Horowitz, Battery Ventures, Qualcomm Inc and SV Angel. Funding will be used primarily for continued innovation, sales and marketing. Launched in December 2011, Plivo was first supported by Indian accelerator The Morpheus and later on was taken into YCombinator. Plivo enables enterprises, service providers and web developers to build applications that seamlessly integrate the web with telephony, both fixed and mobile. http://bit.ly/VpLduM Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Economic Times  PE firm Matrix Partners has invested a little over Rs.30 crore in Kolkata-based Enhance Aesthetic and Cosmetic Studio for a 30% stake. The privately-held, one-year-old venture, founded by Dr Manoj Khanna, provides hair transplant, weight loss and cosmetic enhancement as well as dermatology facilities across four centers. The company has a roster of celebrity clients such as sports commentator Harsha Bhogle and film actor Govinda.  Enhance Aesthetic will use the funds to add around 20 centers across the country over the next three years. It is currently clocking revenues of around Rs.25 crore.   Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter....

Economic Times Leading a third round of investment, risk capital firm Helion Venture Partners has invested $ 5 million in quick service restaurant chain Mast Kalandar, run by Bangalore-based Spring Leaf Retail. Another existing investor Footprint Ventures will put in $1 million into the ethnic Indian food chain that has now raised a total of $11 million in equity capital. Mast Kalandar is targeting revenue run rate of Rs.100 crore for the fiscal year 2014-15.  From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: In Oct-10, Helion Ventures and Footprint Ventures had invested $2.04 million in Mast Kalandar. In Jul-08 Footprint had invested $1 million.   Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity, venture capital and M&A transactions in India as well as Financials & Valuations of Private Companies in the country. Click Here to view our products list including the Free Deal Digest Weekly: India's First & Most Exhausti...

Business Standard   Edelman India has acquired Cream Events, an experiential events company in the luxury and lifestyle sector. Cream Events will continue to trade and operate as an independent brand and separate legal entity. Edelman is an independent communications company with presence in 10 markets in the Asia Pacific region.

Business Line   The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) has issued new conditions for listing of companies on its SME platform through IPO. These include a visit to the company’s site undertaken by the BSE before granting of approval to use the name of the exchange in the offer document. Additionally, the company should also file a compliance certificate by a Practicing Company Secretary according to the guidance note issued by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India.  BSE is also replacing the existing guidelines with new guidelines for migration from SME Platform to the main board of the BSE. Under the new eligibility criteria for migration, companies have to be mandatorily listed and traded on the SME Platform for a minimum period of two years.