The Venture Intelligence Blog

Inbound M&A deal volumes surge by 30% in 2011

2012-01-26T16:51:00.000-08:00

The pace of outbound deals however was muted, reveals a Venture Intelligence studyForeign companies acquired majority stakes in 131 Indian companies during 2011, registering a 30% rise in such transactions as compared to the previous year, according to a study by Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on Private Equity and M&A transaction activity in India. Of these Inbound deals, there

AZB & Partners, E&Y Top League Tables for 2011

2012-01-26T16:45:00.000-08:00

Corporate law firm AZB & Partners and the Ernst & Young have topped the Venture Intelligence India League Tables for 2011. Ernst & Young – which advised a total of 93 qualifying transactions - topped the League Tables as the Most Active Transaction Advisor (both PE and M&A) for the year. Among legal advisors, AZB topped the tables in both the PE and M&A categories advising a total of 73 deals

Internet & Mobile in Focus at APEX’11 PE/VC Summit

2012-01-20T21:54:00.000-08:00

The Venture Intelligence APEX’12 Private Equity & Venture Capital Summit, scheduled for February 14 at Mumbai, is to feature a special panel discussion on the Internet & Mobile sector. Speakers on the panel, which will include a mix of Angel & VC investors, Entrepreneurs from the sector and Advisory Firms, will provide their outlook on investments in the sector for the next 3-5 years. Speakers

PE investments up 24% to over $10-B in 2011, but dip QoQ

2012-01-10T05:13:00.000-08:00

Private Equity firms invested $10,117 million over 441 deals in India during the 12 months ending December 2011, compared to $8,187 million across 362 deals during the previous year, according to analysis by Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on Private Equity and M&A activity. These figures - which include VC investments and exclude PE investments in Real Estate - take the total

ET NOW’s ‘Super Angels’ helps Fetise.com raise up to Rs. 25 Crores from Seedfund

2011-12-23T06:19:00.000-08:00

From the Press Release:ET NOW’s Super Angels, a special series on the ‘Starting Up’ show which provides a platform for start-ups to make pitches to Angel Investors, witnessed a Mumbai based start-up company – Fetise.com (Men’s Apparel e-commerce platform) raise capital up to Rs. 25 Crores from Seedfund, represented by Mahesh Murthy, one of the Super Angels on the show.On what attracted Seedfund

Deal Alert:Trinity Ventures, Nexus invest $5.3 M in database software firm ScaleArc

2011-12-23T03:24:00.000-08:00

Edited Extracts from the Press Release:ScaleArc , a Mumbai and Silicon Valley-based database infrastructure software maker founded by Varun Singh, former CTO of Web18, has secured a $5.33 million second round of financing. The round was led by Trinity Ventures with participation from existing investor Nexus Venture Partners. The new funds will accelerate geographic and staffing expansion to

Deal Alert- Accel Partners invests in Trivone Digital

2011-12-19T21:04:00.000-08:00

From the Press Release:Accel Partners has completed Series A investment in Trivone Digital a Bangalore-based new age digital media and content company.The funds will be utilised by Trivone towards meeting its working capital requirements as well as pushing growth through the inorganic route in the months ahead.“We are delighted to have Accel Partners on board and look forward to working closely

Kidswear retail gets serious

2011-12-18T19:53:00.000-08:00

Extract from the Business Today article:There is quite a crowd on the kids' wear bandwagon, and segmentation has stretched in the past year to include luxury. While Big Bazaar is among those that cater to the mass segment, Gini & Jony and Lilliput operate in the medium category. Homegrown brand Lilliput Kidswear, which started in 2003, has the early mover advantage, with 261 exclusive outlets and

"Focus on your 3Cs: Credibility, Cash Flow and Crew" – Rajeev Mecheri of Mecheri Smart Capital

2011-12-16T03:42:00.000-08:00

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 TeamRajeev Mecheri, Managing Director, Mecheri Smart Capital (Bio & LinkedIn)Interview by Hari Krishnan of Venture Intelligence, followed by

"2012 to be poor for exits, good for investments"

2011-12-04T23:45:00.000-08:00

In an interview published in The Mint (in text and video formats), Vikram Utamsingh, Partner - Transactions and Restructuring & Private Equity Advisory, KPMG India, says that while the exit track record of India-dedicated PE funds has not been great in the last few years, things are likely to improve from here....results are going to be bad for a couple of years because the industry is holding on

"India’s entrepreneurial journey at least 5 yrs behind China’s"

2011-12-02T21:43:00.000-08:00

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

Rob Chandra of Bessemer on E-Commerce Valuations

2011-11-30T20:48:00.000-08:00

Forbes has a video interview with BVP Partner Rob Chandra in which he talks about Internet and e-commerce company valuations. He also talks about the impact created by Internet companies including Chennai, India-based Bharatmatrimony.com in which BVP invested recently.Click Here for the accompanying Forbes article.Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity

Alok Mittal on the Happiest Minds Funding

2011-11-18T03:55:00.000-08:00

Startupcentral has an interview with Alok Mittal of Canaan Partners on the $45 million first round funding led by his firm for Wipro veteran and Mindtree Co-founder Ashok Soota's new IT Services venture.What do you find interesting about the business model?The business model draw for us (Canaan) was the outsourcing play. We already have a couple of portfolio companies (iYogi and UnitedLex) in

Deal Alert: Aditya Birla PE Invests Rs.95-Cr in telecom tech firm Alphion India

2011-11-14T23:55:00.000-08:00

From the Press Release:Aditya Birla Capital Advisors (ABCAP), the private equity arm of the Aditya Birla Financial Services Group (ABFSG), today announced an investment of Rs. 95 Crores from Aditya Birla Private Equity – Fund I in Alphion India Private Limited (AIPL). AIPL is the principal subsidiary of Princeton, USA based Alphion Corporation (Alphion).Alphion develops, manufactures and globally

Deal Alert:Ventureast invests Rs.25-Cr in meat processing firm VKS Farms

2011-11-11T04:35:00.000-08:00

Edited excerpts from the press release:Ventureast Life Fund, an early growth and growth stage fund focused on the food and agriculture, clean environment and healthcare delivery sectors, has invested Rs.25 crores in VKS Farms, a Coimbatore-based, integrated meat processing company. Shekhar Kundur, General Partner of Ventureast, joins the Board of VKS Farms. The funding will be utilized for

Profile of online vegetables delivery firm Veggiebazaar

2011-11-10T01:04:00.000-08:00

An extract from The Economic Times profile... His business model is simple: Veggibazaar.com takes orders online and delivers the very next day. This not only ensures freshness of the products—an essential feature of the company—but also means that he does not have to worry about bulk storage space and associated facilities, which is a huge saving.... Since its launch, Venkatesan has pumped

Naveen Tewari of InMobi on SoftBank and Ram Shriram

2011-11-09T23:57:00.000-08:00

Extract from The Economic Times profile of the mobile advertising company made famous by the recent $200 million investment that it attracted from SoftBank:On Raising Funds From Ram Shriram. There was a phase when credit cards of the entire founding team were used to just pay salaries! With little success in raising funds from sceptic Indian investors, I decided to take a flight to Silicon

The Bargain Hunter: Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi

2011-11-09T23:33:00.000-08:00

From The Economic Times profileShanghvi has a conservative approach to doing business,with eyes firmly focused on cost and the bottom line. As bullish peers made ill-timed and expensive (in hindsight) acquisitions in western markets in the past decade, Shanghvi steered clear of bidding wars and oneupmanship. Instead he chose to buy distressed assets on the cheap with a view to turning them

"Entrepreneurship is all about getting the job done" - Raju Venkatraman of MEDALL

2011-11-05T06:47:00.000-07:00

Cross-posting from the Venture Intelligence Entrevista series:Interaction with Raju Venkatraman, Founder & CEO, MEDALL DiagnosticsInterview 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

Profile of employability training firm Talent Bridge

2011-10-29T05:50:00.000-07:00

Smart CEO has profile on this company which focuses on making youth from Tier II and III cities more employment ready.After three years of research, the Graduate Certificate in Corporate Readiness (GCCR) is a copyrighted program from TalentBridge to help students from smaller towns prepare for interviews and a corporate career....The company conducted an online survey, which showed that 77 per

Off Topic (Slightly): Impact of Financialisation

2011-10-29T05:25:00.000-07:00

NPR's Planet Money has a very interesting podcast with Satyajit Das, a finance professional-turned-author, where he talks about the imbalances created by finance (and financial engineering) driving businesses, rather than the other way round. He provides a very graphic example from his career at an airline firm - which began to make more money by making bets on the price of oil than from

Super Angels Pitch: Box OS

2011-10-24T04:00:00.000-07:00

Data Highlight: Blackstone Lights Up Q3'11 Investing Over $500-M

2011-10-18T02:27:00.000-07:00

US-headquartered Private Equity firm Blackstone stepped on the gas on its India investments, committing to invest over half a billion dollars in just the three months ended September 2011, according to the Venture Intelligence quarterly Private Equity Roundup Reports. Overall, Private Equity firms invested about $2,249 million across 98 deals during the quarter (not including Real Estate

VC firms invest $217-M in Q3’11

2011-10-17T21:30:00.000-07:00

Venture Capital firms invested $217 million over 43 deals in India during the three months ending September 2011, according to a study by Venture Intelligence (http://www.ventureintelligence.in), a research service focused on Private Equity, Venture Capital and M&A transaction activity in India. These figures take the total VC investments in 2011 to $752 million across 136 transactions (compared

Deal Alert: Nexus Ventures invests $4-M in mobile apps developer Genwi

2011-10-11T23:11:00.000-07:00

From the Press Release:GENWI (http://genwi.com), the leader in cloud publishing platforms for Tablets and Smartphones, has raised $4 million in Series A funding in a round led by Nexus Venture Partners (http://nexusvp.com). GENWI’s existing investors,Inventus Capital Partners and Quest Venture Partners, also participated in the round, bringing GENWI’s lifetime funding to $5.1 million including