Off Topic: The License-Permit-IT Raid Raj Is Alive & Kicking Onion Eaters

The Hue and Cry over onion prices hitting Rs.100 pr kg, made me revisit this Economic Times feature (written on Oct 1, when the prices were Rs.80 per kg) which had some revealing details on why the License-Permit-IT Raid Raj is alive and well. Extracts (emphasis mine):
As it is, the number of traders in onion mandis is not increasing. In important onion markets, it adds, most commission agents

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Deal Alert: Tata Capital leads Rs.40-Cr investment in oncology solutions provider Mitra Biotech

Tata Capital Innovations Fund, managed by Tata Capital, along with existing investors India Innovation Fund and Accel Partners, will invest about Rs 40 crore in the Series B funding for Bangalore-based cancer care provider Mitra Biotech. The deal values the firm at about Rs 200 crore. Founded by a team of medical researchers from the MIT and Harvard Medical School, Mitra Biotech works with top

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Deal Alert: Tata Capital invests Rs.32-Cr in IFMR Rural Channels

Tata Capital Limited, via Tata Capital Special Situations Fund, has invested INR 32 Cr in Chennai-based IFMR Rural Channels and Services Private Limited (IRCS). In March 2012, IRCS had raised funding from Lok Capital and Proparco. The latest investment will help IRCS scale its business in its current areas of operation, in addition to expanding its reach to newer geographies.



IRCS is in the

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Deal Alert: Mumbai Angels invests in SkillWiz and MangoSense

SkillWiz, a career assessment company has raised funding from Mumbai Angels and other angel investors from India and Singapore. The firm will use the funds for product development, hiring talent, and for sales and marketing. 



Mumbai Angels has also invested in Pune-based startup MangoSense, which allows users to create, share and learn from stories on mobile and web platforms using simple

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Deal Alert: Peepul Capital leads $30-M funding for online advertising firm Komli

Mumbai-based digital advertising platform Komli Media has raised $30 million from Peepul Capital with participation from existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners Helion Venture Partners and Draper Fisher Jurvetson. The company, which has now raised over $90 million in PE investment, will invest further in technology, especially in data analytics. 



Source: Times of

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Deal Alert: Homeshop18 raises $14-M more from existing investors

The online teleshopping arm of Network 18, Homeshop18, has closed$14 million in a new round of funding led by existing investors - Korean home shopping major, GS Home Shopping (GS), OCP Asia Ltd (OCP Asia) and Network18. GS is investing $11 million while OCP Asia and Network18 will invest the rest.



The new funding will now value HomeShop18 at$360 million. Network18 will remain the majority

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Deal Alert: Intel Capital invests in taxi booking service Savaari, data recovery firm Perpetuuiti

Intel Capital has invested in Mumbai-based Perpetuuiti Technosoft and Bangalore-based Savaari Car Rentals. Perpetuuiti Technosoft offers real-time visibility and availability management of business continuity planning/disaster recovery (BCP/DR) infrastructure. With this investment the company plans to expand its reach outside India and take their BCP solution to Africa and USA.



Savaari Car

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Deal Alert: RSM acquires sustainability and energy advisory firm General Carbon

Accounting and consulting firm RSM Astute Consulting Group has acquired a majority stake in General Carbon, a sustainability and energy advisory service company, which now becomes a subsidiary of RSM in India and will be called RSM GC Advisory Services. General Carbon, promoted by P Ram Babu, provides strategic, technical and financial services across major energy and environmental commodity

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Deal Alert: Travel start-up Mygola raises $1.5 M Series A round led by Helion Ventures

Bangalore-based travel start-up Mygola has raised $1.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Helion Venture Partners with participation from existing investor Blumberg Capital. The firm plans to use funding to expand presence in the US, testing marketing channels and growth. Ashish Gupta of Helion has joined the board of the company.



Mygola helps travelers discover travel itineraries

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Deal Alert: Commerce education start-up K2 Learning raises Rs.8-Cr

Bangalore-based education start-up K2 Learning Resources has raised INR 8 crore in angel funding. Founded in 2010 by Sripal Jain, K2 offers professional commerce education in areas like chartered accountancy and company secretary programme, through offline classes and also through online help and content. The firm plans to use the angel funding to set up tablet-labs in 100 colleges. The tablets

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Deal Alert: India Quotient invests in online wish list service Wishberg

India Quotient has invested Mumbai-based Wishberg, an online platform that enables users to share their product experiences and create wish-lists. Wishberg, founded by Pravin Jadhav and Kulin Shah, aims to allow users to share product and purchase intents, and discover reviews and experiences based on them. The company was previously known as Tyche’d and had launched an alpha version in July

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Deal Alert: India Quotient invests in sandwich restaurant chain Inbetween

Seed stage VC investor India Quotient has invested in InBetween, a quick food startup that specializes in sandwiches. InBetween has three outlets in Mumbai – at Kalina, Powai and Mahakali Caves Road. 



From the Venture Intelligence PE Deal database: The deal was completed in July 2013. Promoted by Haraka Food Pvt Ltd, InBetween also attracted a co-investment from Unilazer Ventures. Abhishek

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Deal Alert: Silver Lake leads Rs. 250-Cr round for commodities trading software firm Eka Soft

Silver Lake via its growth capital fund, Silver Lake Kraftwerk, is leading a INR 250 crore funding round for a significant minority stake in Eka Software Solutions, a Bangalore-based provider of software for commodity trading. This round values Eka Software at an estimated INR 700 crore. The company has previously raised about $16 million (INR 95 crores) from Nexus Venture Partners along

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Deal Alert: Data backup software firm Druva raises $25-M Series C led by Tenaya Capital

Data security solutions company Druva has raised $25 million in Series C funding led by US-based Tenaya Capital with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital India and Nexus Ventures. Tom Banahan, Managing Director of Tenaya Capital, has joined the company’s board. Druva will use the new funds to support R&D, expand global sales and marketing and cloud infrastructure to support new

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Deal Alert: IDG, Inventus invest $2-M in product recommendation engine Unbxd

Unbxd, a Bangalore-based startup focused on product recommendation, has raised a Series A round of $2 million (Rs 12.4 crore) from Inventus Capital Partners and IDG Ventures India. The funds will be used by Unbxd to strengthen its presence in Singapore and in the North American markets, while a substantial portion will also be used towards furthering its research and development efforts. 

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Deal Alert: Aarin, Accel, IDG & Kitven invest Rs.27.5 Cr in biopharma co Theramyt

Aarin Capital, Accel Partners, IDG Ventures as well as Karnataka state government-backed KITVEN have invested INR 27.5 crore in Bangalore-based biopharma company Theramyt Novobiologics. Theramyt is developing therapies for cancer, rheumatoid arthritis and diabetes and will use the funding on research and development, hiring talent and infrastructure.



Theramyt is the second venture for

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Deal Alert: JustUnfollow acquires app maker behind JustMigrate and 3Crumbs

JustUnfollow, a provider of a Twitter management app, has acquired blog migration tool JustMigrate and social discovery app 3Crumbs, both developed by Borget Solutions. The founders of Borget Solutions will be joining JustUnfollow. The company sees this acquisition as a move to help the JustUnfollow’s next growth phase both in terms of people and products. The products will exist

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Deal Alert: Flipkart tops up 5th round with addl $160-M

E-commerce leader Flipkart received an additional $160 million from new investors Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Dragoneer Investment Group, Sofina and Vulcan Capital as well as existing investor Tiger Global. The latest investments takes the total amount raised in the fifth round of funding to $360 million. Flipkart had earlier raised $200 million from existing investors including

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Deal Alert: Apax buys out outsourced product development firm GlobalLogic for $420-M

Apax Partners has acquired US- and India-based, VC-backed outsourced product development firm GlobalLogic for $420 million (Rs 2,578 crore). Founded in 2001 as IndusLogic, GlobalLogic, founded by Rajul Garg, Sanjay Singh, Manoj Agarwala and Tarun Upadhyay, has development centres in India, Ukraine and Argentina. 



It reported around $250 million is sales. The valuation is reportedly more than

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Deal Alert: Sequoia to invest Rs.24.7 Cr in process automation software firm Idea Device

Sequoia Capital India has invested $4 million (INR 24.7 crore) in Idea Device, a Bangalore-based process automation startup. Founded by former Oracle executives Saju Pillai and Aaditya Sood in 2009, Idea Device will use the funding to expand in markets such as US and Singapore and also to hire talent and expand its product suite. 



Source: Economic Times 



 


Venture Intelligence is the

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Deal Alert: Hyderabad Angels, VertExperts invest in online personal finance firm IndianMoney.com

Bangalore-based Suvision Holdings Pvt Ltd, which runs financial education company, IndianMoney.com has raised funding from Hyderabad Angels. Pradeep Mittal, former head of Magna infotech's Indian operations, has joined the company’s board. VertExperts Consulting LLP is the other investor in the company. 



Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company

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Deal Alert: Jungle Ventures, Samir Bangara invest in mobile payments firm Pokkt

Mobile advertising platform Pokkt has raised funding from Jungle Ventures and Samir Bangara, the Co-Founder & Managing Director of Qyuki. Pokkt is an alternate mobile payment platform for people wanting to sell digital goods and services through an ad funded model. 



From the Venture Intelligence Incuabtion Deal database: In October 2012 Pokkt was incubated by GSF Accelerator. The company

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Deal Alert: Rural utility vehicle maker Evomo raise funds from IIM-A’s CIIE

Ahmedabad based Evomo Research & Advancement Pvt. Ltd, a rural transportation enterprise, has raised funds from IIM Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation & Entrepreneurship (CIIE). The company will use the funds to refine its business model, develop new strategies and begin taking pre-orders.



Evomo, launched in 2010 Abhinav Das, designs and manufactures low-cost Rural Utility Vehicles

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Deal Alert: Godrej Consumer to buy 30% stake in salon chain B:blunt

FMCG firm Godrej Consumer Products Ltd (GCPL) entered the hair salon segment with the acquisition of 30% stake in Mumbai-based premium hair salon chain B:Blunt Hair Dressing Pvt Ltd. B:Blunt hair salon chain in run by siblings Adhuna Bhabani Akhtar and Osh Bhabani.



Started in 2005, it has 17 outlets spread across Mumbai, New Delhi, Hyderabad, Pune, Indore Bangalore and Dubai.

GCPL’s current

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Deal Alert: Nagpur social travel startup Touristlink joins African accelerator program

Holiday Deals Pvt Ltd, a Nagpur-based firm that runs social travel network Touristlink.com, has joined Kenya-based accelerator 88mph (88mph.ac). The start-up, founded by David Urmann and Jayesh Bagde, has also raised funds from a few angel investors as well. 



The company will use the funds to develop the portal and establish presence in the African market, besides marketing the service in

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Deal Alert: The Morpheus incubates interior designer aggregation service Dwll.in

Mumbai-based P&P Associates, which runs online portal Dwll.in, has been selected for incubation by Chandigarh-based The Morpheus. Dwll allows home and business owners to choose interior designers through its platform and releases customer money to the selected designer in three stages during the execution of the project. The firm, founded by Pankaj Poddar and Parikshat Hemrajani, is currently

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Deal Alert: Aavishkaar Goodwell leads Rs.21-Cr investment in Swarna Pragati Housing Microfinance

New Delhi-based Swarna Pragati Housing Microfinance has received primary infusion equity of INR 210 million led by Aavishkaar Goodwell, a financial inclusion fund. Existing investor Asia Pragati, a NBFC backed by PAG (Pacific Alliance Group), which holds majority stake in Swarna Pragati, has also participated in this round.



Set up and promoted by bankers led by A. Ramesh Kumar, former CGM,

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Deal Alert: Matrix Partners India invests in Stayzilla.com

Matrix Partners India today announced that it has acquired a significant minority stake in Stayzilla.com, as the sole investor in the first institutional round of equity funding for the Company. Stayzilla.com operates an online platform to research and reserve “value hotels” in more than 750 cities across India.



“The online hotel booking industry has been at a nascent stage for the last few

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Vikram Akula and SKS Microfinance: The Saga Renews

Economic Times has a feature on SKS Microfinance and the company's founder Vikram Akula pegged on the recent move by SKS Trust which holds a 12.6% in the publicly listed company to nominate Akula to its board.

Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India.

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PE investments decline 67% to $1.3 B in Q3’13; 9 month figure drops by 38%

IT deals claim 45% of pie; Buyouts in Manufacturing on the Rise

Private Equity firms invested about $1,300 million across 75 deals during the quarter ended September 2013, according to early data from Venture Intelligence (http://www.ventureintelligence.in), a research service focused on private company financials, transactions and valuations in India. The investment amount was 67% lower than

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The Alliance Tire Story

Forbes India has an interesting profile of how Yogesh Mahansaria and his father  - who had to leave off-road tyre maker Balkrishna Tyres  post a family split - rebuilt a global business in the same space through a buyout of Israel-based Alliance Tire in partnership with Private Equity investor Warburg Pincus. (In April-2013, Warburg sold its stake in Alliance to fellow PE giant KKR at an

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McDonald's Fracas with its Indian Joint Venture Partner

From The Economic Times' feature on the unfolding legal battle between the fast food giant and Vikram Bakshi, its partner in the joint venture (Connnaught Plaza Restaurants) for Northern and Western India and how it's in stark contrast to its cozy relationship with its franchisee (and former JV partner) for West and South India, Hardcastle Restaurants.


McDonald's, globally, does not like to

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Deal Alert: Seedfund invests in hotels software firm Axis Rooms Travel

Seedfund has invested in Axis Rooms Travel Distribution Solutions, a maker of hotel room management software that enables hotels to update and share their inventory status with agents and online portals in real time. Axis was founded in 2009 by Anil Kumar Prasanna and Ravi Taneja, former employees of travel portal Via. Currently, online travel websites expect hotels that partner with them to

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Deal Alert: L'Oreal acquires skin care products maker Cheryl’s Cosmeceuticals

Paris, France-based cosmetics and beauty products maker L'Oreal has acquired Mumbai-based Cheryl's Cosmeceuticals, marking L’Oreal’s first acquisition in the Indian market. Cheryl's Cosmeceuticals, founded in 1986 by Oscar and Cheryl Pereira, has a distribution network spanning over 10,000 salons in India and a turnover of approximately Rs 20 crore.



The acquisition will broaden L'Oreal’s

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Deal Alert: responsAbility acquires minority stake in Punjab Renewable Energy Systems

Switzerland-based responsAbility Investments has picked up a minority stake in Mumbai-based Punjab Renewable Energy Systems (PRES), an organised fuel aggregation and supply companies focused on agriculture residue. responsAbility will receive a board seat as part of the deal. This investment will be used for PRES’ proposed expansion into new locations in India and abroad. Intellecap acted as

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The Rise of Cash Logistics Firms

From a Businessworld article:



The
big four in the business — CMS, Brinks, SIS-Prosegur and Writers —
share 80 per cent of the market between them and, on an average, cart Rs
20,000 crore in cash daily. Which means, in a year, it is a whopping Rs
73 lakh crore. Add all cash logistics firms (CLF) and it is Rs 91.25
lakh crore. A caveat: it does not mean that goods and services of

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Deal Alert: Printland raises Rs 5-Cr from SIDBI and others

Delhi-based web to print solutions company Printland has raised Rs 5 crore in the form of debt and equity from Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) as well as existing investors Evista Venture Capital and Sanjeev Kakar, co-founder of startup incubator Aegis Centre for Entrepreneurship.



The company will use the funding to acquire specialised equipment and to expand solutions to

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Deal Alert: Jafco, Nexus invest $5.5 M in Series B round of social media tools firm Unmetric

Social media intelligence platform Unmetric has raised $5.5 million in Series B financing led by new investor JAFCO Asia with participation from existing investor Nexus Venture Partners. Unmetric raised $3.2 million in Series A funding led by Nexus Venture Partners in April 2012. 



Unmetric offers social media benchmarking tools for C-suite executives and marketing professionals. 



Source:

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Deal Alert: Helion, Kalaari invest $10-M in Series B for training & certification firm Simplilearn

Simplilearn, a provider of online training and professional certification courses, has raised $10 million in Series B funding from Helion Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital. The funding will allow the company to diversify and expand its course catalog to add more categories, focus on improving customer engagement by adding local team members in the US, UK, Australia and the Middle East, and

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Deal Alert: Hyderabad Angels leads $200-K round for experiential travel site Thrillophilia

Bangalore-based online experiential travel marketplace Thrillophilia has attracted $200,000 in a round led by Hyderabad Angels. iLabs Venture Capital Fund, Navlok Ventures and CIIE (part of IIM-A) have also participated in the round. 



Thrillophilia lists over 400 activity-based tours and more than 1,000 off-beat travel experiences. Founded in 2009, Thrillophilia is present in 72 cities and

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Deal Alert: Micro Housing Finance Corporation raises Rs.35-Cr from Unilazer, existing investors

Mumbai-based Micro Housing Finance Corporation (MHFC) has raised INR 35 crore in fresh equity from Unilazer Ventures and existing investors including India Financial Inclusion Fund and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation. The latest investment takes the total capital raised by MHFC to over INR 77 crore. It has raised a similar amount in debt.



MHFC lends amounts upto INR 5 lakh comprising not

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Deal Alert: RVCF invests in N1 Media Consultancy Pvt. Ltd

N1 Media Pvt Ltd engaged in the business of providing content in the field of news and sports videos to television channels apart from “Mobile” and “Online” markets raised undisclosed growth equity from RVCF (Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund). 



N1 Media is in the business of providing compelling and authoritative video content and ensuring its fast and efficient multi-platform delivery with

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Deal Alert: SIDBI Ventures invests Rs.25-Cr in Glocal Health

SIDBI Venture Capital, via its Samriddhi Fund, has invested Rs.25 crore in Kolkata-based Glocal Healthcare Systems Pvt Ltd. PXV Law Partners and Kochhar & Co were advisors to the deal. 



Glocal has taken up a two-year and Rs 400-crore project for setting up 50 affordable new secondary hospitals in rural and semi-urban areas across six States. The project would be funded through equity and

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Deal Alert: Stresed assets e-auctioneer NPASource.com raises funds from SIDBI

Ahmedabad-based Atishya Technologies Pvt Ltd, which runs NPASource.com, a portal focusing on resolution of stressed assets has received funding from the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). 



The portal aims to undertake over Rs 600 crore worth of e-auctions of various banks’ non-performing assets in 2013-14. The portal is already empanelled with 9 banks for conducting

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Deal Alert: O&M acquires digital marketing firm PennyWise

Ogilvy & Mather is to acquire a majority stake in Hyderabad-based digital marketing company PennyWise Solutions. Started by five alumni of the Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS), PennyWise Solutions specialises in custom application development, Web development, digital advertising, social media monitoring and data analytics. Clients of the firm include Vodafone India, Johnson &

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Deal Alert: IAN invests in automatic dosa machine maker Dosamatic

Indian Angel Network members Hari Balasubramaniam and P Gopinath have invested in Chennai-based Mukunda Foods, a design & development start-up that makes Dosamatic, a table top Dosa making machine. Mukunda Foods is also an IAN incubatee company, which graduated from the IAN Incubator and raised investment. 



Mukunda foods was founded by Eshwar K Vikas & Sudeep Sabat in May 2012 while they

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Deal Alert: Web domains firm Directi to be acquired by US-based Endurance Intl for $110-M

US-based Endurance International, owner of Domain.com and HostGator, will spend up to $110 million in buying Mumbai-headquartered Directi, India’s largest domain registrar. Endurance plans to raise up to $400 million in a Nasdaq IPO and part of the funds will be spent on buying Directi. The acquisition depends on a number of targets related to the IPO and Directi’s revenue performance.



The

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Deal Alert: RVCF invests in Chandigarh based Food Processing Co Chatha Foods Pvt. Ltd

Chatha Foods Pvt Ltd which is India’s leading Frozen and Ready to Eat (RTE) meat foods manufacturer raised undisclosed growth equity from RVCF (Rajasthan Venture Capital Fund).



Chatha Foods retails an array of RTE & Frozen Meat products under the Brand “Swiss Naturen”.It is also the largest supplier of frozen chicken products to Domino’s,Subway,Papa Johns and several other leading QSRs in

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Deal Alert: Online food marketplace Langhar bags $150-K in ARK challenge

Delhi based Langhar, which allows people to buy and sell home cooked food online, has secured a funding of $1,50,000 from ARK Challenge, a startup boot-camp. Earlier, Langhar raised $20,000 of seed money from TLabs as part of its third batch.



Langhar was started in November 2012 by Karanpreet Singh, Pankaj Sharma, Sunil Kumar and Pawan Saini. It currently offers its services in Delhi. People

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Story of Education Loans Firm Credila

From the Business Today article:

Credila started operations in March 2008, two months after DSP Merrill
Lynch invested in the company. From March 2008 until HDFC bought out DSP
Merrill, Credila had disbursed only Rs 20 crore. Since then it has
sanctioned more than Rs 2,000 crore and disbursed nearly half that
amount. The big surprise was in 2012 when Credila received more than
90,000

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Deal Alert: TLabs announces a new batch with 9 startups

Accelerator TLabs has announced its Fall 2013 batch of nine start-ups. With this batch, the accelerator - an initiative of Times Internet - takes its portfolio count to 23. The latest start-ups are: 



BetaGlide

A cloud-based platform for mobile application developers and testers which enables them to test the apps in a real time environment. 

JiffStore

A mobile commerce start-up that helps

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Deal Alert: To The New acquires S’pore-based social media monitoring software firm ThoughtBuzz

Mumbai-based digital media company To The New has acquired Singapore-headquartered social media analytics company Thoughtbuzz. The acquisition will allow To The New to integrate social media analytics into its digital services portfolio thus expanding its digital ecosystem to marketing, content, technology and analytics.

ThoughtBuzz provides social media intelligence services for Toyota, Air

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Deal Alert: Networkplay acquires advertising platform yoCAPTCHA

Ad network player Networkplay has acquired yoCAPTCHA, an ad platform by Innovese Technologies. Following the deal, Innovese co-founders Dhruv Sogani will head Business Development at Networkplay and Ankit Gupta will join as Head of Technology. Launched in 2011 by Innovese, yoCAPTCHA is an advertising platform that transforms difficult to read CAPTCHAs into ad units. The company claims that it

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Deal Alert: Coupons aggregator Zoutons raises Rs.20 Lakh from 3.14 Digital

Delhi-based Zoutons Digital Media Company, which owns and operates the online coupons aggregation site Zoutons.com, has raised Rs 20 lakh in seed funding from digital marketing company 3.14 Digital. The startup was also incubated by 3.14 Digital. The funds raised will be used to enhance the technology. 



Source: Press Release

 



Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and

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Deal Alert: Mumbai Angels, Venture Nursery angels invest Rs.50 Lakh in social e-com firm Klip

Mumbai-based social ecommerce startup Klip.in has raised Rs.50 lakh funding from Venture Nursery and Mumbai Angels. The company helps users discover unique lifestyle products from across the web by aggregating and curating them based on their social connections and interest graph.



From the Venture Intelligence Incubation Database: Klip was part of VentureNursery’s second batch that concluded

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Deal Alert: CCube Angels to invest Rs.4.5 Cr in small towns focused e-tailer edabba.com

Singapore-based angel investing group CCube Angels has agreed to buy a minority stake for INR 4.5 crores in Delhi-based Omnipresent Retail India, which runs online retail portal edabba.com. edabba sells a range of products, including electronics, personal accessories and jewellery – mostly in smaller towns and cities – and is supported by over 400 contact centres offering after sales service.

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Deal Alert: Gurgaon startup enMarkit in S’pore’s JFDI accelerator

Gurgaon-based enMarkit, a social commerce startup, is among ten startup teams that joins Singapore-based accelerator JFDI Asia’s latest batch. The accelerator offers S$15,000 in net cash investment, over S$100,000 in technical facilities, office accommodation, mentoring and an introduction to more than 100 active early-stage investors, in return for equity stakes in the companies.



enMarkit,

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Deal Alert: Ahmedabad startup Gridle in iAccelerator 2013 batch

Ahmedabad-based cloud enterprise collaboration platform Gridle has been selected as an incubatee at IIM Ahmedabad’s startup accelerator programme iAccelerator, which closed applications for its 2013 batch about a month ago. Gridle was founded last year by Yash Shah, Abhishek Doshi and Anupama Panchal. 



Gridle can be used to collaborate on projects in teams of 15-20, share files, assign tasks

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Deal Alert: Blume Ventures invests in social tech firm Kuliza

Bangalore-based Kuliza, a social technology firm with expertise in building web, mobile and social media apps, has received an investment from Blume Ventures. Kuliza will be utilizing the raised funds in further expanding globally and building digital marketing tools. 



Founded in 2006, Kuliza is focused on helping companies leverage technology support in the areas of social software,

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Deal Alert: Samridhi Fund invests Rs.15-Cr in Gramco Infratech

Gramco Infratech Pvt Ltd (Gramco), a rural-focused company that creates infrastructure to support farmers, has raised Rs 15 crore in its first round of equity funding from Samridhi Fund. The funds raised will be used to construct agri-warehouses in Madhya Pradesh and to meet its working capital requirements. Intellecap was the sole financial advisor to the deal. 



The Samridhi Fund has been

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Deal Alert: Mobile Surveys Startup VoxApp Raises Funding from Blume Ventures, Angels

Edited extracts From the  Press Release:

VoxApp, a Delhi-based startup that has developed a platform to enable brands & research companies  undertake consumer feedback studies on the mobile phone, has raised a round of funding from a syndicate of domestic and foreign investors
including Blume Ventures, Narayanan Shadagopan (MD, Pragati India Fund),
Palaash Ventures, Sachin Bhatia (

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Deal Alert: Blume Ventures, angels invest in beauty products e-tailer Purplle

Mumbai-based online beauty and personal care e-tailer Purplle has raised its first round of funding from seed fund Blume Ventures and angel networks Mumbai Angels and The Chennai Angels. The company, founded in early 2012 by Manish Taneja and Rahul Dash, offers personal care products ranging from make-up to electronics from over 400 global brands. 



Source: Economic Times 

 



Venture

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Deal Alert: Kae Capital leads investment in social CRM firm Airwoot

New Delhi-based Airwoot, a startup that helps brands provide customer support on social media, has raised funding from investors led by Kae Capital. Top angel investors like Google India managing director Rajan Anandan, Sasha Mirchandani, Sunil Kalra and Samir Sood participated. The company, which enables businesses to engage with their customers in real-time, will use the funding to develop

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Deal Alert: Blume Ventures discloses investments in 12 firms

Seed fund Blume Ventures has disclosed that it has invested in 12 ventures in the first six months of 2013. 



Infollion: Delhi-based Infollion brings together buyers and sellers of research services or products on the same platform.

Batchcar: Mumbai-based Batchcar (earlier called SharedCab.com) is a provider of shared taxi service. Co-investors: Kae Capital, individuals.



NowFloats:

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Deal Alert: Ice cream vendor Hokey Pokey raises capital

Drums Food International, owner of the Hokey Pokey brand of ice cream, has raised less than a million dollars from investors led by Peter Rajsingh, a partner at New York-based Castellar Partners and Professor at New York University. Other investors include Shripad Nadkarni, a former marketing head at Coca-Cola India and Apurva Salarpuria, director at the Salarpuria Group. The company, promoted

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Entrevista with Ratish Nair, Founding-CEO of Interactive Avenues

Cross posted from the Entrevista blog at http://www.entrevista.in

Interview with Ratish Nair, Founding-CEO of Interactive Avenues (IA), the Mumbai-headquartered, Sequoia Capital India-backed digital marketing agency which was acquired in March 2013 by US- and Europe-based ad agency Interpublic. Interview focuses on the company's founding (5 co-founders who earlier worked at another digital

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Deal Alert: Sequoia, Norwest to invest $10-M in outdoor-gear maker Wildcraft: report

Sequoia Capital and Norwest Venture Partners are backing Bangalore-based outdoor-gear maker Wildcraft with a $10-million investment. The funds are valuing the backpack and rucksack brand at nearly $50 million. The fund raising is part of the strategy to transformWildcraft from mostly a technical outdoor gear to a broader lifestyle and leisure business.



Wildcraft's sales are nearing Rs 100

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Deal Alert: MS Dhoni invests in sports goods and apparel brand Fitsoul

Cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni has invested in sports goods and apparel brand Fitsoul, a venture backed by ex-Reebok honcho Sajid Shamim and entrepreneur Parvinder Singh. Fitsoul, launched seven months ago, has six stores and aims to be a sports goods retailing vertical selling multi-brand products.



The company has developed both online and brick-and-mortar stores. The company hopes to clock

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Deal Alert: TLabs inv in US-based travel info service Skift

New York based travel intelligence and information portal, Skift, has raised funding from Times Internet Limited. The terms of the deal do not involve a board seat.

Skift, which offers news, information, data and services related to travel, raised $1.1 million of funding in May this year in a round led by Lerer Ventures with participation from a group of eight angel investors along with seed

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Deal Alert: ATM outsourcing company EPS raises Rs.36-Cr more from Aavishkaar

ATM outsourcing company Electronic Payments and Services (EPS) has raised $6 million (Rs 36 crore) from Social VC fund Aavishkaar. This is the second round of funding for the start-up which has received the mandate to set up machines all over Maharashtra by public sector banks. EPS plans to deploy around 5000 plus ATMs by 2014 with 500 installations every month. 



Last year, Aavishkaar had

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Deal Alert: Sachin Tendulkar picks up 18% in sports simulator firm Smaaash Entertainment

Crickter Sachin Tendulkar has picked up an 18% stake in Smaaash Entertainment, the sports simulation venture, started by serial entrepreneur Shripal Morakhia. Morakhia earlier founded brokerage firm Sharekhan and investment banking firm SSKI. Smaash offers augmented reality simulators to play cricket and race F1 cars among other sports at its gaming arcade in Mumbai’s Lower Parel. Smaash is

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Deal Alert: Sequoia invests Rs.110-Cr in Vini Cosmetics

Sequoia Capital has bought a minority stake in Ahmedabad-based Vini Cosmetics Pvt. Ltd for Rs.110 crore. Of this, Rs.35 crore was used to purchase the stake of an unnamed investor. Rest of the funds raised will be used for diversifying into over-the-counter (OTC) products and nutraceuticals. 



Founded by Darshan Patel in 2010, Vini Cosmetics makes Fogg deodorants and talcum powder White Tone

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Deal Alert: Tata Capital, Morgan Stanley invest Rs.350-Cr in MFI Janalakshmi

PE funds including Tata Capital and Morgan Stanley Global Private Equity will pick up a significant minority stake in fourth round of funding for urban micro-lender Janalakshmi Financial Services for Rs.350 crore. Janalakshmi, promoted by former Citibanker Ramesh Ramanathan, offers services to 50,00,000 customers across 47 cities and has applied for a licence to transform itself into a bank. 

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Why Canaan Partners wants to back more Online Classifieds ventures

Canaan has already invested in Indian online classifieds firms like Bharatmatrimony, Cartrade and Indiaproperty and is hungry for more investments in the segment. Alok Mittal who heads the US headquartered venture firm's operations in India explains why and the dynamics of the sector in an interview to BusinessLine. Extracts (emphasis mine):









Exits have been attractive both in India and

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Will Indian Entrepreneurs' Satisfaction with Small Outcomes "Scare Away" VCs to Other Countries?

From a post by Mukund Mohan of Microsoft Ventures





As we start to invest in the early stage startup ecosystem in India,
it is important to calibrate the possible returns and allocate funds
associated with the returns. If most entrepreneurs in India are okay
with smaller returns, it makes sense for us to allocate fewer fund here
than China, Israel or Africa.

From our experience at the

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The Math for Start Up Funding in India: Accelerators vs Angels vs VCs

Mukund Mohan of Microsoft Ventures has a numbers-based post on the probability of funding and the equity dilutions Indian entrepreneurs face depending on whether they go to an Accelerator first versus VCs and Angel Investors.

The first scenario for you, the entrepreneur, is to get funded directly by a VC. The chances of that happening in India are low – 1.4%. The
other challenge is that those

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Deal Alert: Microsoft Accelerator announces 8 cos for 2013 winter batch

Microsoft will take on board 8 companies as a part of its winter batch for 2013. The companies are: 



AdSparx: Enables monetization for digital video delivered through the Internet for mobile devices, PCs and connected TVs.

ShieldSquare: Helps identify, detect, assess and protect against any account breaches on user accounts. 



Chance: An iPhone & Android application that will allow users

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Deal Alert: Zodius Capital invests $3-M in analytics firm Antuit

Zodius Capital has invested $3 million (around Rs 18 crore) in Bangalore- and Singapore-based big data and analytics company Antuit. Part of the investment has been used by Antuit, founded by Arijit Sengupta, to acquire a US-based analytics firm Marketwell in a part cash and stock deal. With this acquisition Antuit gets a presence in the US as well as access to 10 clients, of which three are

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Deal Alert: Intel Capital invests Rs.54-Cr in NxtGen Datacenter

Intel Capital has invested $9 million (Rs.54 crore) in Bangalore-based start-up NxtGen Datacenter and Cloud Technologies that offers data storage services to corporations in India. This is the first round of institutional investment for NxtGen.

NxtGen was founded in May last year by AS Rajgopal, who has previously worked with Tulip Data City and Reliance Communication's data center business.

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Deal Alert: Snapdeal raises $75-M from Softbank

eBay-backed online marketplace Snapdeal has raised $75 million from Softbank. Three months ago, Snapdeal had closed a $75 million investment round from Ebay, Intel Capital, Russian venture fund ru-Net, Saama Capital, Recruit Co, existing investors like Nexus Venture Partners, Bessemer Venture Partners and IndoUS Venture Partners and a few angel investors. Earlier, it had raised $12 million from

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Deal Alert: Cookie Man buys ID restaurant chain from Sathyam Cinemas

Confectionary chain Cookie Man, promoted by SBP Pattabhi Rama Rao, has bought into ID (standing for idlidosa), started in 2010 by SPI Diners, an arm of Chennai’s theatre chain Sathyam Cinemas. Till January this year, ID ran only one outlet, inside Sathyam Cinemas. Since then, it has started six more - two in Coimbatore and four in Chennai. Cookie Man plans to increase the total number of ID

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Deal Alert: Handicrafts e-tailer Caravan Craft raises Rs 1-Cr from Unitus Seed Capital

Caravan Craft Retail Private Limited, a Bangalore based apparel and home décor company, has raised Rs 1 cr from United Seed Fund. Co-founded by former Hidesign Chief Executive Officer Kunal R Sachdev, the company is set to launch a ‘single brand’ concept in India and will soon open up its first store in Bangalore focused on women. 



Source: Nextbigwhat 

 


Venture Intelligence is the

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Deal Alert: Head Held High raises Rs.2.5 Cr; in talks to raise Rs.20-Cr

Head Held High Services Pvt Ltd has raised a first round of investment of Rs 2.5 crore from Unilazer Ventures, five angels from the Intellecap Impact Investment Network (I3N). The angels included Pravin Gandhi, Jayesh Parekh, Reena Mithal and Sanjeev Shah, and US-based investors like Kartik Kilachand. 



Head Held High runs three initiatives - RubanShakti, a talent transformation platform

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Deal Alert: Organic products e-tailer Organicshop.in raises capital from Rajasthan Angel Investor Network

Organic products e-tailer, Organicshop.in, has raised an angel funding of Rs 30 lakh from Rajasthan Angel Investor Network (RAIN). 13 investors from the network have picked up a total stake of 30% equity stake in the Jaipur-based Organicshop.in that works on a marketplace model and does not stock any inventory. It currently features more than 1300 products across various categories such as

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Deal Alert: Former Viacom 18 CEO Vikram Malhotra floats independent studio, raises Rs. 150-Cr

Vikram Malhotra, the former CEO of Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, has ventured into an independent studio model under the banner Abundantia. He has raised Rs.150 crore from two investors - a Hong Kong-based private equity firm, which is making its debut in the Indian media and entertainment space, and a high net-worth individual ( HNI) from India who is not connected to the film world. Malhotra has

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Deal Alert: One97 acquires Plustxt

One97 has acquired Mumbai Angels- and Bangalore Angels-backed, Bangalore-based regional language messaging app startup, Plustxt. Plustxt allows text messaging in Indian languages including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Marathi, Malayalam and Kannada. 



Source: NextBigWhat

 



Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials,

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Deal Alert: E-tailer Squarekey raises funding from 500Startups, others

New York & Mumbai based online lifestyle retailer Squarekey has raised funding from 500Startups and Devaraj Southworth, Executive Vice President of US-based payments firm Zipmark. Squarekey is a editorially driven ecommerce play, providing Indian users access to range of international brands and curated services at the same price as available in the west. 



Source: iamwire

 



Venture

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Deal Alert: Saif invests in furniture e-tailer UrbanLadder

Bangalore based, online home decor retailer Urbanladder has raised Series A round of funding led by the Saif Partners. With this round of funding Deepak Gaur, Partner at Saif Partners has also joined the board of Urbanladder. Urbanladder which was co-founded by Ashish Goel and Rajiv Srivatsa in January 2012 had raised $1 million in seed funding from Kalaari Capital in August 2012.



The

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Deal Alert: Snow Leopard Tech Ventures invests in mobile payments firm LivQuik

Mumbai based payment technology startup LivQuik Technology (India) Pvt Ltd has raised funding from Snow Leopard Technology Ventures. The funds will be used to expand its team in engineering, operations and marketing. Chris Kolenaty, partner at Snow Leopard, has joined the board. 



LivQuik was founded by Mohit Lalwani and Yudhajit Nag Sen in April 2012. It provides a mobile wallet called

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Deal Alert: Curadev Pharma raises Rs 25 Cr

The FIPB has cleared Noida-based Curadev Pharma Pvt Ltd’s proposal to raise Rs.25 crores from a Venture Capital fund registered with SEBI. In March 2011 Curadev Pharma was incubated at IIT Kanpur. It does research in pre-clinical space to make IND (investigational new drugs) and pre-IND packages. 



Venture Intelligence is the leading provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials

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The Bubble in Social Venture / Impact Investing

Economic Times has raised the "danger" flag on the bubble building up in the sector in a full page feature.

"The hype around impact investing far outweighs reality," warns Vineet
Rai, founder and chairman of Intellecap, with over a decade's experience
in funding and handholding social entrepreneurs through the Aavishkaar
funds. "The expectations being raised are just beyond the capability

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Deal Alert: IAN incubates new cos

Indian Angel Network’s (IAN) virtual incubator has incubated eight new companies since January this year including:



Evomo Research & Advancement: the Ahmedabad-based startup is building ‘Saavaj’, a rural utility vehicle (RUV) that aims to replace the Jugaad, an unsafe motor vehicle used for transportation in the country’s hinterland. Evomo, founded in 2008 by Abhinav Kumar,was incubated at

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Deal Alert: Sequoia invests Rs.3.22 Cr in online accounting services firm Reach Accountant

Sequoia Capital India has invested Rs.3.22 crores in Chennai-based online accounting services firm Reach Accountant. The company issues 10 equity shares and 6,143 preference shares of face value Rs.10 at a price of Rs.5,230.31 each to Sequoia Capital India Investment Holdings III, regulatory filings reveal

 



From the Venture Intelligence Angel Investments database: In Feb 2012, Reach

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Deal Alert: Times Internet acquires restaurant recommendation app firm Gawbl

Times Internet’s city guide TimesCity has “acqui-hired” the Pune-based restaurant recommendation mobile app Gawbl, which was launched four months ago on Android. The Gawbl team will be joining TimesCity’s mobile team, where they will be working on improving TimesCity’s mobile apps. Gawbl founder Chiragh Kirpalani will be joining TimesCity as the head of mobile.



Founded in January 2013, Gawbl

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E&Y, Unitus Capital Top H1’13 League Tables among Transaction Advisors

Ernst & Young and Unitus Capital topped the Venture Intelligence India League Tables for
the Most Active Transaction Advisors to Private Equity deals

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Deal Alert: Omidyar Network picks up 29.33% in retail sector lender Neogrowth for Rs.17-Cr

Omidyar Network, via ON Mauritius Business, has picked up a 29.33% stake in NeoGrowth, a Mumbai-based NBFC which lends to small and medium sized retailers, for Rs.17 crore. NeoGrowth has allotted 74,625,870 preference shares at Rs.22.78 per share and 100 equity shares at the same issue price to the investor. As part of the deal, Dimple Sanghi has joined the board, regulatory filings reveal.

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AZB & Partners, Khaitan & Co. Top H1’13 League Tables

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