'I've been backing businesses in the e-commerce space because they enable goods and services to reach people who could never have been catered to in this manner before.'
The queue for mutual fund (MF) licences has thinned down due to quick clearances by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) alongside applications being withdrawn amid regulatory changes. There were, at the end of September, only two pending MF applications: By AngelOne and Unifi Capital. By comparison, there were 11 applications lying before the market regulator at the start of calendar year 2023.
In order to make it hassle-free, various start-up support groups such as TiE (The Indus Entrepreneur) and India Angel Network (IAN) are partnering with the digital NBFCs to extend debt finance to their member companies.
Fresh capital raised by companies by way of initial public offerings (IPOs) is set to hit a 14-year high, thanks mainly to Zomato's maiden offering. India Inc has raised about Rs 19,300 crore in fresh capital by maiden offerings, including the Rs 9,000 crore the food delivery company will raise this week, so far in 2021. The best year in terms of fresh fund-raise was 2007, when companies had raised Rs 32,102 crore. With Paytm planning to issue fresh shares worth Rs 12,000 crore, the domestic market looks set to surpass that tally this year.
India-located funds have already raised $3.9 billion so far this year.
Snapdeal has a number of shareholders including Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan, PremjiInvest, Ratan Tata, Foxconn, Temasek and BlackRock, among others.
'India has tremendous potential for digital ventures,' says Ratan Tata.
Indian start-ups breathed a sigh of relief after the UK government facilitated the acquisition of the now-defunct Silicon Valley Bank's (SVB's) British arm by HSBC. In a bid to allay fears, the US Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FIDC) announced recently that it had transferred all deposits of start-up-focused SVB to a newly created bridge bank and all depositors would have access to their money. President Joe Biden also sought to reassure jittery depositors that they can have confidence that the US banking system is "safe".
Food delivery major Swiggy has received approval from its shareholders for a $1.25 billion initial public offering (IPO), according to filings made with the Registrar of Companies sourced by Tofler. The Bengaluru-based firm plans to raise as much as Rs 3,750 crore (around $450 million) via a fresh issue and up to Rs 6,664 crore (around $800 million) through an offer-for-sale (OFS) component, the filings stated.
The chip maker is putting money in his low-cost Braille printer project.
E-commerce is awash in money, raising concerns about whether this is just another unsustainable internet trend headed for a bust.
The family office category was up 38 per cent, led by names such as Ratan Tata, Ronnie Screwvala and various Infosys co-founders.
'The success of one or two IPOs does not dictate whether the upcoming IPOs will be successful or not, but it certainly indicates that the markets and investors are enthusiastic about startup IPOs.'
The Indian entrepreneurship success story will soon see one more company debuting on the public markets. Ola Electric, the electric vehicle (EV) company, has become the first such firm that has filed its draft red herring prospectus (DRHP) with the Securities and Exchange Board of India for its initial public offering (IPO). This is a fresh issue of equity shares of up to Rs 5,500 crore and an offer for sale (OFS) of more than 95 million equity shares at a face value of Rs 10.
'India's fundamentals are a lot better (than those of other emerging market economies).' 'India will suffer (witness a fall in its stock market) what I call the second order effect.' 'And the second order will happen when these funds (belonging to macro and hedge fund investors and which have leveraged Japanese yen-carry trades), because they lose money elsewhere as lot of their positions were financed by borrowing Japanese yen, will have to book profits in investment destinations where they are making money, including in markets like India.' 'They (these investors) will have to effectively sell in countries like India and which is the consequence (the crash in equity markets) that Indian markets might see.'
Nasper-backed fintech firm PayU has started talks to acquire domestic payment gateway major BillDesk, and the deal size could be in the range of $3-4 billion, sources in the know said. "BillDesk has been open to being acquired for some time now, but in the past the valuations that the company was seeking proved to be a hurdle," said a source. "Three years ago too, PayU had approached BillDesk for an acquisition, but things didn't go ahead due to high valuations. "BillDesk had asked for $2-billion value then," said the source.
The announcement comes after the government launched a high-decibel campaign.
Some decades ago, nearly 90 per cent of Nattukottai Chettiars were entrepreneurs; this has dropped to 15 per cent. The community plans to reverse the numbers through know-how, family support, funding and networking.
According to experts, this will have major impact on new investments by Chinese players in companies, such as Paytm, Ola, BigBasket, Byju's, Dream11, MakeMyTrip, and Swiggy, when they go for follow-up funding. Chinese investors, such as Alibaba, Tencent, and Xiaomi, are active in the Indian start-up space, and have collectively invested billions of dollars.
For now, the concerns over bad loans have taken a back seat; a bigger challenge for the banking community is credit growth, explains Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Leading the Indian-Americans on the list is 49-year old Aneel Bhusri.
Private equity investments in Indian companies grew 38 per cent to $62.2 billion last year, with inflows into Reliance Industries' telecom and retail ventures contributing nearly 40 per cent of the total value of the deals, a report said on Wednesday. Barring investments into Jio Platforms and Reliance Retail, the total deal value was down by 20 per cent over 2019 as the volume of large deals of more than $100 million dipped by a fourth, as per the report by Bain & Company and India Venture Capital Association. Overall investment activity remained muted from March to May last year due to COVID-led uncertainties and investor confidence recovered strongly in the second half to pre-COVID levels with late-stage and buyout deals witnessing increased traction, it said.
Around 6,967 tech employees lost their jobs in Bengaluru, the highest among Indian cities, partially because of its evolution in recent years as a start-up hub.
Ratan Tata has invested an undisclosed amount in startup research platform Tracxn.
The primary market will see a flurry of activity in March, with at least three companies including Gopal Snacks will float their initial public offerings (IPOs) in the upcoming week to raise Rs 1,325 crore collectively. The other two companies which are set to launch their maiden public issues are -- RK Swamy and JG Chemicals. Additionally, Bengaluru-based luxury furniture brand Stanley Lifestyles and Krystal Integrated Services are expected to float their initial share-sales later this month, according to merchant bankers.
TaxiForSure's Aprameya Radhakrishna's new venture, Vokal, is a peer-to-peer content generation platform that is a cross between Reddit and Quora.
'What's sad today is that there are so many people who cannot find work, not because the country is devoid of that opportunity, but because we are not doing enough in the country.'
State Bank of India (SBI) on Tuesday announced the launch of its first "state-of-the-art" dedicated branch for start-ups in the country here, to facilitate and support them. The branch launched by SBI chairman Dinesh Khara is located in Koramangala, which alongside neighbouring HSR Layout and Indiranagar are the biggest start-up hubs in the city. "...overall we are in a position to provide end-to-end services to start-ups, with that in mind this particular start-up branch is the first start-up branch we are starting, from the capital city of start-ups- Bengaluru.
The BSA Gold Star is launched....Ola Enters e-motorbikes Biz... Bajaj, TVS To Enter e2Ws Market...
Estimates suggest about $100 million has been poured into these companies and a lot more is still to come.
French energy giant TotalEnergies SE's $300 million investment in clean energy projects of Adani Green Energy Ltd has taken the total investments poured in by global investors in India's largest renewable power producer to $1.63 billion or about Rs 14,000 crore, sources close to the company said. Last week, Total announced it will hold a 50 per cent stake in the new joint venture firm where Adani Green Energy Ltd (AGEL) will hold the rest. The joint venture will hold a portfolio of 1,050 MW, including 300 MW of already operational capacity, 500 MW under construction and 250 MW under-development assets with a blend of solar and wind power.
In contrast to the growth on IT and ITeS front, disbursements of venture capital and public equity funding halved to $540 million during 2003 in India
'India has the potential to do a lot more to take advantage of the time today where we stand to gain, geopolitically and in terms of market attractiveness.'
Infosys will be handing over a prize of Rs 5 lakh to 20 entrepreneurs every year.
'Historically, equities have consistently outperformed debt, gold, property, and other assets over a reasonable period.'
Deepening the funding crisis that startups have been witnessing for some time, the October inflows plunged 75 per cent on-year to $3.3 billion across 75 deals, including six large deals worth $2.2 billion, according to an industry report. Exits touched half of the inflows at $1.6 billion across 15 deals in the reporting months, a significant improvement over the previous month which saw just $653 million worth of exits across 24 deals, but 69 per cent lower on-year basis, according to the numbers collated by EY for the Indian Private Equity & Venture Capital Association, the umbrella body the PEs and VCs. However, the report said, on a month-on-month basis, the inflows continued to grow, clipping at 60 per cent over the September numbers.
India added three 'unicorns' per month in 2021 to nearly double the overall number of startups valued at over USD 1 billion to 51 as of end-August, a report said on Thursday. Even as, cumbersome regulations are forcing startups to leave India and settle in other countries where they enjoy better treatment, as per the Hurun India, which prepared the list. It can be noted that over the last few years, dedicated efforts have been undertaken to hone the startups ecosystem by the government through flagship initiatives like 'Startup India'.
In essence, follow the private-equity approach to personal investing and treat each investment decision as if it is a matter of life-or-death, because it is, suggests Avinash Luthria.
Adani Enterprises Ltd, the flagship incubator of billionaire Gautam Adani's conglomerate, on Thursday reported a 37 per cent drop in March quarter net profit, bogged down by one-time past airport dues and commercial mining losses. Its consolidated net profit of Rs 450.58 crore in January-March - the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2023-24 - compares to Rs 722.48 crore net profit in the same period last year and Rs 1,888.45 crore earning in the preceding quarter, according to a stock exchange filing by the company.
The idea that technology and startups with newer business models will not disrupt traditional businesses has been thrown out the window.