Despite the positive sentiment returning in the VC space, investment si still low on an year-on-year basis.
There is money to buy the central public sector enterprises, but buyers will need a firm assurance that the disvestment programme will keep environment issues front and centre of their corporate plans.
Postman, a leading application programming interface platform, has secured $225 million in a Series D round, placing its valuation at $5.6 billion. With this, Postman has emerged as the most-valued software-as-a-service (SaaS) firm started by Indian founders, overtaking web and mobile testing firm BrowserStack, which was valued at $4 billion in June. The valuation of the San Francisco-headquartered firm with offices in Bengaluru, where it was founded, has almost trebled in just about one year and risen multi-fold since 2019. Postman, with team members spread across four continents, had secured $150 million in a Series C investment round led by Insight Partners at a $2-billion valuation last summer.
In 2020-2021, the amount of foreign direct investment into India from China and Hong Kong plummeted to just $200 million -- its lowest in the recent past. In the first half of 2021-2022, FDI investments through these two nations stood at just $36 million.
India's ODI and T20 skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni has been named as the face and brand ambassador of the Craig McDermott International Cricket Academy (CMICA), a leading state of the art private cricket and educational sports academy in Australia.
Amazon, Google, Apple and Facebook are both a boon and a bane for angel investors, VCs as well as start-ups. If the Big Tech companies get broken up and their powers to acquire get significantly curbed therefore, the whole ecosystem will need to change, says Prosenjit Datta.
Access to capital for sub-standard companies is on the decline
Of the 1,145 offers made this year, consulting firms made up 34 per cent, followed by banking, financial services and insurance, pharma/healthcare, IT/ITeS and FMCG/retail.
The Chinese investor in the parent firm of Koo, India's answer to Twitter, is on its way out after other investors have pledged to buy out its 9 per cent stake, Koo's co-founder and CEO Aprameya Radhakrishna said.
Canara Bank, India's second largest public sector bank, is all set for an aggressive play in the venture capital business.
Nearly half of the investments by various US-based investors have been made in Reliance subsidiary Jio.
Funds will invest in new technology companies involved with climate change mitigation.
Despite the $11.7 billion raised by Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) through stake sales, venture investments in 2020 have declined by a fifth to $28.9 billion till September, consultancy firm EY said in a report on Thursday. Since mid-March, coronavirus infections started getting reported in the country, which has now become the second highest globally in terms of numbers. The lockdowns severely dented economic activity, leading to a 23.9 per cent contraction in the gross domestic product (GDP) for the April-June period and expectations of a 9.5 per cent contraction by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for 2020-21.
For large start-ups the US market is considered to be a preferred destination, as Indian investors were seen as hesitant to pay the kind of valuation private equity investors or the US markets pay. However, Zomato's listing has quashed these notions.
Technology infrastructure solves many problems, but it cannot build roads or bridges and provide clean water. However, such activities are essential for human progress, and their creation provides jobs, says R Gopalakrishnan.
Alternative Investment Fund refers to any fund established or incorporated in India which is a privately pooled investment vehicle that collects funds from sophisticated investors, whether Indian or foreign.
Focussed on growing its business in India, networking giant Cisco said it invests as much as $1.7 billion annually in its operations in the country across areas like R&D and employee training.
The Zee saga will see a long-drawn-out court battle before shareholders get any chance to vote on any proposal by the management or Invesco, says Prosenjit Datta.
Even at early stage, start-ups are raising more money faster owing to the rise of a lot of specialised early-stage VCs and emergence of seed-stage programmes.
Indian firms selling SAAS products have got a bonanza as companies meet, manage and sell remotely. The top five firms - Zoho, Freshworks HighRadius, Druva, and Icertis - account for 33 per cent of the market share. Chennai, India's SAAS centre, alone generates $1 billion in annual revenue. Yuvraj Malik explains how these companies are planning their next phase of growth.
Diversified business group Godrej Industries has set up a $50 million venture capital fund along with a set of individuals to invest in agri start-ups.
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.
Union Minister of Commerce and Textiles Piyush Goyal has stirred up a hornet's nest by taking on India Inc, specifically the Tata group, which is among the companies that lobbied against the Modi government's pro-consumer draft e-commerce policies. While Goyal's comments, made at a Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) event, were streamed live on YouTube, the industry lobbying body later edited the video and subsequently withdrew the entire speech. Goyal had said the Tata group and other Indian companies often lobbied for their interest, while ignoring national interest.
According to 'India PE Report 2010', released by global consultancy Bain & Company, there is renewed confidence among the leading PE investors about the Indian market.
Moreover, VC investments are anticipated to move away from information technology and telecommunication areas, according to German banking major Deutsche Bank.
The venture capital industry is optimistic about renewed investments this year, with focus shifting primarily to the green technology sector, a survey by global consultancy KPMG LLP said.
Kishore Biyani, the founder of Future Group, is treading cautiously with the initial public offer of his venture capital arm, Future Ventures, this time.
'India has over 300 million online sports fans, of which over 60 million use fantasy sports as their primary tool for engagement with their favourite sport.'
Markets regulator Sebi is contemplating reforms in the IPO norms, especially on the book building, fixed price aspects and certain provisions pertaining to price band, its chief Ajay Tyagi said on Wednesday. Apart from initial public offer (IPO), the regulator is looking into further reforms on preferential issue front, Tyagi said at the FICCI's annual Capital Market Conference. He further said that the focus on review of equity fund raising norms will continue in the near future.
Ajit Balakrishnan offers a thinking man's guide to the state of ecom in a nation of shopkeepers.
At present, the EPFO is mandated to invest 20-45 per cent of its incremental funds - of around Rs 1.5 trillion - in debt-related instruments.
The Small Industries Development Bank of India will shortly launch a Rs 500 crore venture capital fund for small companies
Since the Centre tightened the Press Note 3 norms in April last, as many as 150 private equity/venture capital investment applications from China and Hong Kong are pending with the government, starving the country's start-up ecosystem of funds, says a report. The Press Note 3 (PN3) changes were effected in April, restricting foreign direct investment from countries that share land borders with India. Analysts are of the view that the move was primarily aimed at China as lot of private funds were investing billions into domestic companies.
The new PN3 norms and lack of clarity on what constitutes beneficial ownership are the primary reasons for the decline in investments from China and Hong Kong.
The country's two venture capital firms, Anil Ambani Group's Reliance Technology Ventures and Nexus India Capital, have been named in the Red Herring Top 100 Global Venture Capitals.
Venture capitals in India, which traditionally invested in urban segments or technology sector, have begun investing in rural-centric technology firms. Avishkaar India Micro Venture Capital Fund, Acumen Fund, and Rural Innovations Network are showing increased focus on rural markets.
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