Blue Ashva Capital announces initial close of SME focused India Fund

Blue Ashva Capital announces the initial close of its maiden SME and Startup focused fund in India with commitments of INR 454 crores (~USD 60 million). The investors include family offices and high net worth individuals.

The fund proposes to raise a sum of INR 400 crores with a greenshoe option of INR 200 crores. It has exercised a part of the greenshoe option at the initial close.

The fund (“Blue Ashva Sampada Fund”) is a Scheme of Blue Ashva Capital Trust - a SEBI registered Category II Alternative Investment Fund.

The fund will invest in businesses across sectors including financial services, technology, healthcare, consumer, manufacturing etc. through equity, debt or any combination thereof. The fund will also back professional-turn-entrepreneurs and partner with global companies to invest in India. 

“SMEs and Startups play a key role in fostering entrepreneurship and generating large scale livelihood opportunities. However, with so much gloom and doom around, most such businesses are currently going through challenging times. There is a need now, more than ever, to support passionate founders with optimistic capital that is willing to bet on the long term. Our Fund is committed to nurturing profitable and sustainable SMEs and Startups for a better India.” says Satya Bansal, Founder, Blue Ashva Capital.

About Blue Ashva Capital and the Founder

Blue Ashva Capital is founded by Satya Bansal, an industry veteran with over three decades of rich experience in the Banking and Financial Services sector. Prior to founding Blue Ashva Capital, he was the Chief Executive of Barclays Private Bank in India for more than a decade and played a pivotal role in setting up the Private Banking business in India. He was also a key founding member of the ICICI Direct team.

Satya is known to be an intrapreneur throughout his corporate career wherein he built standalone sustainable businesses within large organizations. He has been an active investor in the startup ecosystem for more than a decade having invested in both mainstream and impact startups globally.

Blue Ashva Capital (www.blueashvacapital.com) is an investment firm based out of Singapore and India, backing sustainable and profitable businesses which are solving real challenges in core sectors such as agri, decarbonization, circular economy and SMEs. It aims to nurture businesses by bringing capital, technology and market linkages together.

The firm has built a strong partner ecosystem in Singapore, the USA and Israel to explore wider possibilities of bringing innovation to market which could be useful to India.

Singapore based Midas Investments Launches $150M Media & Entertainment Fund with Primary Focus on India

Singapore based Investment Banking and Advisory firm, Midas Investments Consulting Pte Ltd has launched a $150 million Midas Global Media Opportunities fund. The fund will invest in a diversified portfolio of Media and Entertainment related projects, assets and ventures such as Films (including mainstream / Indie films - Production and Distributions), Digital and Broadcast Content (including Short Films, Web Series, Television), Global Events (Entertainment, Social and Corporate), Talent Management and New Age Media technology firms. The Fund will diversify its allocation across the different industry verticals and across geographies. While the main geographic focus is India and China, the fund will also invest in selective Media and Entertainment related opportunities across Europe, Australia, Canada and the United States.

To begin with, Midas Entertainment LLP, which is the Fund’s Singapore based operating entity for deployment into various media projects and ventures, has entered into a Long-Term MoU and Strategic Partnership with the two fast growing media companies – Indie Muvizz Pte Ltd and M! Capital Ventures Pte Ltd.

Indie Muviz Pte Ltd owns the Digital Content and Online Streaming / VoD platform Muvizz.com. Under the Muvizz.com brand, Indie Muviz has produced two of the most viewed and acclaimed short films in India – Taandav and Kriti. Muvizz has also co-produced a couple of feature films in the recent past and is organising the first edition of the South Asian Film Festival in Singapore.

M! Capital Ventures Pte. Ltd is a Singapore based Movie Production, Distribution and Film Investment entity which focusses on mainstream Film productions and distributions.

Details of the MoU are not available at this stage. Besides these two entities, Midas Entertainment LLP is also in advanced discussions with a leading Hollywood Studio and a China based Production entity for their US and China strategy, respectively.

The $150 million amount has been raised in tranches of $30-50 million through commitments from a mix of investors such as Financial Institutions, Private Equity Funds, Corporates, Pension Funds as well as Ultra High Net-Worth Private Investors and large family offices.

Mr Inder Preet Singh, Managing Director Midas Investments and Chairman Midas Entertainment LLP, says “This is a very interesting space for our investors not only from a diversification perspective but also with the exponential growth in Mobile and Digital technologies that we are witnessing, the demand for content will only increase with time and we want to capitalize on this. Our Vision is to leverage our Global Investors and Entertainment Industry network to build a World Class Media and Entertainment Company promoting social and cultural integration globally.”

Abhayanand Singh, Founder of Indie Muvizz Pte Ltd, says “Muvizz has been committed to independent films and filmmakers and this partnership will only help all parties in creating some great content together and more importantly in taking them to a wider audience globally.”

Saurabh Gupta, Managing Director and Co-Founder, M! Capital Ventures, says “We are really excited with our Strategic Partnership with Midas Entertainment LLP. Our entity, which is backed by The Asian Film Fund and Private Investors has already managed to be associated with profitable and some of the top performing Indian films since last year and with this partnership, we can now further expand our slate of mainstream projects across India and the region.”

Image Source: ShutterStock

Singapore’s Prestellar Ventures Launches $100M VC Fund Exclusively for India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

Prestellar Ventures, a Singapore-based venture capital firm, launched a $100M venture capital fund backed by four general partners (‘GPs’) - CG Corp Global (Nepal’s sole Forbes-listed billion-dollar enterprise), Satin Creditcare (the third largest Microfinance Institution in India), Frontline Strategy (a private-equity firm in Mauritius) and N.E. Group (a family conglomerate in Nepal). The firm is backed by Binod Chaudhary (the sole Nepalese Forbes Billionaire) Satin Creditcare, N.E. Group, and Frontline Strategy

The fund seeks to partner with passionate entrepreneurs and disruptive startups across South Asia and ASEAN in the Hospitality, Consumer, Financial Services, Rural Product and Services sectors, typically in ‘Pre-Series A’ deals with a cheque size of approximately $2-3 million. The firm is seeking to raise and deploy country specific sub-funds across the South Asia region-more specifically India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal. “Investing in the forefront of innovation is critical to keeping traditional businesses such as CG Corp Global relevant in the future” said Binod Chaudhary, Director of Prestellar Ventures and the Chairman of CG Corp Global.

In addition to traditional value-adds provided by Institutional Investors such as mentoring and strategy guidance, Prestellar Ventures also provides companies with business development / sales opportunities using the reach of the GPs. More specifically, the General Partner companies of Prestellar Ventures provides portfolio companies access to over 100 brands, 14,000 employees, 150 hotels and resorts across the world, a publicly-listed bank, FMCG products selling over a billion units per year, and a distribution network with direct access to over 2.5 million rural households across India. With over 40 years of operational experience in frontier markets, the GPs of Prestellar Ventures also specialize in helping companies enter territories such as India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by matching startups with on-the-ground partners to execute their go-to-market strategy effectively. Some of the past private equity investments made by the GPs include Astra Microwave, CBay Systems, e-Reasoning, and Tejas Networks.

Prestellar Ventures also counts amongst its ranks a list of stellar advisory and entrepreneurial board members including Raman Roy (Chairman, NASSCOM), Richard Collier Keywood (Former Vice-Chairman PwC Network) and Kesri Kapur (Group CEO, Americana Group) amongst others. The advisory and entrepreneurial boards provide Prestellar Ventures and portfolio company management with their network as well as strategy and operational guidance.

InnerWave Ventures Plans to Invest Rs 18-20 Cr in Startups in Next 3 Years

InnerWave Ventures, an elite community of early-stage Angel investors are planning to invest in 18-20 startups in next 3 years. The network is managed by the Corporate advisory firm, InnerWave and was formed after tons of feedback from HNIs that they should start an angel network to allow investment in hidden gems by their expert network.

InnerWave Ventures currently consist of a group of 32 angel investors who are looking to help investment-ready companies that are looking for additional capital and experienced mentors to help with their expansion plans. InnerWave Ventures will also be adding more angel investors to its network who are looking to invest in pre-screened startups supported by the able team of corporate advisory team of InnerWave.

“The Angels are highly educated professionals such as IITians, IIM graduates, Chartered Accountants, Company Secretaries, who are experienced professionals with proven track records in their respective fields, who can offer wisdom and guidance to the entrepreneur and have the patience to wait for normal company maturation. A lot of the angels have built up their own businesses and maybe sold them or are in a semi-retired stage and they want to pass on the knowledge that they've picked up to entrepreneurs who maybe need a little coaching and guidance," Varun Dhingra, Co-founder, InnerWave Ventures.

"Mentorship works when the mentor has some skin in the game. The angels will make investment decisions based on the quality of the business proposal. The investment can come from a single angel or a group and it can range from anywhere from Rs.1 Crore to Rs. 1.5 Crore,” added Jatin Tehri, CO-founder, InnerWave.

The Corporate Advisory team of InnerWave will also help in additional rounds including investments from VCs. The community members are industry experts and have vast experience in the respective fields. The active angel investors believe in investing through InnerWave Ventures as they get pre-screened startups and they could focus in mentoring and growth of the start-up they have invested in rather than spending time in scouting for new startups.

Apart from the early-stage financing, InnerWave Ventures also facilitate new business connections that help start-ups to grow and offer insights based on deep knowledge of the industry. The purpose of InnerWave Ventures is Wealth Generation by investing in hidden gems after performing a 3-stage screening process. The Venture network will be investing Rs 1 Crore or more per investment with a horizon of 18-20 investments over a period of 3 years.

Procedure of selecting startups for the funding

All the startups who apply for funding will have to pass through a pre-screening process before meeting the Anchor Investors. Post that the Anchor Investors will lead the funding process. The broad process is divided in the following stages: Application, Screening, Anchor Meeting, Introduction to larger group, Commitment, Due Diligence & Term Sheet, Investment, Manage Investment, Compliance, Follow-on funding / Exits

Founded by Varun Dhingra & Jatin Tehri, InnerWave Ventures aims to find hidden gems from the startup ecosystem. It will nurture and leverage its business connections to take the startups to the next level. Varun serves as an advisor on early stage equity investments in Indian companies across a wide range of sectors while Jatin’s specialty is deal structuring.

IAN Announces Their Maiden Fund Worth Rs 350 Cr, Marks Its First Close at Rs 175 Cr

In line with its continuous endeavor to encourage innovation and entrepreneurship across geographies, Indian Angel Network (IAN) today became the first Angel Group globally to raise a ₹350 Crores fund, thereby, becomes the pioneer in the angel community. The fund which marked its first close at ₹175 Crores has industry stalwarts like Kris Gopalakrishnan, Co-Founder, ex-CEO, Infosys, Global Leader in IT Services, Sunil Munjal, Jt Managing Director, HERO Corp and Dr. Devi Shetty, Founder and Chairman, Narayan Hrudalaya as part of its advisory committee.

The SEBI registered early-stage venture fund will focus on investing in new-age disruptive technologies and businesses across a broad range of sectors including healthcare and medical devices, SaaS, marketplaces, fintech, big data, AI and hardware, maintaining IAN’s stance of being sector-agnostic. The Fund will support all the IAN deals as well as independently co-invest with other VCs. The investment committee will comprise renowned leaders including Saurabh Srivastava: Serial Entrepreneur, Co-founder/Past Chairman NASSCOM and co-founder IAN, Padmaja Ruparel: Co-founder & President at IAN, Ajai Chowdhry: Co-Founder, HCL, Raman Roy: Chairman NASSCOM, Founder QUATTRO, & Co founder IAN, Harish Mehta: Founder Onward Group, Co-founder, NASSCOM, Alok Mittal: ex-Canaan MD and entrepreneur, Co-Founder IAN Rakesh Malhotra: Entrepreneur, Founder Luminous and Rakesh Rewari: ex DMD, SIDBI, Govt of India.

“IAN is India’s first now arguably the world’s largest angel group. It has revolutionized this space with its own unique model spanning 7 locations in India and overseas and a global membership comprising 450 of the who’s who of marquee entrepreneurs/CEOs. The logical next step is to create country’s largest horizontal platform in India for early stage investments. With this fund IAN is upping the game, supporting entrepreneurs from Rs 50 lakhs to Rs 30 Cr, co investing with other VCs. Our goal is to distribute money as efficiently as possible to get innovators through the most challenging early stages of funding. I am confident that the fund will have a significant role in creating high-growth companies in our country.” Said Saurabh Srivastava, Chairman and Co-Founder at IAN.

Padmaja Ruparel, President at IAN commented , “We’re excited to be the first angel network group to introduce an early stage fund of this stature. We see this as a marquee turning point for the angel investment segment and the way startups raise capital. We believe this structure is superior for investors and startups alike. As a result, we expect and welcome other investors and startups to follow and build upon the path that we’ve pioneered.”

Together, IAN and the IAN Fund (plus co-investors), would invest approx. Rs 1,500 Cr in 160 odd companies over the next 4 years, making IAN the largest early stage investing platform, capable of writing cheques from Rs 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 Crore.

Indian Angel Network will help raise the bar of angel investment in India, yet again, by launching a Fund which will:

 Make businesses more lucrative, profitable, and risky at seed-stage, thereby increasing the probabilities of higher returns/better exits
 Will create the incentivization to make IAN the platform with the most high quality leads
 Increase the liquidity in the ecosystem when the investment sentiment is low
 Fill the gap created between angel round and pre Series A Opportunities - Rs. 6 crores to 25 crores, building better propositions for the VCs
 Help build strong links with VC ecosystem, helping in financing next rounds / exits & also VCs referring angel level deals to IAN

IAN brings the best in breed investor table, comprising the who’s who of successful entrepreneurs and dynamic CEOs. They not only invest in innovative startups but also provide valuable inputs on strategy, in addition to providing access to their vast global networks. IAN also became the world’s first angel investor group to establish operations outside of its home country, when it started operating in London.

AI Focused Fund pi Ventures Announces the First Close of Their Fund at $13M

Applied Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & IoT focused early stage venture fund pi Ventures announced the first close of their maiden fund at $13mn. The $30mn fund is expected to close within this year. Limited partners include India’s top lender to small businesses, SIDBI, prominent family offices from USA, Canada, Singapore & India and leading entrepreneurs like Mohandas Pai, Binny Bansal, Deep Kalra, Sanjeev Bikchandani and Bhupen Shah among others.

Co-founded by Manish Singhal and Umakant Soni, pi Ventures will invest in early stage start-ups that focus on solving problems in healthcare, logistics, retail, fin-tech and enterprise sectors using AI, ML and IoT. The Bengaluru based VC plans to invest in 18-20 start-ups from this fund over a 3-4 year time frame.

Manish Singhal, Founding Partner, pi Ventures and hardware techie at heart says, “India is the dark horse in the AI race given it has lot of data, brilliant data science talent & early adoption environment due to broken processes and we are happy to play a part in helping India leapfrog with AI. We are thankful to our early backers, investors and founders who have chosen to work with us. We are very excited to play a role in building a strong AI based product ecosystem in India.”

pi Ventures has made three investments so far in the healthcare & energy-efficiency space, namely SigTuple, Zenatix and ten3T. SigTuple is in the medical diagnostic space and is creating a deep learning driven, cloud based solution for detection of abnormalities and trends in medical data, for blood diagnosis. Zenatix is a data-driven energy efficiency company that uses advanced machine learning based models and delivers 10 to 30% energy efficiency to large commercial consumers of electricity along with predictive insights to prevent downtown. ten3T is in continuous monitoring of medical data like ECG in real time through its own smart patches to enable mobile ICU for smaller hospitals.

pi Ventures is India’s first Applied Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning & IoT focused early stage venture fund and was founded in mid 2016 by Manish Singhal and Umakant Soni. Both come with rich experience in setting up, building and scaling companies. Manish has been Cofounder & CEO at LetsVenture and a prominent angel investor. He has rich product experience having worked with Sling Media, Ittiam Systems, Motorola and wrote a part of MPEG 4 standards, the dominant video standard even today. Umakant Soni was Director India, Science Inc & Co-founder of one of the first AI BOT company out of India, called Vimagino

pi Ventures holds interesting #chAI (AI over a cup of chai) sessions to bring together and encourage the ecosystem. An open-for- all session, it has been attended by researchers from universities, startups, large companies and students. Startup founders share how they use AI to solve problems. With eight
sessions so far (5 in Bangalore and 3 in New Delhi) it leads to a lot of cross pollination of ideas among founders and educates the audience about best practices in building AI companies.

IFMR Investments Floats Two New Funds to Raise up to Rs 550 Cr

Post the successful closure of three debt funds, IFMR Investment Managers Private Limited (IFMR Investments), a subsidiary of IFMR Capital and a leading alternative investment funds manager, has launched two new funds specifically designed to meet investor appetite for participating in India’s growing financial inclusion sector. The funds are expected to attract investments from domestic investors such as life insurance, general insurance, banks, NBFCs and private wealth investors.

IFMR FImpact Long Term Credit Fund, the fourth fund launched by IFMR Investments is a 10 year debt focused AIF – a first of its kind. The fund size is INR 200 crores with an option to increase it to INR 350 crores.

The fund has been designed to facilitate long term debt investment opportunities for specific investor classes that require long term assets. The fund will seek to provide medium to long term senior and subordinated debt to high quality originators with the benefit of providing them the option of riding the interest rate cycle. The fund seeks to achieve attractive long term returns on a diversified debt portfolio, with the 10 year Indian Government bond as the benchmark.

IFMR Fimpact Medium Term Opportunities Fund, the fifth fund to be launched by IFMR Investments, is a 5 year debt fund which seeks to offer an attractive medium term debt exposure to investors. The portfolio of the fund is designed to have a high yield certainty even though the underlying portfolio will be churned with active management. The size of the fund is INR 250 crores with an option to increase it to INR 500 crores.

The two funds, set up as Category II Alternative Investment Funds, will take exposure to retail finance investee companies in sectors like microfinance, small business loan finance, affordable housing finance, commercial vehicle finance and agri-business finance, as well as in mid-sized corporations. Both funds, similar to the earlier ones, will draw strong support from IFMR Capital’s experience in these sectors spanning proprietary lending, investing and structured finance. The funds will also have at least 10% participation from the Investment Manager and IFMR Capital as subordinate investment giving adequate risk protection to other investors. Through its innovative fund structuring, IFMR Investment Managers seeks to promote alternative debt investments by providing an investment experience similar to investing in a credit mutual fund.

The launch of the two new funds comes close on the heels of IFMR Investments being awarded by Asia Asset Management’s Best of the Best Awards 2016 – for the most innovative product in India and for being recognized as the rising star for asset management in India. IFMR Investments had also received the most innovative fund in India in the 2014 edition of the awards.

Ms. Kshama Fernandes, CEO of IFMR Capital said “The new funds are being launched to cater to evolving market needs, both for Originators as well as investors. We believe that they will be able to address the longer term funding requirements of Originators to better address their asset-liability match. The funds are also a vehicle for long term investors to participate in the financial inclusion space.”

Mr. Vineet Sukumar, CEO of IFMR Investments, added “The two new funds are a continuation of our efforts to bring more capital and investors to India’s financial inclusion sector. The design of the funds has been carefully thought out taking into account the current investment climate and investor requirements. We extensively surveyed both investor and investee needs over a six month period prior to the launch. The 10 year fund was a market need towards providing an investment avenue for stable long term debt exposure while the 5 year fund is set up to provide attractive post tax returns with reduced risk. The new offerings will break new grounds in providing growth capital to the Indian financial inclusion space.

We have now crossed the threshold of being a new asset manager with the successful closure of three funds, which have been fully invested as well. With the new launches, IFMR Investments’ assets under management will cross INR 1,200 crores, and over the coming years, our funds will emerge as an important source of providing catalytic capital to the sectors we work in.”

Exfinity Venture Partners Raises Rs 300 Cr for Its Second Fund, Exfinity Technology Fund - Series II

Exfinity Venture Partners (Exfinity), a technology venture capital firm, has announced the final close of its second fund - Exfinity Technology Fund - Series II, with a corpus of Rs. 300 crores. The Fund is fully subscribed and investors include CXOs, Marquee Industrialists, Family Offices, UHNIs and Institutions.

This is Exfinity’s second fund which followed its first fund that earlier raised Rs. 125 crores. With this close, Exfinity’s total AUM across funds now stands at Rs 425 crores.

Exfinity is a deep technology venture capital fund backing B2B companies mainly in the US-India corridor. Exfinity’s investments are predominantly focused on emerging areas in technology including Cloud, Analytics, Mobility, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things, Cyber Security, etc.

Speaking at the final close, V. Balakrishnan, Chairman Exfinity Venture Partners LLP said, “Our fund thesis of investing in deep tech product/IP companies in the enterprise technology space resonated well with our investors. We received strong commitments from high quality marquee investors; resulting in the increase of our fund size to Rs. 300 crores from the initial planned size of Rs. 250 crores. Our deal flow is proprietary and we have strong conviction about the approach we are taking that is manifested in our fund thesis.”

Shailesh Ghorpade, Managing Partner and CIO of Exfinity Ventures opined that Exfinity has a practitioner driven approach towards its portfolio. “Exfinity works closely with the portfolio companies in bringing to bear its network and perspectives on strategy, organization design, Go-To-Market decisions, Capital raising, etc., which entrepreneurs appreciate” added Shailesh Ghorpade.

“Enterprise technology startups, by virtue of their business, require deep understanding of their domain and seasoned entrepreneurs. Over the years the US-Indo Tech corridor has been accumulating this talent pool, through various R&D hubs in India, which have emerged as ideal transition spots for B2B start-ups,” emphasized Partner & Chief Technology Officer, Mr. Chinnu Senthil Kumar.

In May 2016, Logistics management platform, Locus had raised $2.75 million in Series A funding led by Exfinity Venture Partners with participation from Blume Ventures, BeeNext and Rajesh Ranavat (MD, Fung Capital). And in September this year, Chennai-CA based artificial intelligence startup Mad Street Den Systems Pvt. Ltd secured an undisclosed amount in a Series A funding round from Sequoia Capital India and its existing investors Exfinity Venture Partners LLP and GrowX Venture Management Pvt. Ltd.

Dr. Huzaifa Khorakiwala Launches 'Health Passion Fund', a Healthcare Angel Fund for India

Inspired by Prime Minister's Startup India, Standup India mission, Dr. Huzaifa Khorakiwala - the scion of the Wockhardt family has launched a Healthcare Angel Fund called Health Passion Fund. Health Passion Fund is targeting to raise a Rs. 125 crore corpus and will look at an investment upto Rs. 5 crore in each startup.

Having managed & grown a healthcare unicorn in India, Dr. Khorakiwala wants to strengthen the healthcare startup ecosystem and support creation of more healthcare unicorns from India. He believes that startups in the regulated health vertical need operational and business support as much as they need financial support.

Dr. Khorakiwala says, “India's healthcare vertical touching $150 billion needs a lot more disruptive ideas to provide new age solutions to conventional health problems. The scale of unserved markets need technology enablers to solve conventional health problems and this needs encouragement and support of industry players. Global precedents show that this can reduce cost and response time, and increase efficiency of the sector. Besides, this can create more domestic jobs & strong Indian startups who can go global.”

He added, “We will also help our funded startups to rollout a no-frill version of their product for the masses & thus create a well-funded basket of inclusive healthcare solutions for Indian masses.”

ProHealth Catalyst will be the investment advisor of the fund and its key members are Sumit K.Mody and Anand Oswal. Both professionals are alumni of London Business School.

Mr. Mody says, “Breaking from the tradition of deal showcasing and blind faith on fund manager’s investment calls, our fund intends to provide all our investors real time discretion to accept or reject each of our investment proposals. Also, our sector focused approach will allow us to do better integration of portfolio companies for exit, growth and further funding within next 2-3 years."

"Moreover, as a result of Government’s encouragement of Angel Investors, our fund category can accept LP contributions of Rs 0.5 Cr and we are working out the modalities with our distribution partners.”

The investment committee of the fund comprises of Dr. Huzaifa Khorakiwala, Mr. Ramesh Alur and Dr. Prashant Jha.

The fund will seek to invest in around 30 healthcare startups of under 3 years of operations with qualified team, proof of concept, revenue & business traction. It will focus on startups using technology as an enabler or driver in healthcare.

Fund's registration is in-process at this point of time.

Image Source: ShutterStock

ONGC Launches Rs 100 Cr Startup Fund to Ignite New Ideas

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) has launched a Rs 100 crore Start-up fund on its Diamond Jubilee year to foster, nurture and incubate new ideas related to oil and gas sector. The initiative, christened as ‘ONGC Start-up’, is in line with the Govt. of India’s initiative ‘Start-up India’.

As part of this initiative, ONGC will provide the entire support chain for start-ups including seed capital, hand-holding, mentoring, market linkage and follow-ups. The aim of ‘ONGC Start-up’ is to increase the contribution of fresh implementable ideas in the oil and gas sector. ONGC is setting up a dedicated website to take this initiative forward.

After launching this initiative on 14 August 2016 at Dehradun, ONGC CMD Mr. Dinesh K Sarraf, said that this initiative will promote entrepreneurship among the younger Indians by creating an ecosystem that is conducive for growth of Start-ups in the oil & gas sector, which has a huge potential for technology-enabled ideas.

He added that the Oil & Gas sector is contributing enormously to the growth of economy. Currently, the sector faces various critical challenges and new ideas are required to mitigate those challenges.

To encourage its own employees to innovate, ONGC is also giving away awards to its three young officers for their innovative ideas. Rajendra Bhambhu and Deepak Naik have developed an innovative Safety Device for rigs that facilitates setting up of emergency brake to augment safety mechanism on drilling rigs. Prajesh Chopra has innovated a unique Dual SIM Cellular Router System that provides Data Connectivity at Work-over Rigs. This system curtails the hassle of frequent dismantling and reinstallation during rig transportation, thus saving time and money.

According to data released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), the petroleum and natural gas sector attracted FDI worth $6.67 billion between April 2000 and March 2016. The oil and gas sector is among the six core industries in India and accounts for 5.5% of the total global trade. The country’s gas production is expected to touch 90 billion Cubic Metres (BCM) in 2040 from 35 BCM in 2013.

In March 2016, ONGC Videsh Ltd (OVL), the foreign arm of ONGC, planned to acquire up to 15% stake in CSJC Vankorneft, which owns Russia’s second-largest oil and gas field.

Ratan Tata to Set up Venture Capital Fund with a Corpus of Around $100-150M

Tata Sons Ltd’s chairman emeritus Ratan Tata, in partnership with the University of California, is setting up a venture capital fund with a corpus of around $100-150 million and has already started scouting for startups to invest in, three people aware of the development told DealStreetAsia.

In February, RNT Associates, the privately held investment firm of Ratan Tata, and the chief investment officer’s office of the University of California, announced a partnership to jointly fund startups and early-stage enterprises in India over the next 10 years.

“They registered a fund with the markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India in June as a category II alternative investment fund, under the name UC-RNT Fund. The vehicle, apart from contributions from RNT Associates and University of California, will also look to raise third-party capital. They are looking at a corpus of $100-150 million for the fund,” said one of the three people cited above.

This is not the first time when Ratan Tata is seeking to set up in a partnership. In June, Singapore-based venture capital firm Jungle Ventures joined hands with RNT Associates, Accel Partners (India) and Infocomm Investments Pte. Ltd to start SeedPlus, a seed-stage venture capital firm based in the city-state.

Tata has spent almost two years investing his personal wealth directly in technology startups both in India and overseas through RNT Associates. Tata has invested in around 30 startups in the last two years, including Snapdeal (Jasper Infotech Pvt. Ltd), Urban Ladder (Home Décor Solutions Pvt. Ltd), Ola (ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd), Zivame (Actoserba Active Wholesale Pvt. Ltd) and many others across sectors such as healthcare, financial inclusion and e-commerce.

This year, he has made investment in startups like Lenskart, MadRat Games, niki.ai, Kyazoonga and San Francisco-based medical emergency response startup MUrgency Inc.

The Tata-University of California partnership has already started scouting for potential investments and they are looking at investments in the ticket size of around $10-15 million. However, initially they are also looking at writing smaller cheques of around $5 million.

The fund, which already has a core team in place, is also in the market to hire people.

As per a report published by Venture Intelligence, venture capital investments in the first six months of 2016 were down to $634 million from $958 million in the same period last year.

Now the entry of the Tata-University of California fund and other funds including Unicorn India Ventures, Pravega Ventures, Stellaris Venture Partners, WaterBridge Ventures, Endiya Partners and Parampara Capital, would offer relief to the startup ecosystem in India that has seen a slowdown in funding this year.

Vikram Upadhyaya Ropes in Ex- President of PIMCO Japan and WiL; to Launch a Rs 350 Cr VC Fund for Indian Startups

Even as the thrill of a strategic tie-up with World Innovation Labs (WiL) continues, Gurgaon-based Green House Ventures (GHV) Accelerator is having more to celebrate. Mr. Makoto Takano, ex-President of PIMCO Japan Ltd., the world’s biggest asset management firm, joins GHV as a Board Member.

With his addition to the GHV family, the stronghold that they had in Japan is cemented permanently. Their strategic alliance with WiL in 2014 opened up the Japanese business ecosystem for GHV and now with Mr.Takano on board, it will only be strengthened. The trio has announced the launch of a INR 350 Crore fund for Indian startups.

Mr. Makoto Takano is the Founder of MT Partners K.K, whose core area of focus is extensive exposure in investing and management operation of ventures with future success potential. Presently, MT Partners assists 14 Companies including atomixmedia, inc., where Makoto Takano serves as CEO. He is also the Editor-in-Chief of Forbes JAPAN. Previously, he had headed the strategy team at Daiwa Institute of Research and the marketing team of Goldman Sachs Asset Management. He also serves as the Director of Nippon Finance Association, amongst others. Mr. Takano has an in-depth understanding of the startup world and is the Managing Director of Genuine Startups Ltd, which manages a VC fund (called the Genuine Fund). Mr. Takano is also the ex-President of PIMCO (Pacific Investment Management Company LLC), an American multinational investment management firm with over $1.52 trillion in assets under management, as on the 30th of June 2015.

Along with his counterparts, he brings with him a vast and exclusive network of potential collaborations and partnerships between the Indo-Japan startup ecosystems. Being an industry veteran, Mr.Takano is heavily equipped to accelerate the pace of India’s growth story. His mentoring, support and global expertise will prove to be critically beneficial to all the startups of GHV, especially when they look to raising funds.

With this alliance, Mr.Takano can look forward to relevant access and exposure to one of the fastest growing startup ecosystems in the world – India. He said, “India is a bullish economy and I am excited to be a part of many success stories from India, that we intend to create over time.”

Vikram Upadhyaya, is a Venture Capitalist and started his early investments as Angel Investor and has been investing in Indian Startups since 2007, some of the promising portfolios are Druva, Stayzilla, Loginext, CollegeSearch.  He is a Chief Mentor & Evangelist at GHV Accelerator. He said, “This partnership is just a pleasant validation of our efforts & commitment. Mr. Takano and WiL have provided us with a solid foundation and the confidence to forge ahead….”

World Innovation Labs (WiL) will continue to handhold and support the growth and expansion of GHV startups in global markets, targeting Japan and the US, to help them scale and go global. WiL is a VC fund based out of Japan & Silicon Valley with US$400 mn, typically invests $5-30 million in early as well as growth-stage technology and internet startups through multiple rounds of investments and will continue to follow the same investment pattern for GHV startups. WiL has promising portfolios like DoctorOnDemand, HMV, Mercari, Gumi, Raksul, GiGSky and many more.

"India today looks like what China was 10 years back and growth here will be much stronger in the next few years. We would like to fund a couple of companies from GHV if there is a strong connection to Silicon Valley or Japan. If we see benefits of cross-border mentorship and regular dialogue, the next step will be to set up a fund or facility which we can jointly run to continue our relationship," said Gen Isayama, Co-founder and CEO, WiL.

Recently, two portfolio companies of GHV – Applop and MyTaxiIndia bagged additional rounds of funding. One of their startups in the laundry space was in the news for operational breakeven.

About GHV

GHV Accelerator funds and mentor startups between the incubation and venture capital stages, and provides them a controlled environment, necessary resources, as well as sustainability funding (upto USD 3,00,000), so they can scale up and achieve healthy business metrics. GHV has portfolios MyTaxiindia, PickMyLaundry, Adurcup, PindropMusic, Istyleyou, Fitmein, Roadgods, Foodport and CarPM.

DCM Ventures Announces $770M in Commitments for Global Family of Funds

DCM Ventures, an early stage global venture capital firm, has announced the close of its eighth flagship fund, DCM VIII, with $500 million in committed capital, to be invested in early stage companies across the United States, China and Japan.

With the new fund, DCM Ventures now has raised $770 million in new commitments over the past 18 months for its global family of funds including an oversubscribed $500 million for the firm’s flagship global investment fund, DCM VIII; $170 million for its Turbo Fund primarily focused on growth stage deals; and $100 million for its second A-Fund primarily focused on seed stage investments across mobile and emerging platforms. The new commitments bring the total assets under management to over $3 billion.

“These new funds are a reflection of our ability to consistently deliver substantial distributions to our limited partners in all market environments,” said David Chao, cofounder and general partner, DCM Ventures. “In the last three years alone, DCM Ventures distributed over $1.5 billion back to our limited partners, and we look forward to replicating this success as we continue to partner with visionary entrepreneurs who are on the cutting edge of technology across the globe.”

In closing the new funds, DCM Ventures welcomed a potent mix of return and new strategic limited partners that share the firm’s strategy in working with companies early in their development including global mobile and internet giants Baidu, Gree, Naver, SoftBank, Tencent, and Qualcomm. “We continue to invest in DCM Ventures because we see it as a critical path for getting to know some of the world’s most interesting early-stage technology companies,” said Martin Lau, president, Tencent Holdings.

“We are witnessing the birth of entirely new technology platforms ranging from artificial intelligence and drones to virtual reality and over-the-top media – each driven by talented founders who are scaling products earlier and faster than ever before,” said Jason Krikorian general partner, DCM Ventures.

Hurst Lin, co-founder of Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) and general partner DCM Ventures China added, “Through our deep network across Asia and the United States, we are excited to partner with these innovative founders to help grow the next generation of crossborder companies including Kakao Talk, Analogix, Happy Elements, DerbySoft and 51Talk (NYSE: COE), which just completed its public offering on the NYSE.”

DCM Ventures’ flagship fund, DCM VIII, will continue to make significant investments across proven technology sectors including digital media, software-as-a-service, fintech, e-commerce, as well as newer platforms such as virtual reality, automated drone technology and artificial intelligence. The firm plans to invest the funds across the United States and Asia – a strategy that has spawned multiple private and publicly traded companies billion dollar companies such as 58.COM (NASDAQ: WUBA), Kakao Talk (KOSDAQ: 035720) and SoFi.

DCM Ventures is uniquely structured with an integrated global team that facilitates knowledge transfer between the United States and Asia across multiple technology sectors. The managing partners of DCM VIII are David Chao, Jason Krikorian, Osuke Honda, Hurst Lin and Ramon Zeng, all of whom were part of the previous funds.

Velvetcase Gets Up to $2M, SSV Invests in Paree and Sixth Sense Ventures Closes Debut Fund at $18M

Online jewellery site Velvetcase.com, has raised $1.5-2 million in a second round of funding; SSV has invested an undisclosed amount in Noida-based sanitary napkin making firm Paree; and Consumer-focused venture capital firm Sixth Sense Ventures has closed its debut fund at Rs 125 crore ($18.34 million).

Velvetcase Bags up to $2M from Uniqorn Ventures Fund, Others

Bodhi Brands Pvt. Ltd , the company that owns and operates online jewellery site Velvetcase.com, has raised $1.5-2 million in a second round of funding, led by Uniqorn Ventures Fund with participation from a group of angel investors like T.V. Mohandas Pai and S. Somasegar through Letsventure (a crowdsourcing platform). Existing investor The Chennai Angels also participated in the round.

The company raised Rs.6 crore in 2014. Mumbai-based Bodhi Brands, founded in 2012 by Kapil Hetamsaria and Runit Shah, aims to use the funds for marketing initiatives, strengthening technology and developing solutions that are seller-centric. “We are looking to acquire or develop technology that will help sellers set up their online stores, track and manage inventory among other things. We may look at other mediums such as print and television advertising as a means to build the brand,” told Hetamsaria to DealStreetAsia.

SSV Invests Undisclosed Amount in Noida-based Sanitary Napkin Firm Paree

SSV has invested an undisclosed amount in Noida-based sanitary napkin making firm Soothe Healthcare Pvt. Ltd which owns a brand called ‘Paree’, with participation from existing investor Saina Nehwal, who has been the brand ambassador for Paree since 2014. Last year in November, she invested an undisclosed amount in the company. According to a Times of India report, the fresh deal amount is around $2 million. SSV’s other five investments include in firms like ETHOS; CrossRoads; GRAB; Weddingz.in and JHS Svendgaard.

Founded in 2012, Soothe Healthcare offers women’s personal hygiene products such as sanitary napkins and diagnostic kits for oncology screening.

Sixth Sense Ventures Closes Debut Fund at $18M

Consumer-focused venture capital firm Sixth Sense Ventures – which has already backed five companies – has closed its debut fund at Rs 125 crore ($18.34 million). Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), several domestic CEOs and high networth investors participated in the fund besides some limited partners (LPs).

Founded in 2014 by Nikhil Vora, Sixth Sense Ventures is planning to invest in 12 startups from this fund as per the new strategy. Vora has also been an individual investor in several startups. His investment portfolio includes companies like One97 Communications, Kangaroo Kids Education, Vini Cosmetics and Women’s Next Loungeries Ltd. Vora also joins several other top company executives who raised their own funds or are on the road to set up their fund. Last year, Gurpreet, ex-managing director of PE firm Chryscapital, had raised $100 million in his maiden fund, reported DealStreetAsia.

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Private Equity Veteran Manish Kheterpal Launches $15M Fund to Focus on the Pre-Series A to Series-A Space

Private equity veteran Manish Kheterpal has floated a $15-million early-stage fund, WaterBridge Ventures that will focus on the pre-Series A to Series-A space. The fund is looking to bet on startups utilising technology at their core, and spread across sectors, including consumer focused mobile apps in media and telecom, ed-tech, health tech and fin-tech.

The Sebi-registered, India-domiciled fund, will primarily look to invest between Rs 75 lakh and Rs 3.5 crore in 12-15 ventures, and has a fund life cycle of 5-7 years. While taking about his plans to launch this fund, Manish said, "This is the best time to launch a new fund because the entrepreneurial activity has not come down as the ecosystem is maturing more now, and some froth is coming out."

The fund amount has been largely backed by a number of family offices, high net-worth individuals and companies, however, their names are still undisclosed.

WaterBridge Ventures, which has made its first close at $5 million, is the latest VC fund to be launched in 2016. "It helps that VCs have tightened the tap for later stages of funding, as those help with entrepreneurs driving sharper business plans in earlier stages, valuations are more realistic and conversations are more sensible," Kheterpal added.

Just today, early stage investment firm Blume Ventures has also hit a third close of its second venture capital and expects to complete the fund raising process in July. The firm has made more than 20 investments from the new fund in the last 13 months.

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Blume Ventures’ New Fund Hits 3rd Close and IIFL Looks to Raise $110.5M Realty Debt Fund

Early stage investment firm Blume Ventures has hit a third close of its second venture capital while IIFL AMC Ltd is raising a Rs.750 crore debt fund.

Early Stage Investment Firm Blume Ventures’ New Fund Hits 3rd Close

Early stage investment firm Blume Ventures has hit a third close of its second venture capital and expects to complete the fund raising process in July. The firm has made more than 20 investments from the new fund in the last 13 months. It has invested in startups like RoadRunnr, test prep platform MockBank, IoT-based energy data analytics provider Zenatix Solutions, peer-to-peer money transfer and payments app Chillr, Bangalore-based edtech startup FlipClass, and contacts management app InTouchApp.

Blume made first close in December, when it raised $30 million in a round led by Silicon Valley-based ICONIQ Capital with participation from other investors included IIFL Wealth, the Government’s India Aspiration Fund, administered through SIDBI, Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy’s private investment arm Catamaran, Morgan Creek and Recruit Holdings. The firm hit second close in January, when it raised $10 million from limited partners Kaiser Foundation and Dream Incubator. The third close has come after three months. The firm raised a similar amount as the second close from Unilever Ventures and others. That brings its total corpus to more than $50 million. Blume is targeting $60 million for the second fund.

Founded in 2011, Blume Ventures has invested in over 75 companies. Four of its portfolio companies viz., TaxiForSure, ZipDial, Promptec and 1Click.io were acquired by Ola, Havells, Twitter and FreshDesk, respectively.

IIFL Plans to Raise $110.5M Realty Debt Fund

IIFL AMC Ltd is raising a Rs.750 crore debt fund, which will be India’s first Category III AIF (alternative investment fund) real estate fund to lend Rs.80-100 crore each to selected builders in key property markets developing homes costing Rs.35 lakh to Rs.1 crore.

Category III AIFs are described as those “including hedge funds which trade with a view to make short term returns; which employs diverse or complex trading strategies and may employ leverage including through investment in listed or unlisted derivatives. These funds can be open ended or close ended.”

The fund will lend to both early and late stage projects. However, in an early-stage investment, the fund will mitigate risk through cash flows from developer’s other projects as security or collateral.

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NewQuest Closes $540M in Third Asian Secondaries Fund, Plans to Augment its Presence in India

PE firm focusing on emerging markets, NewQuest Capital Partners has marked the final close of its third secondaries fund 'NewQuest Asia Fund III, LP' at over $540 million.

The funding was led by a diverse group of pension funds, sovereign funds, insurers and financial institutions based in Asia, North America, Europe and the Middle East. As per VCCircle report, the fund had an original upper limit of $520 million, which was increased due to the strong demand.

NewQuest Asia Fund III will focus on minority and control transactions worth $25 million to $75 million per company, and $50 million to $250 million for portfolio acquisitions. NewQuest Asia Fund II, LP, had a final close in July 2014 with commitments of $326 million through two vehicles.

In March 2014, the firm has appointed Daizong Wang as partner at NewQuest. He will be heading NewQuest’s Beijing office. Daizong joins NewQuest from CVC Capital Partners and previously worked with 3i Group and Goldman Sachs, among others.

Also, NewQuest is looking to augment its presence in India with its Mumbai office expected to be opened by the end of 2016. It specialize in providing alternative liquidity solutions to private equity asset owners, such as financial institutions, corporations, family offices, hedge funds and private equity funds.  The firm invests in infrastructure-related sectors including power, roads, construction and engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) along with logistics.

NewQuest was established in 2011 and currently manages three funds with aggregate capital commitments of over $1.2 billion. It has acquired stakes in over 40 companies through both single asset and portfolio transactions. In March last year, NewQuest had invested around $96 million in Bangalore-based Ujjivan Financial Services Pvt Ltd, one of leading microfinance institutions in the country, along with CX Partners, CDC and Bajaj Holdings with participation from existing investors IFC and Elevar Equity had also participated in the investment round worth $96 million (Rs 600 crore then).

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Lok Capital Announces First Close of Third Fund at $40.5M

India-focussed impact investment firm Lok Capital has reached first close of Lok Fund III at $40.5 million. Fund III has a total target corpus of around $100 million and is expected to close in the next 12-18 months. The fund will be deployed in the next five years and will focus on growth stage investments in financial services, healthcare, agriculture and livelihood.

Fund III, along with Lok Capital’s Fund I and Fund II will bring the total capital under-management to over $125 million. The first two funds Lok Capital LLC and Sarva Capital LLC are fully invested.

The funds have received investments from marquee investors. Existing LPs – CDC Group Plc, the development finance institution of the UK, Nederlandse Financierings-Maatschappij voor Ontwikkelingslanden N.V.’s (FMO) and Société de Promotion et de Participation pour la Coopération Economique  (Proparco) also participated in this funding round. TIAA Global Asset Management has come come in as a new investor.

“Aided with the government initiatives from the last few years along with very progressive regulatory environment, the climate is ripe in India for deepening financial inclusion through both traditional business models as well as through fin-tech models. By committing to the 3rd fund, our investors have placed trust in the founding team, which has stayed together for the last 10 years and on our ability to stay disciplined while investing and managing investments,” said Venky Natarajan, Managing Partner, Lok Capital.

Earlier this year, Lok had invested in Pune-based Siddhivinayak (SV) Agri Processing, an end-to-end potato supply chain management company, marking its first investment in the agriculture sector. Fund III is expected to back more enterprises in the agri and dairy space.

The firm claims that it has fully returned the committed capital of $22 million from its first fund with an internal rate of return of 15% in dollar terms. The second fund is currently tracking gross returns of 28% in dollar terms, with portfolio companies Equitas and Ujjivan going public. Some of its good exits include Satin Creditcare, Janalakshmi Microfinance and RuralShores.

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Saama Capital Raises $31M For Its Third Fund

Saama Capital, a venture capital firm, has raised around $31 million for its third venture capital fund. With the new fund. the VC firm will be investing between $2 million to $5 million in each company. It is looking at a company which raises close to $2.5 million in Series A with 100-150% reserved for the follow-on rounds.

The firm expects to make a final close by third quarter of 2016. It expects to raise $60-80 million in the ongoing round. Saama has already invested in six companies as part of its third fund including LendingKart, Eazydiner, Veeba Foods, Jifflenow, Raw Pressery and an undisclosed company.

With this fund, Saama's focus so far has been on software as a service (SaaS) companies and food companies focused on supply chain. It is also watching the financial technology space in the business-to-consumer segment.

Saama has made largest investments in two lending companies - Vistaar Finance and LendingKart, respectively. It had previously raised $54 million for its first fund and then $26 million for the second fund. It exited Snapdeal last year apart from selling stakes in TutorVista, Sula Vineyards, App Labs and Prizm Payment Services.

Apart from Saama, other VC firms are also raising funds to make investments in Indian startups. Sequoia Capital recently closed its $920-million fund and Accel India is also planning to raise a new fund that will be larger than its previous $305-million corpus. IDG Ventures India has received commitments of $150 million from investors for its third fund, and is targeting $200 million.

Just yesterday, Singapore-based PE-style investment firm, Nalanda Capital also announced that it is about to raise $620 million for its new fund. This will take the total corpus raised by the firm to $1.5 billion.

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Singapore Based PE Firm Nalanda Capital to Raise $620M For Third Fund

Singapore-based PE-style investment firm, Nalanda Capital is about to raise $620 million  for its new fund. This will take the total corpus raised by the firm to $1.5 billion. The firm has already registered with US market regulator Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise the capital for its third fund.

It raised its second fund worth $475 million in 2011 and received its first fund worth $400 million in 2007. Former Warburg Pincus India managing director Pulak Prasad's investment firm Nalanda Capital has built a large portfolio of India-based public-listed companies. Some of its investments include in the companies like Just Dial, Lovable Lingerie, ELGI Equipments, TTK Prestige, Triveni Engineering and others.

Early this year, it had raised its holding in Mumbai-based Just Dial to 7.58%. Nalanda Capital also made some part-exits at the end of 2015 from companies like Lovable Lingerie and Triveni Engineering.

Other PE firms including ChrysCapital and Westbridge Capital are also focused on investing in public-listed companies. ChrysCapital has closed first round of its seventh fund of $600 million in January this year and Westbridge Capital had secured $575 million more to invest in Indian companies, in October 2015.

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