Idein Ventures Launches in Israel, Plans to Invest $1M in 2-3 Startups This Year

Idein Ventures, a global private equity firm with its India offices in Hyderabad and Mumbai, has expanded to Israel. Relation between India and Israel is at its peak after PM Narendra Modi’s visit to the nation known as the “hub of technology startups”. Idein Ventures operates in 2 spaces- pre-seed and seed stage investments in very early companies and growth capital investment in profitable SMEs.

It is currently in the process of hiring analysts and research interns in Israel and is already associated with a few mentors and advisors to help filter companies there.

Ashwin Srivastava, cofounder of Idein Ventures says, “We have been working on this expansion plan for quite a few months and have explored a few interesting companies in the process. We are looking to invest in very early companies with technologies that can disrupt India, Middle East, US, Europe, and Africa markets- technologies that have truly global use cases. And in the process, we hope to not only provide money but strong guidance and mentoring to take them global. I have personally talked to quite a few entrepreneurs and angel investors from Israel and I see a huge untapped potential there despite the saturation of domestic funds.”

Idein Ventures is looking to invest only around 1 million USD in 2-3 companies in the country this financial year; it hopes to increase its funding plans in Israel from next financial year. It is open to exceptions leading to change their funding plan depending on specific cases.

Idein Ventures currently has its presence in India, UAE and in USA. It has invested in companies such as Qriyo, Zoeasy, and Oxa among others.

Healthcare Startup Oxa Raises Seed Funding from UAE Based Idein Ventures

Hyderabad-based healthcare startup Oxa, focused on connecting and providing healthcare treatment globally through individually curated medical tourism packages, has secured an undisclosed amount in seed funding from UAE based Idein Ventures. It is currently focusing on medical tourism to India and has global plans in pipeline.

Oxa was founded in December last year, as an offline medical tourism company, but is building itself as a connected healthcare eco-system around the globe. Shashank Shrivastava, previously the founder and CEO of Sunjeevanam, a solar purchase and installation company, is currently heading the organization. Shashank is also a graduate of BITS Pilani and has previously worked with PlaySolar and Tata Power. He is looking to expand his team with inclusion of members in the top management.

Shashank says about the company, “To begin with, we are creating a one-stop shop for people travelling to India for Healthcare or Medical Treatment purposes. We not only arrange for travel, accommodation and treatment but also provide Pre-Travel Medical Consultation and Post-Treatment Care Services.”

Idein Ventures, a global private equity firm, has its India operations headquartered in Hyderabad. This is Idein’s first investment in the core healthcare industry in India. Some of its recent investments include real estate companies Buildtraders and Restate. David Back, founder of Zoomcar, had also joined Idein Ventures to head its strategy and USA operations, earlier this year.

An official statement from Idein Ventures says, “Oxa is building a very strong channel between Africa and India. And Idein is helping them with this global reach, as we are associated with the right players in this industry globally. India alone is expected to cater to at least 10 million overseas patients by 2019. And that is only the expected figure, Oxa is trying to create a new market as well.”

The hospital industry is huge and fragmented and has seen interest from private equity players recently. Specialty hospitals have helped create treatment hubs in different pockets of India. Last year, Abraaj group had invested around Rs 2000 crores in the multi-specialty hospital chain Care Hospitals.[cp_one_half]text [/cp_one_half][cp_one_half]text [/cp_one_half]

Idein Ventures to Invest up to $500M in a Celebrity Startup from India

Idein Ventures, a private equity firm based out of UAE, has earmarked up to $500 million for investment in a celebrity or unicorn startup from Indian subcontinent. For the same, its not going to use any of its regular funds, but will channelize other international funds who are traditional investors in assets.

Recently Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund had invested $3.5 billion in Uber setting a new precedent of investment in technology startups. Following the same, there has been a new interest in technology startups from various sovereign funds in the Middle East. Funds associated with various kingdoms are looking at startups in the Silicon Valley, China as well as India.

Idein Ventures is associated with the royal family of Ras al Khaimah of UAE. Its headed by Rajeshwar Prasad, who is also the CEO of RAK Sovereign Holding and a Cabinet Minister in the Republic of Guinea Bissau. It is also associated with a number of other fund sources that typically invest in traditional assets and similar companies. Despite the supposed slump in large-scale startup investments in India, Idein Ventures is exploring current unicorns in India and the rest of Asia for this new mandate.

Ashwin Srivastava, Director of Idein Ventures, says about this mandate, “We are in touch with some billion dollar plus companies and are looking at exploring others as well. We wish to present right opportunities to our partners, while filtering out paper unicorns and looking at companies that can bring as much value as Uber’s investment brought. Our value addition to these companies also goes beyond money and brings in the association of powerful royal names.”

Idein Ventures is also exploring startups that are less than a billion dollar in valuation but on the route towards the same. It is focusing on companies with potential of strong global brand value. It is keen on finding such companies from India, but being a global firm, it is also exploring startups in the rest of Asia.

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BuildTraders Aims to Organize $150B Indian Construction Industry, Raises $200K in Seed Funding

Bangalore based construction materials e-commerce company, BuildTraders, has raised $200,000 in form of seed funding from US based arm of UAE headquartered Idein Ventures. E-commerce in construction domain is at a nascent stage in India and is more than $150 billion industry.

BuildTraders was started by IIT Bombay graduate Ranjeet Gakhare, and was later joined by Yogesh Pawde, Aditya Joshi and Shubham Choudhary, after its acquisition of property management portal Cozilla. Yogesh, an IIT Bombay graduate had worked with Housing.com and currently heads BuildTraders’s supply and operations division. Aditya, another IIT Bombay graduate is the category head while Shubham who is working as CTO of BuildTraders is a graduate from IIT Ropar and has previously worked with Amazon and Livespace. Ranjeet handles sales and marketing at BuildTraders.

Building a home is perhaps the biggest investment any individual does in their lifetime. But the construction industry in India is heavily unorganized. Customer doesn’t know how to construct the house, which engineer/architect he should contact for getting initial work done. Also, finding suppliers who can offer a reasonable price for best quality curated products is extremely tough given the fragmented nature of this market. Every supplier has its own price policy and wading through these myriad options can drive anyone crazy.

BuildTraders is a platform which makes the procurement of building materials totally consumer oriented and hassle free. It offers end to end solution for all the construction needs of an end user or a contractor. BuildTraders wants to make the process of home construction easy by giving a solution for construction materials procurement and also pass the required guidance to home owners. It is also creating a network of civil engineers, contractors, architects and structural consultants, bridging the gap between owners and related service providers.

“BuildTraders is building a technology platform, which will provide the best guidance in the process of construction, through reasonable prices and curated quality in building materials segment to the customers” says Yogesh.

BuildTraders is also supported and advised by stalwarts from Idein Ventures- global entrepreneurs and investors Rajeshwar Prasad , Ashwin Srivastava and Mahesh Vellaboyina,The startup will use the newly raised funds to ramp up its technology infrastructure and to strengthen its supplier base.

Mr Prasad, who is also a Cabinet Minister in the Republic of Guinea Bissau, believes that BuildTraders can expand globally to various countries of Africa, where Idein Ventures has other interests and investments in assets. BuildTraders will first further set up its India operations before executing its international plans.

REstate Starts Operations in Bangalore and Hyderabad with Funds from Idein Ventures

Real Estate Company focused on landowners and builders, REstate, has received an undisclosed amount in seed stage funding from Idein Ventures, a UAE based private equity firm. REstate is currently functional in offline space with some multi million dollar projects in pipeline. It acts as the front face of mid-sized builders and provides them research enabled guidance and finance, with access to its land bank, while also acting as the front face for landowners and providing them liquidity and fair value for their land.

Ashok Vardhan, a graduate of IIT Madras and IIM Lucknow, and formerly a Vice President of State Bank of India, is part of the top management of the company. The promoters of Idein Ventures- Rajeshwar Prasad, Ashwin Srivastava and Mahesh Vellaboyina- in association with seasoned private equity investors and industry experts founded the company a month ago.

“REstate has a technology enabled Land Bank that uses data analysis and market research. It offers strong brand value and financing to its stakeholders including landowners and builders, through its backing by Idein Ventures which is a global Venture Capital and Private Equity firm associated with a UAE royal family among others”, says Srivastava about the company.

The company is in hiring mode from local and global markets to oversee various domains. It will soon have a combined online (REstate.com) and offline presence to execute its strategies in Bangalore and Hyderabad.

“Organizing the market of real estate developers by providing them everything they need, including brand value and land, is not what typical startups think of. The timing is right for such an entity, since UAE and Middle East is aggressively investing in India, and real estate development will see major growth”, adds Srivastava.

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