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Showing posts from April, 2016

Ujjivan Microfinance IPO: Payback Time for Impact Investors. Again?

Catch the Original Payback Time article of PE/VC Investor Returns in  Equitas Holdings IPO  here  and  here . To receive updates in your inbox Sign Up for the FREE Deal Digest Newsletter: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter. Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India.  Visit  http://www.ventureintelligence.com/products.htm to view our products & offerings.

The Road to Series A Just Got Longer & Harder

Deepak Gupta , Co Founder of early stage investment platform Equitycrest, has made an analysis ( republished in Inc42 ) - using Venture Intelligence data - of the "new normal" in terms of the time, money and number of pre Series A rounds required to get to that milestone. Extracts: I don’t know if we are exactly in the mode of how things are in 2012-13 but it does seem that 2014-15 was an aberration and the direction of the data points gives us some lessons to draw from. So what can we learn? 1. You need to be doubly sure about the idea you are pursuing and the fundability of the team. Just the first seed round does not mean a lot in terms of the success of the business. Also, you probably need something north of INR 4 crores to get to Series A regardless of the market, so be looking out to raise the second seed if your first raise was modest.   2. In case of an angel round, one needs to ensure that the lead investor is truly committed and understands the company’s

Can ThyroCare Outdo Dr. LalPath Labs' IPO?

"Dr. Lal PathLabs IPO subscribed 33.41 times" "Dr Lal PathLabs zooms 50% on debut" Will the latest Private Equity-backed diagnostic chain to go public - Thyrocare Technologies - also enjoy similar headlines to Dr. LalPath when it completes it IPO - opening this week - and subsequently lists? Venture Intelligence maps the financial performance, investor returns and the valuation growth of Thyrocare (and benchmarks it to its peer that went public in Dec-15). Check out Venture Intelligence's analysis of Dr. Lal Path Labs IPO. Interested in seeing transaction level data for PE/VC Investors in Thyrocare? Take a trial to Venture Intelligence Deal Databases with tons of information on transactions, valuations and financials on private companies. Like this infographic? Sign up for more via our FREE newsletter. Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private

How Mohandas Pai & Ratan Tata are shaking up the Angel Investments Landscape

While Venture Capital investments* have been steadily falling from the peak registered in Aug-2015, investments by Angel Networks and Super Angels have continued to tick up driven by increasing activity of new entrants like former Infosys CFO Mohandas Pai & former Tata Group Chairman Ratan Tata. (Even the minor slowdown in the last couple of months by the professional angels, has been compensated for by new angel investors – typically working professionals and Entrepreneur CEOs making their first 1-3 investments – stepping up their activity.)  (*Institutional Investments of <$20 M in Early & Growth Stage Companies) Venture Intelligence dug into its angel investments database  to study activity across the last 24 months (across 300+ deals) to identify the list of most active investors. Mohandas Pai – who invests both directly as well as via Aarin Capital, his shared Family Office with the Manipal Group’s Ranjan Pai – topped the list with as many as 31 investme

What explains microfinance firm Equitas' 23% gain on Listing Day?

Chennai-based Equitas Holdings , which is focused on providing microfinance and other financial services to bottom-of-the pyramid customers, closed its first day as a public company at INR 135.25, a gain of 23% over its IPO price of INR 110 per share. The company was 93% owned by PE/VC and Impact Investors prior to its IPO. You can receive such updates via the Venture Intelligence Deal Digest Weekly Newsletter which delivers all the funding action of the week to your inbox. FREE!   Subscribe. Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India.

Are Indian Unicorns Taking the Media for a Ride?

Mint has listed (on its front page) various fancy "GMV" goals totted out by CEOs of Indian E-Commerce Unicorns - at various points to various media outlets - but have been "missed by big margins". Extract: Payments start-up Paytm launched its e-commerce business only in 2014, years after Flipkart and Snapdeal. But that didn’t stop the company from spelling out growth targets that would put its rivals to shame. Alibaba-backed Paytm said in an April 2015   interview with   Mint   that it will generate annualized GMV of more than $4 billion by December 2015. In an interview this February with the   Hindu BusinessLine  newspaper, Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma said the company was clocking GMV of $3 billion, which means it missed its sales target. No sweat. Paytm has set an even more ambitious target of hitting $10 billion in GMV by this December.   ..."If these goals are anything to go by, it would seem as if accountability isn’t high on the list of priori

Did Culture Clash Send Punit Soni B2SV (Back to Silicon Valley)?

Even as the question of whether Flipkart can provide profitable exits to its investors remains a multi billion dollar one, the firm has started to see high profile exits of a different kind: that of its top executives that it had attracted through acquisitions (especially Mukesh Bansal of Myntra ) and from Silicon Valley. The recent exit of Flipkart Chief Product Officer Punit Soni (who had joined it from Google) has received a lot of coverage in the media - including ET Now 's interview with Soni on why (a polite techie sounding "There are a couple of areas that I'm interested in working on that are not orthogonal to Flipkart's interest") and what next for him (he's headed back to the US to work on a new venture). According to recruiters and others interviewed by Mint , "cultural differences" (between start-ups in Bangalore and Silicon Valley) is the key reason for the disenchantment of the Valley Hires. Extract: ...“People from Silicon Valley

Kishore Biyani's "It's Not Very Important to be Online" - Practical Wisdom or Famous Last Words?

The founder of the retailing focused Future Group has declared e-commerce as an optional area in an interview to Mint : “I have been a very good student of e-commerce business,” Biyani said in an interview on 12 April. “I have been watching it by doing it myself with Futurebazaar(.com) and by meeting a lot of people who have been in this business. I have met everybody in this business. I have experimented with exclusive tie-ups with particular e-tailers and have also worked with the father of multi-channel retail (Love Goel, chairman of global investment firm GVG Capital Group) to understand global trends,” he said.  He explained that this was done as a part of six-month immersion programme last year, and it led to the realization that “it’s not very important to be online”. Biyani has offered more arguments (on why e-commerce doesn't work) in a Forbes India interview (emphasis mine): My cost of doing business is 12-18 percent of sales. In online, it is 45-50 percent of sal

How Much Should You Diss Competition?

From the CB Insights newsletter of April 13, 2016: From the CB Insights newsletter of April 15, 2016: While we can't help but smile at CB's pugnacity, at Venture Intelligence, our culture has been to publish quarterly trend reports as  as early as possible  (to satisfy our demanding media friends) but also with as much  accuracy and worthwhile details  as possible.  Related Reading:  Should You Diss the Competition? Sachin Bansal, Kunal Bahl trade barbs on Twitter over Alibaba moves Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Private Equity investments tick up 24% to $3.6 Billion in Q1’16

Quarter sees 12 Mega Deals ($100-M or more) across E-Comm; Financial Services; Healthcare & Infra Private Equity firms invested about $3,620 million across 144 deals during the quarter ended March 2016, according to early data from the  Venture Intelligence Private Equity Deals database , a research service focused on private company financials, transactions and their valuations. The investment amount was 24% higher than that invested in the same period last year ($2,922 million across 191 transactions) and 9% higher than the immediate previous quarter ($3,326 million across 152 transactions). Note: All figures in this note are exclusive of PE investments in Real Estate. There were as many as 12 PE investments worth $100 million or more during Q1’16 compared to seven such transactions in the same period last year and ten during the immediate previous quarter, the Venture Intelligence analysis showed. The largest investment during Q1’16 was the estimated $350 million (INR 2,34

Equitas IPO: Payback Time for Impact Investors

Business Standard has an  article  on returns made by PE/VC investors in Equitas Holdings' IPO using data from the  Venture Intelligence Private Equity Deals Database . Incidentally, Aavishkaar Goodwell made INR 80 Cr or 13 times its INR 6 Cr investment in Mar-2008 and more than the size of its 2007-vintage fund (Aavishkaar Goodwell Fund I which had a corpus of $17 M or INR 76 Cr at that time). Contact Us for a spin of our Social VC Investments Deals Database with valuations, financials and transaction multiples. Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India.

PE Investors offload shares worth $2.5 B in Q1'16 - Up 129% YoY

Private Equity exits in India for Q1 2016 amounted to  $2.5 billion  (including value of stock swap transactions) an increase of 129% compared to $1.94 billion in the Q1 2015, according to latest Venture Intelligence Private Equity Exits Report. Of the total exit value in Q1’16, $2 billion represented complete exits; the remainder being partial ones. Highlights 7 exits of over $100 million in value account for 82.28% of the value pie KKR sells its stake in Alliance Tire Group for $1.05 Billion to Yokohama Rubber Co Strategic Sale exits at $1.3 Billion account for 37% of total exits followed by Public Market Sale and Secondary sale with 29% each The largest PE exit announced (in value terms) during the year was the stake sale worth $1.05 billion of Alliance Tire Group by KKR to Yokohama Rubber Co. KKR realized approx. 2.8x return on its three year old investment. The next largest was the exit by Advent International from Care Hospitals via a sale to Abraaj Group fo

The 10 Worst VC Board Members

From a Tweet by Bessemer Ventures : Creative Reminiscent of Bessemer's famous Anti-Portfolio . Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India. Click Here to Sign Up for the FREE Weekly Edition of the Deal Digest: India's First & Most Exhaustive Transactions Newsletter.

Indian Startup Ecosystem attacked by "Integrity Cancer": Kashyap Deorah

Kashyap Deorah, author of "The Golden Tap: The Inside Story of Hyper-Funded Indian Startups" and the former President of the Future Group's e-commerce venture Futurebazaar.com, has a LinkedIn post describing various examples of ethically challenged behaviour at Indian startups. Extracts: Senior management of a startup create new companies that provide services to their hyper-funded startup. The startup loses money through its nose while the service provider makes great margins. The service provider compensates its shareholders through dividends and individuals through fees. In similar news, relatives of the founder of a large e-commerce company become sellers on the platform, get tipped off about when the company will sell at negative gross margins, and sell to the e-commerce company at a higher price only to buy back in bulk at a lower price. ...A VC firm struggling to return money to its investors after seven to eight years finds a portfolio company in a space t

Manish Sabharwal @ Venture Intelligence APEX'16 PE-VC Summit

Manish Sabharwal, Co-Founder of leading staffing services company Teamlease, that pulled off a successful IPO in the choppy environment of early 2016, weighed in with typical flourish on various issues as part of the inaugural panel at the Venture Intelligence APEX'16 PE-VC Summit  (Bangalore; March 9). Some highlights: "India's Brand is Warm - Not Hot or Cold" India's brand is that 'We won't be Hot or Cold; we will be consistently Warm'. We will be 'between 5 and 8' - in terms of growth rates. If we are growing at 5%, don't worry, we'll soon go to 8%. If we are growing at 8%, then we'll pretty soon we will go down to 5%. I don't think we'll ever grow at 13%. Which is why, for us entrepreneurs, the current economic weather is not so relevant. Click Here  for the related video Lessons from China - Decentralization and Strong Leadership  Decentralization and Strong Leadership are more important lessons to ta

B2B Services, EdTech and IT Product Cos witness return of interest even as overall Venture Capital investments dip 32% in Jan-Mar'16

Venture Capital firms invested $242 million over 85 deals in India during the three months ending Mar 2016, data from the Venture Intelligence VC Deals Database shows. The investment activity by volume during Q1’16 is 32% lower compared to the same period in 2015 (which had witnessed 125 investments worth $471 million). The activity level was also 13% lower to the immediate previous quarter (which had witnessed 98 deals worth $347 million). Note: As VC type investments cap out at $20 million per round under Venture Intelligence definitions, follow on investments raised by companies like BigBasket, CarTrade, ShopClues, Byju’s Classes, etc. are not included in this report. The larger Growth Stage investments in Q1’16 included the $20 million Series D investment in B2B Group Buying site Power2Sme led by Nandan Nilekani (along with existing investors Kalaari Capital, Accel India and Inventus Capital) and the $13 million third round investment in baby products e-commerce site Hopscot