Reliance Venture exits Dhama Innovations

Reliance Venture Asset Management, the venture capital arm of Reliance ADA Group, on Wednesday announced its exit from portfolio company Dhama Innovations, a Hyderabad-based MIT startup making specialized clothing for adverse climatic conditions. The company is also considering exiting three other investments – Sequans, a France-based 4G chipmaker, US-based Stoke, a solution provider to mobile operators, and travel portal Yatra. The company has invested around $5-15 million in each of these entities.

Commenting on the development, CEO and founder Harshal J Shah said, “At Reliance Venture, our focus is on creating value around businesses and Dhama’s success bears testimony to this. I am happy to say we have recorded more than triple-digit IRRs on Dhama, well in-line with other multi-bagger investments. We are also considering exiting Sequans and Stoke, our international investments, as well as Yatra, our Indian venture. We are currently reviewing our exit options. Going forward, we will be scouting other interesting opportunities in healthcare, education, aerospace, defence and logistics.” Since its inception in early 2006, the company has advised and invested in deals to the tune of over $4 billion.

Reliance Venture invested in Dhama in 2009, playing a key role in bringing the company to India for incubation at the National Design Business Incubator of the National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. Dhama’s patented technology provides heating/cooling solutions to people living and working in difficult climatic environments. After seeing strong demand for their product offerings, Dhama has been inviting apparel designers on board, transitioning into a more of a manufacturing company, as against the IT venture it was as a startup.

Meanwhile, Sequans Communications, based out of France, is a 4G chipmaker, supplying LTE and WiMAX chips to equipment manufacturers and mobile operators worldwide. Reliance Venture has taken the firm to Nasdaq for an IPO listing that will be completed within 3-6 months.

Another portfolio company, Stoke, is considering similar options. Stoke develops high-capacity, standards-based gateway solutions to enable mobile operators to participate more profitably in the user-to-Internet value chain and improve subscribers’ online experience by manufacturing mobile internet offload equipment. The company is looking at listing within the next year. Closer home, Yatra.com, the company’s first investee, is also considering an IPO within the next year- and-a-half. The company is looking at various options, including M&A, and has been in talks with investment bankers for the same.