Mittal Forms India Venture Fund

Laxmi Narayan Mittal of the Ispat group has formed a $50 million venture capital fund as part of a half-a-billion-dollar global fund set up through his LNM Venture.

"The Indian (Net) market holds immense potential, and we'll be investing in several Net companies," the London-based director of LNM Venture, Rishi Khosla, told Business Standard yesterday.

Pointing out that they had already invested in two Indian Net firms (Baazi and indiabull.com), Khosla said they are looking at financial sector portals.

"For this, indiabull.com democratises the whole process, and it is the type of company that we are targeting at," Khosla said.

Though Khosla was not ready to divulge the equity stake that LNM Venture has taken up in the two Internet firms, he did admit that LNM Venture's were not majority stakes.

"Our strategy is to help Indian dotcoms move to the US and Europe and get European and American firms come to India," Khosla said.

He pointed out that Lakshmi Narayan Mittal's investments would depend on the valuation of the companies and the value that the companies invested in bring on board.

Last year, eVentures, a joint venture between Japan's Softbank and the media mogul Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corporation-founded company, had announced an alliance with the Indian branch of the Mittal family led by P K Mittal for a joint venture eVentures India.

The joint venture will own two-thirds of eVentures India.

Since then, eVentures India has invested in several Indian Net companies.