Argonaut to hike stake in Midas

Argonaut Ventures, founded by George Kaiser from the US, in the recent past has been increasingly scouting for opportunities in India and has invested in a wide range of sectors as technology to spices besides investing in early stage venture capital firms.

Argonaut Ventures is likely to invest Rs 12 crore in Midas Communications, four years after it invested Rs 45 crore in this firm which was founded by alumnus from IIT-Madras.

This investment from Argonaut will be a part of a Rs 100 crore fund raising plan Midas is undertaking. In addition to Argonaut being an early investor, Midas has Emerging Venture Capital and Analog Devices India amongst its list of investors and is estimated to have a topline of around Rs 300 crore.

Midas focusses on building telecommunication last mile-access equipment which is designed for high-modularity, low power and for low subscriber densities.

Equipment from Midas will also enable access to broadband data and voice service in rural areas. The company in addition to this also offers some wireline products and access systems that connect the backhaul to residential and corporate buildings.

The company has significant overseas presence for its products.

According to industry information, Argonaut is understood to have invested more than $250 million into Indian companies. The bouquet of companies includes Koutons (a textiles retail company), KPR Mills (a Coimbatore-based textiles firm), Vallabdas Kanji (a spices exporter) besides acting as a limited partner to funds such as BlueRiver Capital and VenturEast.

Midas was founded in 1994 by a group of alumni of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras to develop and commercialise data and voice last mile access solutions for India and other emerging markets.

The founders include Rene Abraham and Shirish Purohit, who is currently the Chief Executive Officer. Both Abraham and Purohit have more than 20 years of experience in the telecommunication electronics industry.