Antfactory In With A Pile Of Dollars

Big boys beware, the ant is here. Armed with a global war chest of $450 million _antfactory _ a pan-European Internet incubator has just moved into India.

The company, set up only in December last year in Europe, is co-founded by an Indian, Harpal Randhawa, who is also its chairman and chief executive.

The incubator, which also doubles up as a venture capital fund, plans to register itself with the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and is hopeful of pumping in close to $20-50 million into ventures in India in the next 12 months.

Interestingly, the ant in the name is aimed at going along with the characteristic of an ant to be busy, be able to hold 8 times their size and the ability to work in groups. The father of one of the co-founders worked in the second world war for a battalion called "fighting ants"!

 

Rajiv Sahney, managing director (India) of antfactory, said; while having a good idea was enough till a couple of years, in the Internet space it was now very important to be able to execute the idea fast. "In a nutshell this is what we help others do. We have a dedicated team of more than 120 employees across several countries. We are an execution engine," said Sahney.

Antfactory, has already raised $450 million largely from global institutional investors and it has so far invested $45 million of this. It is currently in advanced stages of closing deals in India and has already got some 100 business plans in the first month.

"We see mergers and acquisitions, technology, strategy consulting, general management, marketing and human resources as the six key areas on which we would partner companies," said Sahney.