Page 8 - Venture Capital

BS BFSI Summit 2023: No funding winter in PE investments, say experts

India is a highly favoured destination for investment in APAC, Renuka Ramnath, founder and CEO at Multiples Alternate Asset said at Business Standard's BFSI Insight Summit 2023

SoftBank's venture capital fund SVF Growth to sell 1.1% in Zomato

SVF Growth will sell the stake at an offer price of Rs 109.4 to Rs 111.65 per share, a 2 per cent discount to its current market price at the lower end, the report added

Artha Venture announces second exit at 19-fold return from mobility firm

Company says Fund 1 drawing to a close after investing in 31 firms

Former Swiggy CTO Dale Vaz gets funding for new venture Aaritya Tech

At Aaritya, Vaz is now building a new-age trading platform for individual investors to help them trade and invest

VC firm gradCapital launches $6 million fund for students' startups

Bengaluru-based venture capital fund gradCapital has launched its second fund of USD 6 million (about Rs 49 crore) to invest in students' startups. The VC fund on Friday said it will offer a standard cheque of USD 40,000 (Rs 33 lakh) at 4 per cent equity in companies set up by students. gradCapital co-founder and CEO Abhishek Sethi said, "We are not in the business of finding and investing in deals, we are in the business of letting students be more ambitious and build a future, despite having a challenging education system. Students are more likely to start a D2C company instead of a quantum computer, and we need more of the latter." The selected entrepreneurs will take part in a four-week cohort programme in Bengaluru, which will include meetings with Ather Energy co-founder Tarun Mehta, Razorpay co-founder Shashank Kumar and Zerodha CTO Kailash Nadh, the company said. The fund is backed by CIIE.CO and the cohort has Nearbuy co-founder Ankur Warikoo, Info Edge founder and Executi

Private equity, venture capital investments falls 5% to $3.9 bn in July

Private equity and venture capital funds' investments in the country declined 5 per cent to USD 3.9 billion across 59 deals in July, a report said on Thursday. While overall investments were lower than the USD 4.1 billion in July last year, the amount was 17 per cent higher than June this year, as per the report by industry lobby IVCA and consultancy firm EY. The number of transactions was down 26 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) to 59 in July while month-on-month it slipped 20 per cent. Vivek Soni, partner at EY, said sentiment in India for tech sector investments remains "tepid" and fund raising by startups in the country has been sluggish. The deal momentum is likely to pick up in the second half of 2023, he said, adding that India has emerged as one of the fastest growing economies and its importance is increasing in global supply chains. Buyouts in value terms were at USD 2.5 billion across five deals as against USD 1.6 billion in the same number of deals a year ago, the report

Sebi reduces time limit for AIFs, VCs to invest overseas to 4 months

Capital markets regulator Sebi on Friday reduced the validity period of approval given to alternative investment funds (AIFs) and venture capital funds (VCFs) for making overseas investments to four months from six months at present. If these funds fail to make investments within this time limit, then Sebi can allocate their unutilized limits to other applicant AIFs and VCs. The decision has been taken considering into account the recommendation of the Alternative Investments Policy Advisory Committee, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a circular. Under the rule, AIFs and VCFs have a time limit of six months from the date of prior approval from Sebi to making the allocated investments in offshore venture capital undertakings. In case the applicant AIFs and VCFs does not utilize the limits allocated to them within six months then Sebi can allocate such unutilized limit to another applicant. "It has been decided to reduce the aforesaid time limit for making

Venture capital investment declines slightly to $77.4 bn in Q1: KPMG report

Venture capital investment globally declined slightly to USD 77.4 billion across 7,783 deals in the June quarter as investors continued to hold back from making large mega-deals amidst uncertainties, a KPMG report said on Thursday. In a report titled Venture Pulse Q2 2023, which analyses venture funding globally, KPMG said VC investment held relatively steady in April-June, led by a USD 6.8 billion raise by US-based Stripe, USD 2 billion raise by Singapore-based Shein, USD 1.3 billion raise by US-based AI startup Inflection, and USD 700 million raise by India-based Byju. With regard to India, the report said despite a small uptick quarter-over-quarter, VC investment remained very subdued. The April-June quarter of 2022 saw over USD 8 billion in VC investment in India. The largest deals in Q2 2023 in India included a USD 700 million raise by edtech Byju, USD 600 million raise by online optical platform Lenskart, and USD 168.1 million raise by mobile balance management app company Tru

Venture capital firm Cactus Venture Partners invests $4 mn in Kapture CX

Venture capital firm Cactus Venture Partners on Thursday said it has invested USD 4 million (about Rs 33 crore) in software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based customer support automation startup Kapture CX. Founded in 2014, Kapture CX provides business solutions to automate customer support over call, e-mail, chat and social media for retail, travel, banking and financial services (BFSI) and consumer durable companies. "We are seeing a lot of demand from enterprises to enhance their customer experience. No one is happy with their customer support platform provider and large incumbents are struggling to meet the requirements of enterprise customers. "The bets we have placed on Gen AI capabilities and expansions in select international markets have paid off quite well. We intend to use this capital efficiently in growth markets we have identified," Co-Founders of Kapture CX Sheshgiri Kamath and Vikas Garg said. Kapture CX has operations in the US, UAE, Indonesia and the Philippines apart from

Together Fund announces new fund worth $150 mn; to focus on AI startups

Together Fund was founded by Girish Mathrubootham, (co-founder, Freshworks), Manav Garg, (founder, Eka Software) and Shubham Gupta, who used to lead SaaS deals at Matrix Partners India

VC investment in Indian startups declines by 76.4% YoY in H1 2023: Report

India is among the top five global markets in terms of both VC funding deal volume and value and has experienced a relatively higher impact compared to the US, China, and the UK

VC firm CoinFund raises $158 mn to back early-stage crypto startups

The New York-based firm had initially aimed for $125 million, but received more interest than expected, said Chief Executive Officer Jake Brukhman

CapFort Ventures launches Rs 200 cr fund, will back 40 tech start-ups

VC firm says it expects institutional investors, family offices, ultra high net worth individuals to support fund

Byju's crisis prompts top India VC firm Blume Ventures to shift strategy

Perceived corporate governance lapses are sending shockwaves through the South Asian nation's fledgling startup economy

Proptech firm Reloy raises Rs 7.2 cr from investors to grow business

HDFC Capital-backed proptech firm Reloy, which helps realtors in generating referral sales, has raised Rs 7.2 crore from investors to expand its business. In a pre-series A2 funding round, Reloy (earlier known as Loyalie) said all the existing investors participated along with new investors like BlueLotus VC and Dream Green Capital. The investment will be used to fuel the company's growth and expansion plans, the company said. In February last year, the company had raised Rs 5.9 crore from investors, taking the total external funding to over Rs 13 crore. "India is now the world's most populated nation with only the 7th largest land mass. We need our builders to create the largest cities the world has ever seen. It's time we empowered good builders with our referrals," Reloy founder and CEO Akhil Saraf said. "Our solution streamlines the post-purchase journey that homeowners have with builders and rewards them with benefits across ancillary requirements of home interiors and home .

VC firm Omnivore announces first close of third fund at $150 million

Omnivore Agritech and Climate Sustainability Fund, launched last April, will focus on startups developing breakthrough tech for agriculture, food, climate, and rural economy

RTP Global closes $1bn fund, will make third of investments in India

Fund will invest in sectors that include artificial intelligence, enterprise software, fintech

Tiger Global Management falling short of $6 billion target for new fund

Last year was the firm's most tumultuous since its founding in 2001, but this year's surge in AI-related stocks has helped underpin a rebound for Tiger and other tech-focused hedge funds

VC firm Avaana Capital announces first close of climate tech fund at $70 mn

Fund will invest in sectors like energy transition, mobility and supply chains, sustainable agriculture

Climate-focused VC firm Avaana Capital raises $70 mn in first funding round

This is the first close in the Avaana Climate and Sustainability Fund, India's first tech-led climate fund, meaning it can start investing in companies while raising capital for its own fund