Shaadi Meets Match.com (Part II)

Jumping off from my previous post — which was a high level look at different approaches to investing in India — let’s get a little closer to the developing ecosystem.

Who’s doing what, who’s raising money and how much is out there? Here’s some of what we’ve found in our travels.

First, an important caveat: much of this data was pulled together in May 2006, so some of it may be already out of date. Since a significant portion of this information was from non-public sources, I apologize for any inaccuracies. If you do see something that needs to be corrected, please let me know via a post or email to mark@battery.com.

India Venture Funds raised or highly like to close:

• By our count, 9 funds x $50 to $400mm per fund in the next 6 months, or ~$1.6 billion.

Helion

• Currently at $128mm, estimated to close in July 2006. Targeting India companies
• Principals:
  • Ashish Gupta – Junglee Co-Founder & VP, Tech, VP, Woodside Fund
  • Rahul Chandra –  Director Corp Dev, e4e (BPO), Associate, Walden India / US
  • Kanwaljit Singh – ex Partner, Carlyle India Ventures
• Sanjeev Agarwal, Daksh CEO (sold to IBM)Portfolio companies: MakeMyTrip and 3 other investments that are being warehoused until the fund closes
• Sponsorship: Sutter Hill ($7M contribution to fund)

Inventus Capital Partners
No website available

• Currently raising $125 to $150M fund. Targeting US-India companies primarily
• Principals:
  • Kanwal Rekhi –  US-based. Excelan founder (sold to Novell, became CTO), active angel historically (eg CyberMedia, Exodus, PlaceWare)
  • John Dougery – US-based, ex-partner, BA Venture Partners
  • Samir Kumar – India-based, ex-partner, Acer Technology Ventures
• Portfolio companies: none disclosed
• Sponsorship: USVP, InterWest

Matrix India
No website available

• Currently raising $100 to $125M fund
• Principals:
  • Avnish Bajaj - Bazee founder, Goldman Sachs
  • Rishi Navani – formerly Partner, Westbridge
• Portfolio companies: none disclosed
• Sponsorship: Matrix

NEA IndoUS Ventures
No website available

• Currently raising $250mm fund. Targeting India-US companies primarily
• Principals:
  • Vinod Dham – considered Father of the Pentium Processor; CEO SiliconSpice, NextGen 
  • Vani Kola – founder of nthOrbit and Rightworks
• Portfolio companies: Induslogic, Sasken
• Sponsorship: NEA

Nexus
No website available

• Currently raising $200mm fund
• Principals:
  • Sandeep Singhal - Medusind, eVentures India, McKinsey
  • Suvir Sujan – co-founder, Bazee, BCG
  • Naren Gupta – Vice-Chairman, Wind-River Systems
• Portfolio companies: none disclosed
• Sponsorship: not announced 

Oak Investment Partners

• Currently raising a $150M focused on India consumer growth fund
• Principals:
  • Ranjan Chak – opened India office in 2003
  • Currently searching for other principals
• Portfolio companies: Talisma, Sutherland

Sequoia India (“merged” with Westbridge)

• WBCP I  $120mm in 2001, II $200mm in 2005
• Additionally, recently closed Sequoia India Growth Fund of $400mm targeting India growth equity investments, more non-technology 
• Principals:
  • KP Balaraj – xWhitehall group of Goldman, xCFO / co-founder Miridiant
  • Sumir Chadha – xPIA at Goldman, xMcKinsey, co-founder US-IVCA
  • SK Jain – xCEO MeraNet, Pentium Pro Design Group at Intel
  • Sandeep Singhal – xBCG, xHindustan Lever
  • 1 operating partner, 1 CFO and 3 Junior investment professionals
• Portfolio companies on their website: AppLabs, Astra, Brainvisa, Celetron, ICICI OneSource, Indecomm, Induslogic, MarketRx, ReaMatrix, Tarang, Zavata, Dr. Lal PathLabs, Royal Orchid Hotels, Bharti TeleSoft, Mauj, Nazara, Shaadi, Times Internet, Travelguru, Emagia, July Systems, Strand Life Sciences, Zenasis

Silicon Valley Bank

• Co-investment fund with US VCs making India investments (non-lead investor role)
• Currently fund raising $50mm fund
• Principals:
  • Ash Lilani – head of SVB Global
  • Suresh Shanmugham – Boston Millenium Partners, Boston Capital Ventures
• Portfolio companies: none disclosed
• Sponsorship: Silicon Valley Bank

US / Global VC Firms Seeking to Sponsor / Raise a Fund:

An Unannounced Top Tier Fund

• Rumored to be looking for a team

Draper Fisher Jurvetson

• Raising a $150m affiliate fund by end of the year
• Looking for 2 more GPs to join Mohan Lakhamraju (ex-Battery)

An Unannounced Top Tier Fund

• Rumored to be looking for a team

IDG

• Will raise a $150mm "proprietary" fund (backed only by IDG) by end of the year
• Looking for a team of 3 to 4 GPs

Venrock

• Dev Khare hired as a Vice President in 2005

US / Global VC Firms that have hired a GP / VP and are building a presence in India:

Bessemer

• Goal is to have 5 people on the ground in India by the end of the year, currently have 3 people on the ground in Mumbai
• Already hired and separated with Indian EIR based in Mumbai (Dinesh Vaswani, Walden)
• Rob Chandra making frequent trips
• Portfolio companies include: 4 growth equity deals (auto, construction, real estate, retail brokerage)

Canaan

• Just hired Alok Mittal as Venture Partner.  Background: co-founder of Jobsahead.com, Indian job portal sold to Monster. Intending on opening an office

http://www.venturewoods.org/?author=1

• Portfolio companies: e4e, Aztec Software

Clearstone

• Principals:
  • Vish Mishra, Senior Venture Partner to help network into Valley-based Indians. US-Based. Background: founder of Telera, CEO of MindWorks, IntelliWorks, and Ace Software
  • Sumant Mandal (GP) – US-based focusing part of his time on India
  • Rahul Khanna (India-based, just hired). Son of J. Walter Thompson India head
• Portfolio Companies: Billdesk

International Finance Corporation (part of the World Bank)

• Principals:
  • Paul Asel – Delhi – xTelos Venture Partners
  • Other team members in Chennai, Delhi, and Mumbai.
• Portfolio companies: Indecomm, DQ Entertainment, Spryance, Nevis Networks, KPIT Cummins

Kleiner Perkins / Sherpalo
Kleiner working with Sherpalo for co-investing in India

• Principals:
  • Sandeep Murthy – India-based Partner for Sherpalo, ex-IAC NYC
  • Ram Shriram – US- based. Angel investor in Google (in India every 2 months)
• Portfolio companies: Cleartrip, InfoEdge, Paymate (Naukri.com, Jeevansathi.com, 99 acres.com)

Softbank Asia International Fund
Been active in India since 2003, closed $650M fund in June 05, targeting $150M to India

• Principals:
  • Ravi Adusumalli – Softbank VC, US
• Portfolio companies: MakeMyTrip, Investsmart, Sify, Slashsupport

US / Global VC Firms with a US Partner Focused on India

Lightspeed

• Principals:
  • Hired Ajit Deora as Venture Partner (US-based)
• Portfolio companies on their website: none mentioned
• Plans to invest $50 to $100mm in India out of their latest fund

http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=16523&hed=Norwest+Plans+More+for+India+

US / Global VC Firms with an Active Commuter Model

Artiman

• Principals:
  • Yatin Mundkur – xTeleSoft, President of Equator Technologies
  • MJ Aravind - co-founder of Daksh
• Portfolio companies on their website: BioImagine,

Bluerun Ventures

• Principals (splitting time between Menlo Park and New Delhi):
  • Sujit Banerjee – xTL Ventures, Merrill Lynch banking
  • Vas Bhandarkar – xUnimobile CEO, Selectica
  • Vineet Buch – xOracle, Corio
• Portfolio companies on their website: Nevis Networks, Sasken (Nokia Growth Partners)

Columbia Capital

• Principal:
  • Hemant Kanakia – xCEO Torrent Networking Technology, Bell Labs, TCS
• Portfolio companies on their website: NetDevices (Sunnyvale / Bangalore)

Gabriel Venture Partners

• Principal:
  • Navin Chaddha – EIR Mobius, Microsoft Corp. Dev., founded VXtreme
• Portfolio companies on their website: Allsec (IPO), IL&FS Investsmart, MakeMyTrip, Persistent Systems, Provogue, Tejas

Norwest Venture Partners

• Principal:
  • Promod and Vab active in the press, “Trying to do 6 deals in 2006”
• Portfolio companies: Persistent, Yatra

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/ew/2006/04/17/stories/2006041700180300.htm

Sierra Ventures

• Principal:
  • Vispi Daver, Principal, making trips

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/may2006/gb20060501_279377.htm

Trident Capital

• Principal:
  • Venetia Kontogouris – xDun & Bradstreet (IMS, Cognizant)
• Portfolio companies on their website: Microland, Outsourced Partners International, Cognizant

Walden International

• Principal: History of dedicated effort (Dinesh Vaswani), currently no one dedicated
• Portfolio companies on their website: Headstrong (fka TechSpan), e4e, InfoTech, Mindtree, Venture InfoTek
• Looking to hire Associate in Singapore to commute to India

Firms with Passive Commuter Model

Austin Ventures

• Principal:
  • Venu Shamapant - Telecom Technologies, McKinsey, Mentor Graphics
• Portfolio companies on their website: Siperia (TX/India)

BA Venture Partners

• Principal:
  • Gaurav Kotak
• Portfolio companies on their website: none listed

Charles River Ventures

• Principal:
  • Itzak Armony
• Portfolio companies on their website: July Systems (US/India), Yantra

Diamondhead Ventures

• Principal:
  • Raman Khanna
• Portfolio companies on their website: none listed

DCM – Doll Capital

• Principal: unclear
• Portfolio companies on their website: unclear

Financial Technology Ventures

• Principal:
  • Eric Byunn
• Portfolio companies on their website: Exlservice (NY/x Noida and Pune)

Francisco Partners

• Principals:
  • Neil Garfinkel, David Golob, and Ezra Perlman
• Portfolio companies on their website: OfficeTiger

Globespan Capital

• Principal:
  • Venky Ganesan
• Portfolio companies on their website: unclear

Sigma Partners

• Principal: unclear
• Portfolio companies on their website: Emagia (US/India company with Westbridge)

Shasta Ventures

• Principal:
  • Ravi Mohan
• Portfolio companies on their website: none listed

Storm Ventures

• Principal:
  • Sanjay Subhedar
• Portfolio companies on their website: none listed

Telesoft Partners

• Principal:
  • Senthil Durairal
• Portfolio companies on their website: none listed

US / Global Firms Looking to hire a GP:

Atlas Venture

• Principal:
  • Sonali De Rycker – Goldman Sachs

Corporate VCs with Presence on the Ground:

Cisco
Intel Capital
Qualcomm

Corporate VCs with an Active Commuter Model:

Motorola
SAP Ventures
Siemens

It’ll be interesting to see how this set of firms shakes out over the next few months. I’d love to hear from you if you have additional or differing information from what we’ve been able to collect. 

There are two other important and growing segments of the Indian ecosystem that I haven’t even touched upon. There are a number of larger PE firms the likes of Blackstone, Carlyle, and Goldman Sachs making noise in India, and there are a very healthy number of Asian and Indian Public, Private Equity and Venture Capital funds.

I’ll take a look at these groups in upcoming posts.

Comments

[Ravi]

Hi Mark,

Thanks for an excellent roundup of all the VC/PE activity in the Indian market. I was aware of there being quite a few but I had no idea it was over 30 VC firms!

You're definitely on my list of blogs to keep regularly track of :-)

Oh and btw, your RSS feed is broken for some reason - you might want to fix it.

[Anurag Gupta]

Hi Mark

Good to have a snaphot of PE/VC activity at one place. Loved your blog... keep contributing

[Mark Sherman]

Ravi,
We tested the RSS a few ways and it worked for us. Are you still having the problem and if so what is your configuration so that we can get to the bottom of the problem.
Mark.

[Shantanu Bhagwat]

Great stuff Mark.
Looking forward to reading more about your experiences and perspective on India.

[Subbu]

In consumer Internet arena, most of the VC investment in India seems to be narrow minded. All the VC's seems to be interested in pumping in money into firms like Naukri, Shaadi or Bharat Matrimony. Though these are good business models, technologically they are not at all innovative. It goes without saying that Naukri is one of the ugliest looking sites. They just seem to want to make money without really giving a good user experience. In spite of this its pity to see a reputed firm like Kleiner Perkins / Sherpalo pumping in money. Another point to be noted here is, most of these portals are backed by big media houses or they are becoming one. I doubt innovation flows from top down unless you are a Yahoo or Google. This is very unlike US. VC in US seems to like creative techies or rather innovations. It's one of the reason why diggs, del.icio.us, linkedins, 37signals, flickrs are almost impossible to find in India. Unless VC firms back techies India will continue to be a outsourcing hub rather than an innovation hub. Indian companies are doing pretty good in research, software, R&D and related fields. But all of it is still outsourcing. It's not 100% consumerism. Indian techies still need to spread their wings to innovate in consumer products. That's the growth path for India I guess. What do you say?

[Subbu]

That was a great post. It gives more than heads up for someone seeking capital. Thanks a bunch.

[manoj onkar]

How do the VCs, ensure best management systems for the companies that they invest in, specially, when some of the companies that they invest in are Technology or a particular field oriented and not necessary mangement team driven?

Manoj Onkar
http://www.linkedin.com/in/manojonkar