STARTUPCENTRAL 2009 July | STARTUPCENTRAL

Proto.in Edition 6: Poor Pitch

Posted on July 28, 2009 by Snigdha Sengupta

Somebody please tell me what exactly happened at the three-day Bootcamp that preceded Proto.in Edition 6. The agenda note said that the Bootcamp would, among other things, “teach and groom (the showcase startups) with everything that goes into the mastery of delivering a pitch.” The results at the July 25 showcase in Pune were disastrous, to say the least. Not…

Canaan Partners’ Angel Initiative

Posted on July 23, 2009 by Snigdha Sengupta

How much does an average Indian startup need to get started up? Mukul Singhal, associate at Canaan Partners, reckons anywhere between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 50 lakh. Small change for most venture capitalists, except that most venture capitalists don’t invest such small change. This is angel investor territory. And there is a big untapped base of angel investors in…

Sequoia India Invests Rs 40 crore in Just Dial

Posted on July 23, 2009 by Snigdha Sengupta

Sequoia Capital India has invested Rs 40 crore (about $8 million) in Just Dial, a multi-platform local classified listings (local search) firm based in Mumbai. The investment has been made from the $300 million Sequoia Capital India Fund III, the firm’s third venture capital fund raised in 2007 for the India market. Other investments from this fund include Vasan Healthcare,…

Lightspeed Leads Rs 50 Crore Investment in ItzCash

Posted on July 22, 2009 by Snigdha Sengupta

Lightspeed Venture Partners has led a Rs 50 crore investment round in Essel Group-promoted Itz Cash Card, picking up an undisclosed stake in the Mumbai-based multi-purpose pre-paid card company. Existing investors Matrix Partners India and Intel Capital, who invested $10 million in the company in 2007, have also participated in this round. The company will use the money to venture…

Vinod Khosla on $1 Billion Venture Fund Raising Trail

Posted on July 21, 2009 by Snigdha Sengupta

Forbes reports that ace Silicon Valley venture capitalist Vinod Khosla is raising two new funds worth an aggregate $1 billion. One is a $250 million seed fund and the other, $750 million, is for later stage investments — read the report here. The report doesn’t say much about what exactly the two funds will invest in but, clean technology, which…

Nexus, Reliance Tech Ventures in Red Herring Top 100 VC List

Posted on July 15, 2009 by Snigdha Sengupta

Surprise, surprise, Reliance Technology Ventures and Nexus India Capital have been voted among the world’s top 100 venture capital firms by Red Herring — see the list here. They are the only two Indian firms on the list. Nexus India Capital is a Mumbai-based venture capital firm that manages a $320 million India-focused funds pool. The firm has a portfolio…

Matrix Partners Parks Rs 100 crore in FIIT JEE

Posted on July 13, 2009 by Snigdha Sengupta

The week begins with a Rs 100 crore investment by Mumbai-based Matrix Partners India in FIITJEE, an education and training company from New Delhi. As the name suggests, the company provides training for the IIT-JEE, AIEEE and other engineering entrance examinations. Started up in 1992 by founder-chairman Dinesh Kumar Goel, the company claims to have put more than 25,000 students…

Vineet Buch on quitting BlueRun and turning angel

Posted on July 9, 2009 by Snigdha Sengupta

Early this week I spoke with California-based Vineet Buch about his departure from BlueRun Ventures, the venture capital firm he worked at for about four years. Buch returns to his entrepreneurial roots at Like.com, a visual search engine focused on fashion developed by Riya Inc. He shares his views on venture capital, why entrepreneurship makes more sense for him at…

What Indian startups need. Really.

Posted on July 7, 2009 by StartupCentral

What do entrepreneurs really need to succeed? Passion. Drive. A good idea. A network. Passion. Funding. Passion. Customers. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what about power? And I’m not speaking metaphysically here. I’m talking the real thing: electricity running through wires to reach a lab, an office, or a factory, with consistency and predictability. Power. Journalists occasionally ask me what the…