StartupCentral

Gurgaon-based travel service portal MakeMyTrip will list on the Nasdaq under the symbol MMYT. It has filed a registration statement with the SEC for a proposed initial public offering (IPO) of its ordinary shares. The number of shares to be offered and the price range has not yet been determined. Morgan Stanley will be the sole bookrunning manager and Oppenheimer & Co and Pacific Crest Securities will be co-managers. The company, reports Reuters, hopes to raise up to $100 million through the offering. Also see more details on the company in the preliminary prospectus.

(Source: Press Release)

MakeMyTrip, backed by SAIF Partners, Tiger Global, Helion Venture Partners and Sierra Ventures is the latest among venture capital-backed Indian startups that have announced plans to go public soon. Sequoia Capital-backed SKS Microfinance’s maiden offering opened on the bourses today — track updates here. Here’s a look at some details on two other notable startup IPOs coming up soon: Read the full story

New Delhi-based mobile value added services (VAS) company One97 Communications has teamed up with private equity firm SAIF Partners to launch the One97 Mobility Fund, which will invest in seed and early-to-growth stage mobile VAS companies. The fund will have a $100 million corpus, contributed by the two partners. It will invest anywhere between $50,000 and $5 million per startup.

One97 has earlier incubated two mobile VAS startups — Oorja Mobile Services and TenCube on its own. SAIF Partners, incidentally, is also the largest institutional investor in One97. It currently holds 41 per cent and has invested $20 million in the company so far, according to this VC Circle report. The private equity firm, reportedly, increased its stake by an additional 10 per cent just shortly after the company announced plans to go public this year with a Rs 120 crore offer. See the draft red herring prospectus filed with the Indian markets regulator SEBI here. Other investors in the company include Intel Capital and Silicon Valley Bank.

Founded in 2000 by 31-year old Vijay Shekhar Sharma, One97′s clients include Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone. Read more at the company’s blog.

(Source: Press Release)

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, Sai Advantium Pharma and Ujjivan Microfinance. Just Dial is the fund’s eleventh deal. It is now more of an SME (small and medium enterprise) rather than a startup and doesn’t fit the venture theme in the strictest sense. Surprised that the investment has not been made from Sequoia India’s current growth fund.

The deal was led by Sequoia India managing director Sandeep Singhal (in photo), who will now sit on the Just Dial board. The press release did not specify the stake that has been acquired by the venture capital firm, but a VC Circle post says it has taken less than 10% — see more details here. Read the full story