Opinion: Why a VC in a hurry is bad news

Mayank Khanduja from SAIF Partners has an excellent post up at NextBigWhat on an unusual but important situation — where a VC moves quicker than is sensible to offering a termsheet. “We all know of instances where funds move quickly to extend a term sheet, only to see it fall through at later stage, as some…More

Opinion: Teenache for startups and how to get past the pain

The lifecycle of a startup is quite akin to growth as we all know as human beings. Series A/B rounds of equity typically get invested on the basis of potential (team and market) and therein starts the fun. Depending on the nature of business, the focus of growth stage companies can vary from getting profitable…More

Google Capital emerges from stealth; bets on education

Search giant Google has taken the lid of off its growth equity investment arm Google Capital. Backed by proprietary capital from its parent, the firm is being led by partners David Lawee, Scott Tierney and Gene Frantz. It is also announcing its first bet on the education sector with a $40 million investment in Renaissance…More

Mayfield raises $108 mn India Fund II

Mayfield Fund, the Menlo Park headquartered early-to-growth stage venture capital investor, is announcing the closing of its $108 million second India focused venture capital fund, dubbed Mayfield India II. A total of nine institutional investors have participated in the fund, the firm said in an SEC filing yesterday. Earlier in January this year, the firm…More

Omidyar Network India chief Jayant Sinha quits firm

Jayant Sinha has stepped down as managing director and head of India investments at Omidyar Network, the impact investment firm backed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam. An Omidyar Network spokesperson at the firm’s Mumbai offices confirmed the development to StartupCentral today. The firm is currently in the process of evaluating candidates…More

Former Mumbai Angels chief Anil Joshi raising $25 mn pre-Series A fund

More pre-Series A money is on its way for early stage startups. Former Mumbai Angels president Anil Joshi is raising $25 million for a new fund dubbed Dev Venture Fund. The technology sector-focused fund will invest at the pre-Series A stage. Joshi plans to raise up to 60 per cent of the fund corpus from…More

Why Kanwal Rekhi didn’t want to exit redBus despite 10X returns

Online bus ticketing company redBus may have delivered one of India’s most successful venture capital exits last year, but if 68-year old Kanwal Rekhi had had his way, the company may not have been sold. In a characteristically candid interview with The Economic Times today, Rekhi, founder of early stage venture capital firm Inventus Capital…More

5 trends that defined venture capital in India in 2013

We get into 2014 coming off a year that has been eventful to say the least for the venture capital market in India. In 2013, investors hunted for bargains, squeezed out exits and right-sized portfolios, even as the overall environment for dealmaking slowed down on account of internal and external factors. New funds raised for…More