10 Businesses VCs are Dying to Fund
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
Fortunately, for the motley gaggle of entrepreneur-wannabes, there’s record
venture capital, or early stage money, pouring into the country. According to a
recent Evalueserve report (it’s a research and analytics firm), more than 44
us-based vcs are now “seeking to invest heavily in start-ups and early-stage
companies in India”. These firms, the report reveals, plan to raise $100 million
(Rs 470 crore) a pop, or a staggering $4.4 billion (Rs 20,680 crore)
collectively. That may be too much money for a market like India, but start-ups
aren’t complaining.
It’s barely half-past-nine on a recent Saturday morning, but the second floor
hall at India Corporate Centre at Mohan Cooperative Complex in Okhla near
Faridabad is bursting at the seams. Packing the hall are 120-odd, starry-eyed
entrepreneurs and professionals, almost all of them in their late 20s or early
30s, who’ve sacrificed their weekend morning to meet, listen to and woo people
they hope to become one day: Successful professionals-turned-entrepreneurs, who
have demonstrated that in New India anyone can hit the big times, as long as you
have a good plan, lots of patience and perseverance and, of course, some venture
capital. Speaking at the half-day, The Indus Enterprise (tie)-sponsored
mentoring session are (mostly) poster boys of middle-class success: Former
Spectramind founder and CEO, Raman Roy, who having made his millions, now runs
Quattro BPO Solutions, which intends to buy and invest in firms in this space;
Alok Mittal, an IIT Delhi-grad, who co-founded JobsAhead.com that was later
bought by Monster.com, but now heads venture firm Canaan Partners in India;
Saurabh Srivastava, a tech entrepreneur and eminence grise, who runs a
seed-stage VC fund called Infinity, besides investing and mentoring personally
as part of a “Band of Angels” group; and Ranjit Shastri, a former McKinsey and
Bain consultant, who is a director at KPO, SmartAnalyst, which recently raised
$3.75 million in a third-round funding from Edison Venture Funds and Milestone
Venture Partners.
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