Private Equity Fund Investments

Fractal Analytics raises $100-M from Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah

Economic Times

Data analytics company Fractal Analytics has raised USD 100 million (INR 667 crore) from Malaysian sovereign wealth fund Khazanah. The investment values the US and India-based company at close to USD 300 million (INR 2,000 crore). The funding will be used to accelerate the firm’s growth, for investments in areas like artificial intelligence (AI) and for acquisitions. Veritas Legal advised Gulu and Sasha Mirchandani in connection with the transaction which involved a partial stock sale by the Mirchandanis.

Fractal had closed two acquisitions in 2015 - Imagna Analytics, an artificial intelligence startup and Mobius Innovations, a mobile-based context aware big data startup. The company had raised USD 25 million from Boston-headquartered private equity firm TA Associates in 2013 followed by a stake purchase by Canada's Aimia. Fractal also counts Gulu Mirchandani, chairman of Onida Group and his son and venture capitalist Sasha Mirchandani as early investors.

Creation Investments leads $25-M Series B round for online lending platform Capital Float

Economic Times

Online lending platform Capital Float has raised USD 25 million (INR 167 crore) in a Series-B round of funding led by US-based Creation Investments Capital Management. Existing investors SAIF Partners, Sequoia Capital and Aspada Ventures also participated in the round which values the company at over USD 100 million. The company will use the funds for ramping up its proprietary credit underwriting engine, penetrating newer segments such as travel and driver financing, as well as introducing new product lines. The company aims to disburse up INR 2,000 crore in loans by March 2017. The loan sizes are as small as INR 50,000 or less.

Capital Float has so far raised a total of USD 42 million.

Homestay, hotels aggregator Stayzilla raises $13-M Series C from existing investors

DealStreetAsia

Stayzilla, an online aggregator of budget hotels and homestays, has raised over $13 million in a Series C round of funding from existing investors Matrix Partners India and Nexus Ventures. The funding round was split into three tranches of $8.8 million (Rs.58.5 crore), $1.9 million (Rs.13 crore) and $2.4 million (Rs.16.3 crore), between November 2015 and March 2016. The company which is run by Inasra Technologies Pvt. Ltd had raised close to $20 million previously.

Goldman, Max Ventures to invest $10-M in restaurants firm Azure

Economic Times

Max Ventures and Industries (MVIL), owned by serial entrepreneur Analjit Singh, is buying a 11.2% stake for USD 5 million in Delhi-based Azure Hospitality, which runs a pan-Asian restaurant chain under the Mamagoto brand. Goldman Sachs, which had invested $10 million in the company in April 2015, has invested an additional USD 5 million in Azure Hospitality now. After this round of funding, the original promoters will have between 50% and 60% stake in Azure while Goldman Sachs will have around 35% stake.

Currently, the firm operates in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai, with a staff strength of 750. It is looking to expand to tier I and II towns and also overseas with a launch expected in the UAE shortly. The company is expected to report a turnover of INR 140 crore during the current fiscal and is being valued by the incoming investors at INR 300 crore.

Access leads $10-M round for procurement analytics firm Beroe

US- and India-based procurement intelligence and analytics company Beroe has raised the first tranche of a $10 million round led by Access India Fund. Investment bank MAPE advised on the latest fund-raising. Founded ten years ago by Vel Dhinagaravel, a BITS Pilani alumnus, Beroe offers market intelligence and analytics to the procurement teams of large firms including in the pharmaceuticals vertical. The company has offices in Chennai, Bangalore and North Carolina (US).

Food delivery startup Swiggy raises addnl Rs. 47-cr from existing investors

Economic Times

Bangalore-based, online food delivery start-up Swiggy has raised an additional INR 47 crore from existing investors Norwest Venture Partners, DST Global and Accel Partners, valuing the firm at over INR 865 crore or USD 130 million. Swiggy claims to fulfil close to 40,000 orders from the eight cities that it operates in including Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi-NCR.

Sriharsha Majety, along with Nandan Reddy and IIT-Kharagpur graduate Rahul Jaimini, set up Swiggy in August 2014. In January, Swiggy had raised USD 35 million (INR 230 crore) led by internal investors SAIF Partners, Accel Partners and Norwest Venture Partners.

Fitness startup HealthifyMe raises $6-M from IDG, Blume, Inventus Cap

NextBigWhat

Mobile based fitness startup HealthifyMe has raised $6 million (INR 40 Crore) in Series A round of funding led by IDG Ventures India, Inventus Capital and Blume Ventures. The startup plans to invest the funds in its technology and product and also plans to hire 30-40 engineers and make strategic acquisitions.

HealthifyMe, founded in 2012 and launched in 2013, connects users to nutritionists and trainers. It claims to have scaled from 30,000 users in January 2015 to 5,00,000 users across iOS and Android.

From the Venture Intelligence PE/VC Deal Database: In May 2015, the startup had raised its seed round from Micromax.

Exfinity leads $2.75 M Series A funding for logistics mgmt platform Locus

Locus, a logistics management platform, has raised USD 2.75 million in Series A funding led by Exfinity Venture Partners with participation from Blume Ventures, BeeNext and Rajesh Ranavat (MD, Fung Capital). Existing investors also participated in the round. The startup received seed funding from growX, Bhupen Shah, Manish Singhal, Amit Ranjan and others mid last year.

Locus equips enterprises with technology to manage their deliveries, with features including, automated smart dispatches, tracking, and fleet visualization, proprietary geocoder and proprietary route deviation engine. The funding will be used to strengthen its technology offerings and expand the team. Balakrishnan V, chairman, Exfinity Venture Partners and ex CFO of Infosys, joins the Locus board.

Peer-to-peer loans marketplace Faircent raises $2.5 M Series A funding from JM Financials

KnowStartup

Peer-to-peer lending startup Faircent has raised Series A round led by JM Fiancial Ltd subsidiary which has picked up 9.8% stake in the company. Existing investors Aarin Capital Partners and other individual investors have also co-invested in the round. The amount raised is reported to be between USD 2.5 million and USD 3 million.

Faircent.com provides a virtual market place where borrowers and lenders can interact directly, without having to go through the traditional financial intermediaries like banks. The company will use the capital to build technology and product apart from hiring a team.

Accel, Matrix lead $1.5 M seed funding in SaaS startup Zarget

Economic Times

Zarget, a Chennai-based SaaS startup, has raised USD 1.5 million (about INR 10 crore) in seed funding from global venture capital firms Accel Partners and Matrix Partners. The CEO of Freshdesk, Girish Mathrubootham, also participated in the round along with other investors.

The Zarget platform is built for e-commerce and SaaS companies and intended for the use of marketers, product managers and web designers. The platform provides A/B testing, funnel analysis and heatmaps.

Blume Ventures leads Rs. 3.3 Cr funding for edtech firm Unacademy

Economic Times

Education technology platform Unacademy has raised USD 500,000 led by Blume Ventures along with a clutch of angels including Google's Rajan Anandan, CommonFloor founder Sumit Jain and redBus founder Phanindra Sama.

Unacademy allows educators to create courses on the platform. All educators go through an interview process and selection is based on their experience. The company then helps educators create free courses on its platform. On the student side, Unacademy makes it easy for its learners to discover a course and then track their progress. The company claims that its YouTube channel has more than 15 million views. There are more than 1500 lessons ranging from learning a new language to cracking government examinations.

Healthcare marketplace Euor gets funding from Currae Healthtech Fund, Ah! Ventures, others

Telegraph India

Healthcare start-up Euor Health is set to raise INR 10 crore from Ah! Ventures, Currae Healthtech Fund and Altius Ventures at a valuation of over INR 50 crore. The company began operations in 2014 and claims to be the first marketplace in the healthcare segment in the country offering services such as doctors' appointment, hospital admissions, physiotherapists and home healthcare. In Bengal, it has over 40 hospitals and nursing homes, including AMRI Hospitals, Ruby General Hospital and ILS Hospitals, about 20 diagnostics and pathology laboratories and at least 1,100 doctors on its platform.

Liquidity Events (Private Equity)

Westbridge sells addl Kajaria Ceramics shares worth Rs.95-Cr, registers 5.79x return

BSE

Westbridge, via Jwalamukhi Investment Holdings, has sold 444,182 shares at an avg. price of INR 941.28 per share between Jan and Mar 2016 and 513,418 shares at an avg. price of INR 1,041.29 per share between April 1 - May 9, 2016 of publicly listed tiles manufacturer Kajaria Ceramics Ltd. aggregating to INR 95.27 Cr. This constituted 1.20% of total outstanding shares of Kajaria Ceramics Ltd. Post-deal the investor would hold 4,335,405 shares (5.46% stake) via Jwalamukhi Investment Holdings and 5885420 shares (7.4% stake) via Westbridge crossover fund in the target.

From the Venture Intelligence PE/VC Deal Database: Between Oct 2011 and Mar 2014, Westbridge invested INR 115.86 Cr for 9.59% stake through Jwalamukhi Investment Holdings.

Intel Capital sells additional 123Greetings.com shares worth Rs 27.9 Cr, registers 3.54x return

Intel Capital, via Intel Capital (Mauritius) Ltd, has sold 750,000 shares at INR 372.38 per share via BSE of publicly listed Online Services firm Infrasoft Technologies Ltd. aggregating to INR 27.93 Cr on May 11, 2016. This constituted 5.09% of total outstanding shares of Infrasoft Technologies Ltd. Post-deal the investor would hold 5.33% stake (784,764 shares) in the company.

From the Venture Intelligence PE/VC Deal Database: In Dec 2007, Intel Capital invested INR 19.69 Cr for 16.30% stake. The company got listed in Apr 2010. Intel Capital started exiting the firm from Jul and Sep 2015 quarter.

Rabo Equity sells LT Foods shares worth Rs 1.5 Cr, registers 3.61x return

BSE

Rabo Equity, via India Agri Business Fund Limited, has sold 26,197 shares at an avg. price of INR 260.40 per share between Oct and Dec 2015 and 32,565 shares at an avg. price of INR 238.18 per share between Jan and Mar 2016 of publicly listed packaged rice processor and exporter LT Foods aggregating to INR 1.46 Cr. This constituted 0.22% of total outstanding shares of LT Foods Ltd. Post-deal the investor would hold 14.16% stake (3,776,253 shares) in the company.

From the Venture Intelligence PE/VC Deal Database: In Oct 2009, Rabo Equity invested INR 25.31 Cr for 14.68% stake at INR 66 per share. The investor also invested INR 23.30 Cr in Daawat Foods (subsidiary of LT Foods).

Titan buys out Tiger Global from online jewellery shop Carat Lane

BSE

Publicly listed Titan Company Ltd is to acquire majority stake via an all cash deal in Chennai-based online jewellery shopping store Carat Lane Trading Pvt Ltd, offering an exit to Tiger Global, the sole VC investor in the target. Carat Lane is involved in the business of designing, manufacturing, trading and retailing of gems and jewellery. The transaction is expected to be closed by the middle of June 2016.

From the Venture Intelligence PE/VC Deal Database: CaratLane has raised USD 50 million across four rounds from Tiger Global. (Subscribers to the database can login to view the valuation multiples, deal structuring and other transaction details.)

Roadrunnr and TinyOwl to merge ops and launch ‘Runnr’

Economic Times

Hyperlocal logistics player Roadrunnr and food-ordering platform TinyOwl are merging in an all-stock deal, to form an entity called "Runnr". As part of the deal, Roadrunnr has onboarded the technology, data analytics, sales, support and the management team at TinyOwl along with the brand name. In the short term, TinyOwl will continue to operate its app in locations where order volumes are high, before eventually phasing out to the new brand identity Runnr.

Both RoadRunnr and TinyOwl count Sequoia Capital India and Nexus Venture Partners as common investors. Bangalore-based Roadrunnr, owned by Carthero Technologies, founded by former Flipkart executives Mohit Kumar and Arpit Dave, also counts Blume Ventures as an investor while TinyOwl, founded by IIT-Bombay graduates counts Matrix Partners India as an additional investor. Both startups combined have raised over USD 50 million or INR 330 crore in funding over the past 24 months.

FitKids acquires ThinkLABS

Business Line

Education start-up FitKids has acquired ThinkLABS, a science and technology education provider. The acquisition will help FitKids add about 100 schools to its existing portfolio of 160 schools across the country.

From the Venture Intelligence PE/VC Deal Database: Seedfund had invested $0.67 million, $0.22 million and $0.36 million in October 2010, July 2010 and November 2007 respectively in ThinkLabs

Angel Investments

Schoolwear.in raises $1.5-M

DealStreetAsia

Mumbai-based Schoolwear.in which sells school uniforms and supplies, has raised Rs 10 crore ($1.5 million) in seed funding from the promoters of Navneet Education Ltd. The company will use the money for launching a range of school products across 500 schools in 15 cities by the end of 2016.

Home aggregator and rental mgmt firm Zenify raises $1-M from HNIs

Economic Times

Zenify, a Bangalore-based home aggregator and rental management startup, has raised USD 1million in a pre-series A funding from high networth individuals (HNIs), who have a minor stake in the company. The company will use the funds to enhance its technology and analytic capabilities, and also for entering new markets such as Mumbai and Delhi. Zenify is also in talks with venture funds to raise around USD 5 million to fund its expansion plans.

This is the second round of fundraising by Zenify. Last year, the company had raised INR 4.15 crore in angel funding from a group of investors, including MSC Srikanth and M Bharath from K12 Techno Service Pvt Ltd and Atul Jalan, founder of Mathan Software Service Pvt Ltd.

Logistics startup Zebroads gets $75-K

KnowStartUp

Hyderabad-based online logistics and warehousing startup, Zebroads which offers logistics and warehousing services to small companies, has secured seed funding of $75,000 (Rs 50 lakh) from a bunch of unnamed investors. The company plans to invest the raised funds in increasing warehousing space, technology upgradation and improvement in logistics partners.

IAN leads Rs. 3-Cr investment in Toko Innovation Studios

NextBigWhat

Indian Angel Network (IAN) has invested INR 3 crore in Bangalore-based TOKO Innovation Studios, which creates a digital destination for children that can be viewed on mobile and web browsers. Roopak Saluja, Founder & CEO of The 120 Media Collective and Vishal Khare have led this round on behalf of IAN, with Saluja joining the board of the company. This round was co-led by Rajasthan Angel Investor Network, which will be represented on the board by Ajay Data. The investment will be used for product development, user growth and content partnerships.

Car pooling startup Derbii raises funding from Accenture MD

KnowStartup

Gurgaon-based startup Cab pooling app Derbii, has raised seed funding from Accenture managing director Anurag Chauhan. The funds will be used towards the improvement of technology, getting more users and increase the number of cabs. The startup is also looking at another round of investment in the next three months and have received commitment from the existing investor.

Derbii, founded by IIT Delhi alumni Gaurav Sinsinwar and Prasenjit Singh along with IIT Roorkee alumnus Akash Chaudhary, is focused on providing carpooling services for office-goers in Delhi NCR. It claims to have more than 20 cabs at present.

Crowdfunding platform Dreamwallets raises seed capital

NextBigWhat

Jaipur-based Crowdfunding platform, Dreamwallets has secured seed round of funding from a clutch of investors that includes Siddharth Banerjee; Vikas Ranjan from Indusind Bank; Anshul Jindal; Sunil Koul, Executive Director with a Hong Kong based Investment Bank; Sanjeev Agrawal, an industrialist; Rakesh Gupta and Aditya Aggarwal – Chartered Accountants; amongst others. The funds will be utilized to beef up business development team, invest in technology and for creating awareness about the crowdfunding concept.

Founded in July 2015 by Nikhil Agrawal and Manish Harodia, Dreamwallets have contributors coming in from over 200 cities and tens of countries worldwide.

Hindi social media startup ShabdaNagari raises follow-on bridge funding

ShabdaNagari, a social media start up catering to the niche Hindi content consuming audience, raised bridge funding from Yogesh Chaudhary of Jaipur Rugs, Anirudh Damani of Artha Energy Project, Abhimanyu Singh from TaskUs and others through the ah! Ventures platform. The company aims to utilize the funds mainly for its product development, marketing and promotional activities.

ShabdaNagari was founded in January 2015 by Amitesh Misra, Nikhil Tiwari and Amaresh Chandra Misra. ShabdaNagari has also been backed by Kanpur Angels including investors like Abhishek Singhania from the JK Group, Manoj Agrawal from Kanpur Plastipack and Rakesh Suri from Suri Shoes.

Social VC Investments

Water purification tech firm InnoNano raises $18-M from NanoHoldings

Times of India

Chennai-based InnoNano Research has raised USD 18 million funding from NanoHoldings, an energy and water investment specialist firm. The 8-year-old firm, incubated at IIT Madras, has developed a range of technologies to tackle diverse contaminants in drinking water, maintaining international quality standards. With multiple grants from the government through department of science and technology, the startup was able to develop technologies that could purify water with arsenic content, metals and pesticides. Over 700 villages use InnoNano's purifiers and the company plans to reach 1500 in the next 1 year. The startup has been supported by Nano Holdings in global patenting for the team and IIT Madras for the past 4 years.

Incubation/Acceleration

Airbus Bizlabs selects 3 Indian startups for accelerator program

Business Standard

BizLab, the six-month accelerator programme of European aircraft manufacturer Airbus, has selected three Indian start-ups. Each start-up gets access to mentors or experts from Airbus, working space, and marketing expertise. Airbus will also help them raise funds.

The three start-ups are:

Blue Morfo: is developing a mobile application to detect and prevent specific corporate health-related issues, such as exposure of airline crew to jetlag and cabin pressurisation

Shoonya Games: is proposing interactive gaming solutions for training and marketing purposes through the use of Virtual Reality and 3D technologies embedded in a mobile device

Open Turf: has a project to provide wireless in-flight entertainment using passengers' personal devices.

Google selects six Indian start-ups for Launchpad Accelerator Program

INC42

Google has announced the second batch of Indian startups that will join the Launchpad Accelerator program in Silicon Valley, California. The six-month mentorship program will include USD 50K in equity-free funding, a two-week all-expenses paid bootcamp at Google Headquarters, six months of ongoing mentorship and access to Google’s full suite of Launchpad initiatives and connections and product credits including Google Cloud and other products. The short-listed startups from India include:

Taskbob – A Mumbai-based, mobile-only home utility service provider, offering instant home services by sending verified and skilled professional serviceman at the customer’s doorstep to fix household appliances.

Programming Hub – An application to Learn 20+ Programming languages such as Python, Assembly, HTML, VB.NET, C, C++, C# (C Sharp), etc.

ShareChat – This Bangalore-based company provides a social networking chat platform in Indian languages.

RedCarpet – This Gurgaon-based startup provides instant credit scoring and enables purchase financing using advanced AI.

PlaySimple Games – This Bangalore-based firm specialises in building simple and fun social games.

MagicPin – The Gurgaon-based hyperlocal discovery platform provides a platform for users and enables merchants in a locality, discover, interact and transact.

FiasTech, Arcatron, Kabadiwalla Connect join Autodesk’s “Entrepreneur Impact Program”

The Hindu

US headquartered engineering software firm Autodesk has selected four Indian hardware startups - Bangalore-based FiasTech, Pune-based Arcatron Mobility, Pune-based Cerulean Enviro Tech and Chennai-based Kabadiwalla Connect - for its Entrepreneur Impact Program. Under the program, the startups will be provided software worth $150,000 (about INR 1 crore) as well as training for a period of three years.

FiasTech has developed a product which when installed in fuel nozzles saves oil drops that usually fall on the ground during refuelling of vehicles at gas stations. Kabadiwalla Connect will use AutoDesk software to build products like storage units made out of recycled material. Arcatron Mobility is building products like shower wheelchair and smart care robot to improve lives of elderly and mobility impaired individuals. The firm is using Autodesk's software to improve the product design by modelling and testing it in a virtual environment. Cerulean Enviro Tech recycles used water from places such as bathroom sinks.

IPO

API maker Laurus Labs plans Rs 1,000-cr IPO

Business Line

Hyderabad-based Laurus Labs, a supplier of anti-retroviral APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients), is expected to file draft offer documents for a INR 1,000-1,200 crore initial public offer (IPO) soon. Jefferies India Pvt Ltd will be the lead manager to the issue. The IPO is intended as an exit for its private equity investors.

Laurus Labs was incorporated in 2005 and has three main manufacturing facilities in and around Visakhapatnam.

From the Venture Intelligence PE/VC Deal Database: In February 2012, Eight Road Ventures had invested about INR 161.50 crore in the first round and in the second round in May 2014, Warburg Pincus had invested about INR 550 crore in the company. (Subscribers to the database can login to view the valuation multiples, deal structuring and other transaction details.)

Parag’s IPO closes with 1.83 times subscription

Business Standard

Maharashtra-based Parag Milk Foods has managed to successfully close its Initial Public Offering (IPO) of shares. The company received 1.15 times subscription in the qualified institutional buyer (QIB) segment. The dairy products firm lowered its price band to INR 215-227 a share from the earlier band of INR 220-227 a share. Overall, the IPO was subscribed 1.83 times. Retail (small investor) portion was subscribed two times and high networth individual segment was subscribed 3.1 times.

Other Private Equity / Strategic Investments

T-Hub incubatee Life Circle raises $150-K from Groupe SOS

YourStory

Life Circle Health Services, a Hyderabad-based home nursing and professional care giving service provider, has raised $150,000 from Groupe SOS, a European senior healthcare service provider. The fresh round of funds will help Life Circle to expand its services in Hyderabad and Delhi-NCR.

Founded in September 2013 by Priya Anant, Anant Kumar and Atul Kumar, the startup has provided more than 150,000 hours of professional caregiving services so far.

M&A

Crompton Greaves to offload T&D business to First Reserve for Euro 110 M

BSE

The company along with its subsidiaries CG International BV and CG International Holdings Singapore PTE Ltd has signed a share purchase agreement with Pauwels Spaco Ltd — an SPV of US Private Equity fund First Reserve for the acquisition of the company's power business in Europe, North America and Indonesia for an enterprise value of Euro 115 million. The sale by Crompton Greaves will help lower its debt and enable it to focus on its faster-growing Indian businesses. Its consolidated debt stood at INR 2,744 crore in FY15.

Knowlarity acquihires Smartwards

Economic Times

Cloud telephony company Knowlarity Communications has acqui-hired Delhi-based customer engagement platform Smartwards and appointed the latter's founder Shantanu Mathur as its country head for India.

Moovo acquires fellow On-demand logistics platform GoGoods

Inc42

Moovo, a Delhi-based on-demand logistics booking platform, has acquired a Patna based GoGoods, which offers similar services, in an all stock deal. Post acquisition, the five member team of GoGoods will join Moovo. Launched in December 2014 by Nishant Kumar and Anurag Satyarth, GoGoods aggregates trucks for intracity transport in Patna and Ranchi.

Moovo, founded in same year by Abhishek Anand and Anjani Kumar, help consumers in booking mini trucks, tempos and 16-tonne heavy commercial vehicles for intercity and intra-city transport. Moovo plans to scout for more such acquisitions to expand across the country.

From the Venture Intelligence PE/VC Deal Database: In June 2015, Moovo had raised seed funding from cricketer Yuvraj Singh’s YouWeCan Ventures and other angel investors.

Quikr acquires beauty services startup and partner Salosa

NextBigWhat

Quikr has acquired Salosa, an on demand in-home beauty services provider and a partner to QuikrServices.

Founded by ex- P&G professionals, Piyush Dhanuka and Anurag Nair, Salosa was launched in September 2015. It serves customers in Gurgaon and parts of Delhi.

Law firms Thakore Jariwala & Associates and SAK & Associates merge into Dua

Legally India

Dua Associates merged with Thakore Jariwala & Associates in Mumbai and SAK & Associates in Chandigarh, bringing three new equity partners into the Dua partnership. The firm also added three lawyers from the two cities as salaried partners, promoted five of its managers to partners in Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai, and re-absorbed one former lawyer as partner in Delhi thus making nine new salaried partners in all.

Discovery to buy controlling stake in FoodFood Channel

Economic Times

Discovery Communications is set to acquire a controlling stake in Turmeric Vision, which operates specialty channel Food Food. Turmeric Vision is a joint venture between celebrity chef Sanjeev Kapoor, Malaysia-based Astro Overseas Limited and ad man Sandeep Goyal's Mogae Consultants.

A share transfer has been proposed between Astro and current promoters of the company. Following the approval, Astro will exit and Kapoor's holding will increase to 80%, while Mogae will own 20%. Then, Discovery will acquire a controlling stake in the company. After the completion of the acquisition, Kapoor will retain a significant minority stake, while Mogae Media will exit.

Parrys Sugar to merge with EID Parry

BSE

Publicly listed EID Parry India Ltd is to acquire its subsidiary Parrys Sugar Industries Limited. Two fully paid up equity shares of the face value of Rs. 1/- each of EID Parry are to be issued for every 13 equity shares of Rs.10/- each held by the equity shareholders of the target. For FY16, Parrys Sugar reported a Turnover of INR 300.18 crores as compared to INR 2347.68 crores of EID Parry. Their net worth stood at INR 15.44 crores and INR 1285.58 crores respectively. The share exchange ratio was based on a valuation report provided by SSPA & CO and Fairness opinion was provided by Axis Capital.

Nippon transfers automotive paints biz of Indian units to BNB

Nippon Paint Holdings Company Limited (NPHCL) has transferred (by way of a slump sale) the automotive paints business vertical (relating to 4 wheeler passenger cars and SUV, 3 wheelers and ancillaries) of Berger Paints India Limited (BPIL) to BNB Coatings India Private Limited (a joint venture between Nippon Paints Automotive Coatings Company Limited and BPIL that is engaged in the business of manufacture and sales of coatings for plastic substrates of automobiles). NPHCL has also transferred the 4 wheeler passenger car body paint business of Nippon Paint (India) Private Limited to BNB. Khaitan & Co acted as legal advisor to the NPHCL on the deal.

DriversKart acquires Driven

Economic Times

Chennai-based on-demand chauffeur provider Drivers-Kart has acquired Mumbai-headquartered startup Driven in an equity and cash deal. DriversKart, run by Get Driven Technologies, enables users to hire drivers on an hourly, weekly or monthly basis through its app.

American & Efrid Global to raise holding in Vardhman Yarns and Threads to 89%

Mint

Listed company Vardhman Textiles Ltd is to sell around a 40% stake in its subsidiary Vardhman Yarns and Threads Ltd (VYTL) to the US-based American & Efrid Global LLC (A&E). Vardhaman Textiles will sell 22.8 million equity shares held by the company in VYTL aggregating 40% of the issued capital. After the completion of the transaction, A&E will hold 89% of the equity stake in Vardhman Yarns, up from its 49% stake, which it had acquired in 2008. The deal values VYTL at INR 990 crore.

VYTL manufactures a range of speciality threads across different applications. VYTL generated revenues of INR 728.4 crore in the financial year 2015-16, around 11% of Vardhman’s consolidated revenue.

Other Deals

KPCB Edge invests in IoT firm for construction industry Einsite

Economic Times

California-registered Einsite, which designs Internet-of-Things (IoT) based solutions for the construction and mining industries from its development centre in Hyderabad, has raised a seed round from KPCB Edge. KPCB Edge is the early-stage investment arm of Silicon Valley based VC firm KPCB. Einsite was started by brothers Rajiv and Anirudh Reddy. The current round of funding in the form of uncapped convertible notes in the range of USD 100,000-200,000 will help Einsite get its product ready for the market by early 2017.

Einsite is being piloted with Gayatri Projects in Hyderabad. The firm is in talks with other construction companies in India apart from a few clients in the Middle-East.

IDG Ventures raises Rs 1000-Cr for its largest India fund

Economic Times

IDG Ventures India has secured commitments of about $150 million (INR 1000 crores) from investors for its $200-million third fund, called IDG Ventures India Fund III. Its first two funds were of $100 million each. IDG Ventures will continue to focus on the consumer technology , healthcare technology and software sectors, as well as on emerging areas such as financial technology. IDG Ventures raised most of the capital for its latest fund from domestic investors like family offices besides existing limited partners. For its latest fund, IDG is also working with Mumbai-based Edelweiss Wealth Management, which is expected to mobilise around INR 100 crore from its clients.

IDFC Alternatives raises Rs. 475-Cr for Real Estate fund

Economic Times

IDFC Alternatives, the asset management arm of infrastructure-focused lender IDFC, has raised INR 475 crore under its real estate focused IDFC Score Fund. The five-year fund will be investing in residential projects across top seven property markets, including Mumbai, Delhi-National Capital Region, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. The fund is looking to invest only in projects that have secured approvals and are aiming for gross annualised returns of 20-21%.

Under its third fund, IDFC’s private equity arm is looking to raise INR 750 crore and total plans to deploy it through structured debt in mid-income housing projects with senior charge on cash flows. The fund will have a fixed tenure of five years and no extension options as IDFC Alternatives is looking to deploy and make exits in stipulated time.

Michael Dell Foundation allocates $50-M more for Indian start-ups

INC42

Michael and Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF) has earmarked an additional $50 million (about Rs 333 crore) towards investments in India over the next three years. The funds will be primarily used towards making direct investments in early-stage ventures, will be in addition to the impact investor’s existing vehicles, which includes its Delaware-registered, proprietary seed-stage fund – India Educational Investment Fund.

JLL’s Segregated Funds makes first close for second fund at Rs.120-Cr

Economic Times

JLL segregated funds group (SFG) has announced the first close of its second fund; Scheme Residential Opportunities Fund - II, at INR 120 Cr. JLL Segregated Funds Group is raising its second real estate fund with a total target size of Rs 300 crore. ROF - II intends to invest in residential projects in prominent micro markets, which have shorter project development life cycle; receivables backed by significant collateral and/or invest in value dislocated projects with financial distress.

The fund is looking to do deals in the range of INR 20-50 crore in a mix of equity and debt structured deals. The five year closed ended fund seeks to invest in residential investment opportunities in seven cities/ metropolitan areas of India (Delhi-NCR, Mumbai-MMR, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Kolkata).

Village Capital to offer $50-K for startups dealing with college education for the underprivileged

INC42

Village Capital is inviting applications from Indian entrepreneurs to participate in a mentoring program called ‘Village Capital Education: India 2016’. It aims to fund and scale ideas that can help improve unprivileged students’ education and enable them to find jobs. Funded by the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF), the initiative aims to attract enterprises for a three-month program to help scale and fund their ideas in the college education space for underprivileged students.

The program will select entrepreneurs and impart them with entrepreneur coaching program curriculum, one-on-one mentorship from leaders in the field and help them with opportunities to network with potential strategic partners and investors. At the end of the program, top two participants will receive USD 50K from VilCap Investments. They will also be evaluated by MSDF for a further investment of up to USD 500K each.

IFC in talks with stressed asset managers in India

Mint

The International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private-sector investment arm of the World Bank, is in talks with asset managers to assess potential investment opportunities in India’s bad-loan market. IFC is assessing whether the attempt to clean up bank balance sheets provides an opportunity for patient capital that may be able to play a role in reviving troubled assets. IFC is examining whether it can invest directly in securities receipts issued by asset reconstruction companies (ARCs), which in turn would allow banks to speed up recoveries from stressed assets. IFC representatives have held discussions with stressed asset managers with a track record of working with various participants in the market, including banks and ARCs. IFC already has an equity stake in Encore Asset Reconstruction Company Pvt. Ltd and is also a partner in a stressed asset platform with Apollo Global Management Llc.

Japan’s GREE Ventures enters Indian market

Inc42

GREE Ventures, a Tokyo based venture capital firm, has announced the first close of its new AT-II Investment Limited Partnership Fund (“AT-II”), launched in April this year. AT-II is seeking investment opportunities in India in addition to Japan and Southeast Asia. It will invest between $300,000 to $2 Million in early and seed stage startups working in internet sector as a lead investor.

Earlier, in May 2014, it launched AT-I Investment Limited Partnership, a $50 Mn fund, that invests in internet-related companies across Southeast and East Asia. It also created a $12 Mn virtual reality investment fund in April this year.

Revised Mauritius tax pact may hit overseas fund flows

Times of India

India has wrested the power to tax capital gains on the sale of shares of domestic companies by entities based in Mauritius, a move that may have a "significant impact" on investments routed through the tax haven. The two countries amended their 33-year-old tax treaty, bringing the curtains down on the “Mauritius route”, which government revenue officials and critics said had become synonymous with tax avoidance and abusive practices such as treaty shopping and round-tripping. The new regime will apply on shares acquired on or after April 1, 2017, the finance ministry said in a statement. Investments made before that date will not be affected. There will be a transition period from April 1, 2017, to March 31, 2019, during which capital gains will be taxed at half the domestic rate. Foreign Portfolio Investors - the largest investor group - will now have to pay 15% tax on short-term capital gains on listed shares.

The move changes the dynamics for private equity and foreign portfolio investors and asset managers not just from Mauritius but also from Singapore. India had linked the continuance of capital gains tax exemption in its treaty with Singapore to the agreement with Mauritius. The protocol will tackle the long pending issues of treaty abuse and round-tripping of funds attributed to the India-Mauritius treaty, curb revenue loss and prevent double non-taxation, the finance ministry said in the statement. The new protocol also provides for updating of the information exchange agreement in line with international standards.

Reliance ARC mulls a fund for big-ticket NPAs

Business Standard

After stabilising its business in retail and small & medium enterprise (SME) bad loans, Reliance Asset Reconstruction Company (RARC) is looking to acquire stressed loans of large firms for resolution. Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Capital which has a 49% stake in RARC also plans to start stressed asset fund in collaboration with international investors. Corporation Bank and Indian Bank are the other sponsors of RARC.

Former Zensar executive Ganesh Natarajan sets up co to invest in startups

Economic Times

Former vice-chairman of Zensar Technologies Ganesh Natarajan, in partnership with his wife, Uma Ganesh, has set up 5F World, a meta-startup platform which would invest in early-stage startups and collaboratively set up startup incubators or accelerators. He plans to invest between INR 25-30 lakh in 7-8 companies this year in the skills or communities area, or in technologies such as augmented reality and big data analytics.

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