india_vc_report-q3_2008

8/3/2019 India_VC_Report-Q3_2008

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TSJ Media Private Limited. All rights reserved.

India Venture Capital ReportJul-Sep

2008


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GIVCA/Venture Intelligence-India Venture Capital Report

TSJ Media Pvt. Ltd. All rights reserved. 3

1. Highlights

VC Investments in India during Jul-Sep 2008: 49 deals, $274 Million

Venture Capital firms invested $274 million over 49 deals in India during thethree months ending September 2008. The VC investment activity during theperiod was significantly higher compared to the same quarter last year (whichhad witnessed 36 investments worth $252 million) as well as the immediateprevious quarter ($165 million invested across 28 deals).

The latest numbers take the total VC investments in the first nine months of 2008to $661 million (across 108 deals) as against the $648 million (across 97 deals)during the corresponding period in 2007.

The $18 million raised by TutorVista is the largest investment during Q3 08

Share of IT & ITES companies dips to about 50% (in volume terms)

Early stage deals account for about 67% of all investments (63% in value terms)

Over 61% of the investments are $5 million or more

Ten of the reported deals are $10 million or above

VC firms obtain exit routes in three companies during the period

Top Investments

The largest investment reported during Q3 2008 was the $18 million raised by onlinetutoring services provider TutorVista from existing investors Sequoia Capital India andLightSpeed Ventures.

Top VC Investments

Company Sector Amount(US$ M)

Investors

TutorVista Online Services(Remote Tutoring)

18.0 Sequoia Capital India,Lightspeed Ventures

Connectiva Systems Communications Tech(Revenue Assurance)

17.0 IFC, NEA-IUV, SAP Ventures,Others

Seventymm Online Services(Video Rental)

12.0 NEA-IUV, ePlanet Ventures, DFJ,Matrix Partners India

Equitas Micro Finance Microfinance 12.0 Bellwether, Others

HaloSource Water Purifiers 11.5 Origo Sino-India,Unilever Tech Ventures

See Appendix 2 for a list of all publicly disclosed investments


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Distribution of Investments by Deal Size

13

6

20

7

3

0

5

10

15

20

25

0-2 2-5 5-10 10-15 15+

Investment Amount (US$ Millions)

No.ofDeals

2. Investments by Industry

Information Technology and IT-Enabled Services (IT & ITES) industry retained its statusas the favorite among VC investors during Q3 08.

Led by the $12 million investment by Bellwether and others into Chennai-basedmicrofinance firm Equitas, BFSI emerged as the second largest (in value terms) for VCinvestments during the period. Other microfinance firms that attracted investmentsduring Q3 08 included Kolkata-based Arohan Financial Services (which raised fundingfrom Lok Capital and others) and Guwahati-based Asomi Finance (IFC and AavishkaarGoodwell).


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VC Investments by Industry

Industry

Volume (No. of Deals) Value (US$ M)

Q3 08 YTD** Q3 08 YTD

IT & ITES

BFSI

Engg & Construction

Healthcare & Life Sciences

Education

Other Services

Manufacturing

Media

Energy

Travel & Transport

Retail

Telecom

25

5

3

6

2

1

2

2

2

1

-

-

58

8

4

12

3

6

2

5

6

2

1

1

147

34

23

4

17

15

13

11

6

4

-

-

361

54

33

52

23

29

13

19

48

14

10

5

* Year to date

Within IT & ITES, Online Services regained its customary top slot from which it had beendisplaced in the immediate previous quarter by Mobile VAS. Apart from TutorVista, otherOnline Services companies like Seventymm, Yatra Online and DimDim also raisedfollow on rounds during the latest quarter.

VC Investments in IT & ITES

IndustryVolume Value (US$ M)

Q3 08 YTD Q3 08 YTD

Online Services

IT Products

Mobile VAS

Enterprise Software

Communications Tech

9

4

2

2

2

21

6

7

6

2

64

23

13

4

18

147

35

64

17

18


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BPO

Security Tech

Semiconductors

IT Services

Embedded Tech

3

1

1

1

-

6

1

2

5

1

18

1

1

6

-

27

1

11

38

3

3. Investment by Stage

About 67% of VC investments during Q3 08 were in the early stage segment. (Seedefinitions at the end of the report).

VC Investments by Stage

Stage of CompanyDevelopment

Volume Value

Q3 08 YTD Q3 08 YTD

Early

Growth

33

16

67

41

172

102

339

322

4. Liquidity Events

Venture Capital firms obtained exit routes for their investments in three companiesduring Q3 08, the largest being ICICI Ventures reported sale of a14% stake in discountretail chain Subhiksha to PremjiInvest, the PE investment vehicle of Wipro ChairmanAzim Premji, for $56 million.

Canbank Ventures-backed IT services firm Iteamic agreed to be acquired by US-basedtechnology consulting company Ciber for an undisclosed amount. Iteamic employs about200 professionals and is expected to report revenues of $7-8 million for fiscal 2009.

Shopping search engine uGenie, backed by BlueRun Ventures, Sierra Ventures andMentor Partners, was acquired by US-based self-publishing marketplace Lulu for anundisclosed amount.

5. Angel Activity Update

Indian Angel Network

The group announced three new investments during Q3 08 including Legal BPO TechLitSolutions, Online Food Ordering firm Hungryzone and Robotics R&D firm Robhatah.

Mumbai Angelshttp://www.mumbaiangels.com


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This group has made news investments in Intrends Skin Solutions, a distributor of internationalcosmetic and beauty products in India; Apalya Technologies, a Mobile VAS firm and M-Tech

Innovations, a provider of innovative printing and manufacturing services.

6. GP Interview

Vani KolaManaging DirectorNEA Indo-US Ventures

NEA-IndoUS Ventures has had a busy 2008 announcing investments in eight companiesacross sectors such as publishing outsourcing (PreMedia Global and Pressmart Media),software for educational institutions (Idenizen), online services (Seventymm), CommunicationsTech (Connectiva Systems and Bay Talkitec), Financial Services outsourcing (Basiz FundServices) and waste recycling (Attero). Venture Intelligences N. Sriram spoke recently to VaniKola to learn more about the firms latest investments and trends in the VC space.

Venture Intelligence: You have announced five investments this quarter. What explainsthe accelerated pace of investments?

Vani Kola: These investments were made on different dates. Its just that the companies thatwe have invested in have come out with press releases and the news got picked up by themedia. We maintain a disciplined and consistent pace of investments. We have not reallyincreased our pace.

VI: Tell us more about Attero Recycling. Has this kind of business been VC-funded

elsewhere?VK: Its the first of its kind in India for sure. This business is pretty much in existence in manycountries in Europe but I cannot confirm whether they have been PE or VC funded. We areexcited about this investment as India doesnt have a proper solution for e-waste management.Nor do we have a proper recycling system for the e-goods that we use.

VI: You seem excited about outsourcing opportunities in the publishing industry. Whatis driving your interest in this sector?

VK: There are certain industries where the cost models are going through radical changes justlike it happened with the IT industry. Publishing is one such space. Even with the advent ofonline news and online consumption of information, publishing still has a strong role to play.

The cost models have changed fundamentally that India, as an enabler in the publishingindustry, will continue to grow as a destination, much the same way as IT did. We are glad thatwe are early in that trend.

VI: Isn't selling to Indian educational institutions a tough business? What excites youabout Idenizen?VK: I agree that selling to educational institutions in India is difficult just in terms of how theyadopt these kinds of solutions but we also understand that there is a need for different kinds ofsolutions in these institutions. What excited us about Idenizen was that they pioneered a veryinteresting business model. It is such that there is no cost to the educational institution at alland the benefit accrues to students if they pro-actively adopt next generation technology andsolutions. The offer that Idenizen makes is that we will bear the investment cost of setting up


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the solution for you as a college and if your students derive value from it, they will subscribe toit.

VI: How does your investment in Basiz Fund Services correlate with the currentenvironment for hedge funds in the US? Is this a play on their being forced to outsourcemore, given the tougher investing and fund-raising environment?VK: It is similar to what we were discussing about publishing. Fund management companiesin the US are facing cost & skills crunch. Cost cutting is where the arbitrage with India can bevery effective. There are many companies in India rendering general purpose financialaccounting services for companies in the US but Basiz is providing specialized accountingservices to fund management companies.

VI: In at least 4 of your investments (Seventymm, Attero Recycling, Pressmart Media,mginger) you have Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) as a co-investor. Is there any specialrelationship with that firm?

VK: Ever since we commenced our operation in India two years ago, we have been activelylooking to find co-investment syndicates because a lot of hard work has to be put into buildingthe companies that we invest in. And if we do that collectively the benefit will accrue to usmutually. And we are open to do that with any investor.

Its just a co-incidence that we have done four back-to-back investments with DFJ. The firmswe were looking at aligned with their strategies and vice versa. We have great respect for DFJ.And we are pleased to be associated with them.

VI: In most of your early investments, you were the first institutional investor. However,in some of your recent investments, you have chosen to follow an investor. Forexample, in PreMedia Global, you have come in after a PE firm like JM Financial.Similarly, in Seventymm, you have followed Matrix and DFJ. Does this point to a change

in strategy?VK: There is no change in strategy. We look at the quality of the investment. We would beglad to be the first institutional investor in a company but if someone else has identified a goodcompany and the opportunity is bright from an investment perspective for us, we would nothave any problem in following them. You cannot always be the first to identify good companies.

VI: Given the turbulence in the airlines sector, how you do view your investment in Via?VK: Vias market-share in the overall pie is small and it has got ample scope to grow. Eventhough there is a slowdown in this aviation sector, there are people to be served who arealways on the look out for cheaper airfares.

VI: Given Vinod Dham's background, we expected NEA-IUV to make some

semiconductor-related investments. Can we expect any investments in this sector in thenear future from your firm?

VK: Its a sector that interests us, but we have not yet found any interesting opportunities. Ifwe find interesting investment opportunities, we have no problem in considering it.

VI: What sectors will you not invest in?

VK: We will not invest in services sectors that have no connection with technology. However ifthere are applied technology solutions in these sectors we will invest.

VI: So even in sectors like education are you looking at technology-related firms?


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VK: There should be understanding on how they are going to leverage technology effectively.If its an education company, we will look at what they will be doing with broadband, e-learning,etc. This should be integral to their strategy.

VI: How do you evaluate a company where the technology is complex?

VK: We have relationships with people who can go deeply into technology to understand theunique differentiators and intellectual property. So if its an IP-based company, they cant go toa better investor than us because we can go deep into it to understand the value proposition.

VI: Do you invest across all stages?

VK: We invest in seed, early and mid to growth stages, though we invest more in early stage.We dont invest in the mezzanine round.

VI: Where is the venture market heading?

VK: In India, the venture market is growing and would continue to grow as long as we createexits. In 3-5 years, we have to see some good exits happen for venture-backed companies inIndia. I dont see any immediate downturn in the Indian venture market.

VI: Is there any regulation change that you think could accelerate activities in the VCmarket?

VK: You dont see the policy makers pro-actively including or reaching out to the burgeoningventure community to understand and encourage so that overall wealth creation can happen.Things like clarity of taxation, ease in incorporation should be taken care of to encouragegrowth in this space. We should also allow for systems that enable easy exit options whiletaking care to ensure that public investors interests are protected.

7. Entrepreneur Interview

Sridhar RajagopalanCo-founder & Managing DirectorEducational Initiatives

Educational Initiatives Co-founder & Managing Director Sridhar Rajagopalan became an

entrepreneur in school education after acquiring a B.Tech from IIT Chennai and a PGDM fromIIM-Ahmedabad followed by a three-year stint at Tata IBM. He was a member of the team thatset up Eklavya School in Ahmedabad in the mid-nineties.

In 2001, along with a few batch-mates from IIMA, Sridhar set up EI with an aim to create aschool education system where children learn with understanding as against the currentlydominant learning by rote. Sridhar firmly believes that this goal can be achieved through a 'forprofit' enterprise focused on assessment tests for children based on research-basedmethodologies.

Ahmedabad-headquartered EI's flagship product ASSET (Assessment of Scholastic Skillsthrough Educational Testing) is a diagnostic test which, instead of trying only to find out how


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much a child knows (or has memorized), measures how well a student has understoodconcepts and gives detailed feedback on the same, to help them improve.

EI recently received Venture Capital from Bangalore-based Footprint Ventures, Chennai-basedIFMR Trust and US-based Novak Biddle Venture Partners. Industrialist Gautam Thapar hasalso invested in his personal capacity. Sridhar shares his views on education as an enterprisein a conversation with Venture Intelligences N. Sriram. Excerpts:

Venture Intelligence: Are you planning to get into segments beyond assessment? Or willyou stick to assessment and go for a larger footprint?

Sridhar Rajagopalan: We will develop products and services based on research andassessment that will do three things: one, measure how children are learning; two, gain andshare insights and information about the learning process understanding what children learnand what they do not and why, etc; three, improved self-learning. In the third area, we have justlaunched a product called Mindspark. If a child spends the recommended t ime on Mindspark

every day, learning does happen on its own. Mindspark is able to do that because it is aresearch-based product.

We plan to develop deeper expertise in the crucial but much neglected area of assessmentand develop products. Our research into assessment gives insights into learning. Some of theproducts might look like learning products but they come out of our expertise in assessment.So we will stay in assessment in K-12.

VI: Will your assessment products evolve as parallels to exams by boards like CBSE orICSE?

SR: We are working with CBSE. They invited us to see how critical thinking skills can be builtin CBSE and if the board can do an assessment and get back to schools and teachers onareas of weaknesses and strengths of the children in a school.

VI: Education appears a hot sector for investors. But is there a gap between where themoney is actually needed and where the money is going?

SR: There is a gap because there isnt a great understanding and also because most playersare looking at short term returns. The real win-win will come when we look at these two thingstogether: what is going to fundamentally make a difference and what is the value-add we canmake there?

But things are beginning to happen. Intelligent people are becoming interested in the issues.Many people from top institutes such as IITs and IIMs are getting into education.

Today, if someone is trying to better science in schools, he wont get much venture funding.

This may change in the next 3-4 years. But interestingly, when you work on fundamentals, ifone product doesnt work, your fundamental work is strong enough to modify it into somethingelse. In contrast, if you are investing in tutorials, if that is not working, you look elsewhere tosee what the in-thing is.

VI: Does the Indian education segment have a global role?

SR: I think India has the opportunity to be a global leader in providing educational services. Iam surprised that despite our short experience, we are doing things which others elsewhere inthe world are not doing. We already have global customers for our products and services.

VI: Do your investors share your vision?


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SR: Even in an area like this, the commercial model is the best. We ourselves have set fairlyrigorous business targets. For a product like Mindspark, a year before it launched, we decidedhow much business we want to do in the third year. It is not like we will start Mindspark and

see how many we can sell. I dont think that works. We explain to investors what we are tryingto do, why we are trying to and what the larger vision is. We need to recognize that investorsare looking for returns on their money. And we need to better that.

VI: Can we say that your enterprise is a proof of concept for good education being aprofitable enterprise?

SR: I strongly believe in that. I also think that For Profit schools should be allowed to run.However, profit should not be the direct motive. Innovation and quality should be. Profits willcertainly follow.

VI: What have been the key contribution of your investors?

SR:There has been value addition in a number of ways. For example, we are now measuringstickiness very carefully measuring factors like what is the number of children who are taking

ASSET year after year? very carefully. For example, we have been told that for a product likeMindspark, one of the best markets would be South Korea. Whether or not you do thosethings, thinking on those lines helps. And issues like how education companies have moved inthe US, what they have done right and what they have done wrongour investors help us withperspectives on these issues.

VI: What is your advice to entrepreneurs in education?

SR: Be very clear about the fundamental goals that you are working towards. Do a very, verystrong job on that. And dont compromise on that. Look at the profit as secondary to the basicgoals you are trying to achieve. We have rejected commercial propositions that were not intune with our basic objectives. I think it is important for businesses to draw the line and declare

that we want to do the right things, the right way. At every step, check if that is in tune with yourobjective. Would your companys existence help the larger world? If your answer is, yes, itwould, then you could be probably on the right side.

VI: Do you have any role model?

SR: Vikram Sarabhai. He was a great institution builder. He set up IIMA and was the father ofIndias space research programme. He was also a businessman. He comes the closest to asource of inspiration.

VI: Your key learning in running a business so far?

SR: Learn from failures. Look at Microsoft Office. It is a successful product. I remember the

first product they released. It was absolutely terrible. But they persisted. Think of an idea,persist with it. You will always have successes and failures. Work through the failures and tryand get things right. In any business, you will have successes and failures in fairly uniformmeasure. The key question is whether you can learn and align your learning with the largergoal.

Secondly, people are critical. You basically work through people to get to the goals.


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Appendix 1:

Definitions of Stages-of-company-development

Venture Capital investments are classified into the following categories in this report.

Early Stage:First / Second Round of institutional investments into companies that are:1) Less than five years old, AND2) Not part of a larger business group, AND3) Investment amount is less than $20 M

Growth Stage:1) Third / Fourth Round funding of institutional investments OR2) First/Second Round of institutional investments for companies 5-10 years old OR

spin-outs from larger businesses, AND

3) Investment amount is less than $20 M

Appendix 2:

VC Investments*

Company SectorAmount(US$ M)

Investors

TutorVista Online Services(Remote Tutoring)

18 Sequoia Capital India,Lightspeed Ventures

Connectiva Systems Communications Tech(Revenue Assurance)

17 NEA-IUV, SAP Ventures, IFC, Others

Seventymm Online Services(Video Rental)

12 NEA-IUV, ePlanet Ventures, DFJ,Matrix Partners India

Equitas Micro Finance Microfinance 12 Bellwether, Others

HaloSource Water Purifiers 11.5 Origo Sino-India, Unilever Tech Ventures

Webaroo Mobile VAS 11 Helion Ventures, Charles River Ventures

Bumi Geo Engineering Geo-EngineeringServices

10 Alcazar Capital

iYogi BPO (Remote Support) 9.5 SAP Ventures, Canaan Partners, SVB,Others

SureWaves IT Products(OOH Media)

8 Cisco, Reliance Technology Ventures,Artiman Ventures

Tree House Education Pre-Schools 7 Matrix Partners India


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Investors

A Little World IT Products

(Micro-banking Devices)

7 Bellwether, Legatum Ventures

Sai SudhirInfrastructures

Infrastructure 7 BTS India

Attero Recycling E-waste Management 6.3 DFJ, NEA-IUV

DimDim Online Services(Conferencing)

6 Nexus India Capital, others

Yatra Online Online Services(Travel)

6 Intel Capital

BuzzInTown.com Online Services

(Social Networking)

6 Intel Capital

Emnet Samsara Media Out-of-Home Media 6 Intel Capital

UnitedLex BPO (Legal) 6 Helion Ventures, Canaan Partners

Pressmart Media IT Service(Digital Publishing)

6 DFJ, NEA-IUV

Unitus Capital Financial Advisory 5.5 Others, WEGA Support

Ideacts Innovations Online Services

(Advertising)

5 Sequoia Capital India

HummingBird Suite Travel Services(Business)

4 Helion Ventures

Atyati IT Products(Banking)

2.5 VenturEast

Idenizen Smartware Enterprise Software(Education)

2.25 NEA-IUV

Basiz Fund Services BPO 2 NEA-IUV

TeliBrahma Mobile VAS 2 Ojas Ventures, Inventus Capital

LatticeBridge Infotech Enterprise Software(Voice recognition)

2 VenturEast, Others

Richcore Lifesciences Biotech 1.25 VenturEast

Cecilia Healthcare Health insurance 1.05 APIDC Biotech

Global Easy Water Irrigation Equipment 1 Acumen Fund


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Investors

Lifeblob Online Services

(Digital Diary)

1 Seedfund

Mango Technologies Communications Tech Ojas Ventures

PegasusSemiconductors

Semiconductors(LED Chips)

1 GVFL

AuthWave Tech Security Tech 1 NEA

Marillion Pharma Biotech (Anti-cancer) VenturEast/APIDC Biotech

Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy Chain VenturEast/APIDC Biotech

iMedX Info. Services BPO (Healthcare) VenturEast/APIDC Biotech

Evolva Biotech Biotech VenturEast/APIDC Biotech

Mardil Medical Devices Medical Devices VenturEast/APIDC Biotech

Sedemac Mechatronics Energy EfficiencyProducts

Nexus India Capital

Suvidhaa Infoserve Information Kiosks Norwest, Reliance Technology Ventures

Ubona Technologies IT Products

(Speech Recognition)

Capital18

Catura Systems Online Services(Education)

DFJ

Arohan FinancialServices

Microfinance Lok Capital , Others

Asomi Finance Microfinance IFC, Aavishkaar Goodwell

Suvidhaa Infoserve Information Kiosks Norwest, Reliance Technology Ventures

Ubona Technologies IT Products

(Speech Recognition)

Capital18

D Light Design Rural Lighting Products DFJ, Nexus India Capital, Acumen Fund,Others

IIJT Vocational education Tiger Capital

Undisclosed Online Services Nexus India Capital

Undisclosed Media Nexus India Capital

* Publicly disclosed during the period


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Appendix 3:

VC Exits via M&A

Company Sector Month AcquirerAmount(US$ M) VC Investors

Subhiksha

Iteamic

Ugenie

Discount Retail

IT Services

ShoppingSearch Engine

Sep-08

Sep-08

Aug-08

PremjiInvest

Ciber

Lulu

56

-

-

ICICI Venture

Canbank Ventures

BlueRun Ventures,Sierra Ventures,Mentor Partners

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This report is brought to you by the Venture Intelligence division of TSJ Media PrivateLimited. Visit http://www.ventureintelligence.in for more information. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Note: The above analysis is based on publicly announced / reported deals and data collected from Venture Capital firms.The Venture Intelligence data is updated continuously and is therefore subject to change at any time. US-IVCA andVenture Intelligence do not represent, endorse or guarantee the accuracy or reliability of this data. This report is meantsolely for informational purposes, not for trading purposes or advice. US-IVCA and Venture Intelligence are notresponsible for decisions, damages or other losses resulting from the use of the Information.

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