Nexus India Capital has closed a US$100 mil. venture cap fund to invest in a number of sectors including media, communications and technology. The fund and its portfolio companies will be advised by entrepreneurs and investors in the technology, media, outsourced services, retail and consumer sectors. The founders of the fund and its advisory companies include Naren Gupta, Sandeep Singhal, Suvir Sujan and Intel senior executive Bill Davidow. Baazee.com co-founder Sujan said, "Smart entrepreneurs realize that they need more than just money. We are successful entrepreneurs who have founded, built and exited companies successfully in the technology, services and consumer arenas. Our entire team of advisors in India and Silicon Valley is accessible to all the entrepreneurs we back for support on strategy, operations, organizational building, sales amongst others."   more »

Canaan Partners, the two-decade old, US-based early stage venture capital firm with $2.5 billion under management is planning to raise its eighth fund, targeting a corpus of $650 million. The seventh fund from which the VC is presently investing is $450 million. The company, which styles itself as venture catalysts, has been increasing its exposure in India and has so far understood to have committed close to $50 million in four companies during the past year and half, including investment in BharatMatrimony.com and techtribe.com Canaan India head Alok Mittal confirmed that Canaan is in the process of a new fund of around $650 million and added that the India team is being expanded to handle the hike in the deal flows. “We do not have a target of how much we will have to invest in India, but we are certainly looking for more opportunities,” Mittal added. The move by Canaan to raise its next round comes close on the heels of venture firms like Matrix India Partners, Sandalwood   more »

The Iceland-based investment bank, Askar Capital on Tuesday said it has plans to float a $500 million private equity (PE) fund with Nikhil Gandhi-promoted Sea King Infrastructure (SKIL). Both Askar Capital and SKIL will hold 50% stake each in the fund. Askar Capital, CEO, Tryggvi Herbertsson, said the fund would capitalise on a diverse and exciting range of investment opportunities in India and the wider South-East Asian Region. Both firms will contribute to managing private equity investments. The private equity platform will operate within a multi-sector framework, looking to aggressively commit capital in particular to small-and medium-sized enterprises. Both Askar Capital and SKIL have already identified a healthy pipeline of investment opportunities in the region. “Private equity is a core business area for Askar Capital globally. Our investment strategy in India will primarily be in the domain of real estate, infrastructure and private equity. Our fund with the SKIL group is a step to move in this direction. The setting up of this private equity platform in India is another important step for us in growing our business in this region,” Mr Herbertsson said.   more »

Amit Bhatia, son-in-law of Arcelor Mittal chief LN Mittal, is negotiating with three Indian private equity funds for a sizeable stake as per its larger plans of stepping up investments in India. One of the funds he is negotiating with is run by a prominent Indian business family. The investments in India would be made through his PE fund Swordfish Investments and hedge fund Swordfish Capital Management. “We are very close to picking up a very substantial stake in an Indian fund, which we would also co-manage. I plan to close this deal by the end of this year and hope that it will propel me into a role of actively managing a fund in India. I am keen on picking up this stake because I would like to have a direct role in taking decisions and not just playing the role of a silent investor,” Mr Bhatia told ET in an exclusive interview. The deal would also provide Mr Bhatia a foothold in the Indian market and help him launch the group’s operations here. He is of the opinion that the Indian market is very attractive right now given the fact that the US and the European markets are showing signs of slowing down.   more »

ING Investment Management India has launched a global real estate fund that will invest in REITs and real estate operating companies abroad. It is an open-ended feeder fund that will primarily invest in Cayman Islands and is registered as ING Global Real Estate Securities Fund. The fund will invest in global property markets. ING Clarion Real Estate Securities will be sub-advisor to the fund. The fund will have a large allocation to Asia-Pacific followed by North America and Europe. In selecting investments for the fund, the investment manager seeks out companies that derive at least 50 per cent of their total revenues or earnings from owning, operating, developing and/or managing real estate.   more »

E-governance services firm Comat Technologies has raised about $8-10 million from Avigo Capital in its second round of funding. Earlier this year, the firm had raised around $4 million from Intel Capital in what was the chipmaker’s first strategic investment in the e-governance space. Mauritius-based Avigo Capital Partners (Avigo) is an independent private equity firm with a focus on investments in the SME sector in India. Its earlier investments have been primarily in traditional sectors and portfolio companies including Tecpro Systems, Privi Organics, Get Engineering & Construction and Spykar Lifestyles. Comat Technologies president Sriram Raghavan told ET: “The money will be used mainly for setting up of e-governance kiosks and platform innovation.” Investment bank 03 Capital advised Comat in sealing up the transaction. It is learnt that the latest fund raising values Comat at $70-80 million. Comat is believed to have a turnover of around $10-15 million.   more »

Baer Capital Partners, a Dubai-based funds management company, plans to raise $500 million to invest in real estate and infrastructure in India, the world's fastest growing major economy after China. The firm will begin investing in India in the second quarter of next year after tapping investors outside India in early 2008, Alok Sama, president of Baer Capital, said in an interview in Mumbai. ``It's critical for India's economic development that infrastructure is increased sharply,'' said Pauli Laursen, who manages $800 million at Sydinvest Asset Management at Aabenraa in Denmark and holds shares of Indian companies including Larsen & Toubro Ltd. and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd. ``India needs money from all over for its infrastructure.'' India requires half a trillion dollars of investment in infrastructure including roads and power plants during the next five years as it aims to lift growth in its $906 billion economy to 10 percent by 2012. Baer Capital joins JPMorgan Chase & Co., 3i Group, Blackstone Group and Citigroup Inc. in planning to invest funds from overseas in Indian companies building roads, ports and electricity plants.   more »

Private equity firm Blackstone Group is looking to invest more than $1 billion in India over the next two years, the Economic Times said on Friday, citing the firm's country head. "We may make investments of $500-$600 million per year, and in two years may invest more than $1 billion dollars," Akhil Gupta, chairman of Blackstone India, told the paper. "We are already much ahead of our target of $1 billion in five years and if we continue to find deals, then the allocation for India would also continue to increase," he was quoted as saying. Blackstone, which recently paid $65 million for a reported 26 percent stake in Indian engineering firm MTAR Technologies, has said it had a huge pipeline of deals in India. It has made a series of investments this year, including in apparel firm Gokaldas Exports, $150 million in Nagarjuna Construction Co Ltd and $275 million in regional media firm Ushodaya Enterprises Ltd. (Reporting by Rina Chandran; Editing by Ranjit Gangadharan) (Reuters)   more »

New York-based, India-focused real estate investment company Trikona Capital, plans to raise a Rs1,500 crore domestic fund. Trikona’s co-founder and managing director Ashish Kalra said the fund would be “by-invitation-only” with “a minimum ticket size of Rs25 crore.” It will invest in residential and commercial properties. The fund, which is to be launched in December, will be the largest rupee-denominated real estate fund to be raised so far. Kotak Realty recently closed its domestic realty fund at Rs1,200 crore. Trikona Capital president Mahesh Gandhi said the fund would be deployed in the company’s second series of investments in India. Trikona also plans to launch a $1 billion (Rs3,940 crore) infrastructure fund. Trikona raised its first fund of £250 million (Rs2,032.5 crore) in April 2006 on the London Stock Exchange’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) and has completely invested this.   more »

Bangalore-based venture capital firm Footprint Ventures will focus one-third of its investments on exploiting the India-US-Israel triangle. The firm will invest directly into Israeli technology firms and set up new companies in India that would have exclusive rights to the technology and distribution here and in other developing markets. Success will ride on the firm’s co-founder Neill Brownstein, who also co-founded Silicon Valley-based, long-standing venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners, and founded Novak-Biddle Venture Fund. The other co-founders are Linda Brownstein, Josh Bornstein and Shalini Elassery. “We are looking to accelerate industrial technology’s entry into India,” says Brownstein. This Israel-India route is yet to be exploited by funds in India. Footprint’s strategy also demonstrates the deepening interest from abroad in exploiting India’s domestic market, as opposed to taking advantage of just the low costs here, and private equity’s role in it. Brownstein would not disclose the size of the fund, saying, “We are backed by well-healed investors.”   more »