Subhkam Growth Fund I, the maiden Domestic Fund from Subhkam Ventures, has made an investment in Nicheken Technologies Pvt. Ltd. The investment will be the first round of growth capital, and will provide Subhkam a substantial minority stake in the Company. Nicheken is promoted by two distinguished technocrats, Dr. M.V. Pitke and Dr. T. Chandrasekaran. Nicheken, a technology oriented company, specializes in the areas of telecommunications and power electronics. The Company focuses on creating cost effective innovative add-ons to the existing equipment which have the impact of reducing the overall cost in the eco system, either by decreasing the incremental capex requirement or by improving the efficiency. Mr. Rakesh S Kathotia Chairman, Subhkam Ventures said, “with the ever increasing appetite for telecom bandwidth and power and the inherent redundancy of such infrastructure equipment (due to technology upgradation), the need for cost effective add-ons, which enhance the efficiency and life of critical equipment, is immense. Such cost effective equipments could also be a great enabler in fulfilling the government’s objective of providing telecom and power in each nook and corner of India.” […]

Evolvence Capital announced Thursday that it was planning to launch another India fund for a number of selected investments. According to the Dubai headquartered private equity company, it is planning to launch the fund named “Evolvence India Fund II” in the country and will raise the money from both institutional investors and high net worth clients globally. The announcement further outlined that the fund will be utilized for particular chosen investments in the mid-market growth capital division for the Indian private equity market and will be undertaken via both joint and direct investments. Evolvence’s latest fund is the third in a line of funds the Arabian company has launched geared for India. Its introductory fund was undertaken back in 2007 with the launch of Evolvence India Fund I that was about 250 million dollars. The company’s second fund was launched in the year 2008 and was named the Evolvence India Life Sciences Fund meant to support investments in the life sciences and healthcare sector. Further more, the fund will target diversified growth and will comprise a fund of funds at the 400 million dollars and will also target investments in high quality PE fund managers and already well grounded entrepreneurs in the country. […]

Tata Capital, a subsidiary of Tata Sons, is planning to raise $1 billion for its private equity business by December 2011, said Praveen P Kadle, managing director and chief executive officer said on Wednesday. The company has already closed the first tranche worth $200 million on the domestic side. “We have started the international fundraising process this month. In due course, we will talk more about this. Going by the initial feedback, we have got a good response from international investors,” Kadle said. The company has tied-up with Mizuho Bank of Japan for its growth fund. Tata Capital also has a healthcare fund for which they have tied up with Swiss firm HBM Partners. Besides these, the company also has a special situation fund, which helps to meet capital requirements of some stressed companies and an innovation fund to finance new technology ideas which can become big success, Kadle said. […]

A $100 million ($38.5m) Oman-India joint investment fund will soon become a reality with the two countries set to sign the final agreement this week. The Sultanate's Minister of National Economy and Deputy Chairman of the Financial Affairs and Energy Resources Council Ahmed bin Abdulnabi Macki will sign the pact with his Indian counterpart during his visit to New Delhi between July 13 and 15. The fund is expected to provide the much-needed fillip to bilateral investment and trade, an Indian Embassy press release has said. A memorandum of understanding to set up India-Oman Joint Investment Fund was signed between the two countries during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to Oman in November 2008. Although the initial corpus is $100 million, this can go up to $1.5 billion later. The State General Reserve Fund of Oman and State Bank of India will contribute the corpus money from Oman and India, respectively. […]

India's largest private-sector lender ICICI Bank said its private equity arm–ICICI Venture Capital Fund—-would set up an infrastructure equity fund. It had also called for measures to enable higher infrastructure financing by banks, say reports. On the sidelines of a conference on state highways on Monday in New Delhi, ICICI Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director Chanda Kochhar said infrastructural lending by banks had risen to $67 billion from $2 billion in the last 10 years, adding that the debt requirement could be as high as $500 billion during the 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17). ICICI Bank has advanced Rs.12,000 crore for state highway projects since its inception 55 years ago. Of this, its own money was Rs.5,000 crore and the rest was secured through syndication with other banks, she said. […]