Chennai-based startup Metroplots Pvt Ltd, which runs property transaction portal Metroplots.com, has raised its second round of angel funding from existing investors who are members of Chennai Angels, as well as fromVardhman Jain, a new investor. Although the quantum of investments could not be immediately ascertained, it is believed to be less than $1 million. “The funds will be primarily used to set up branches in Bangalore, Delhi-NCR and Mumbai. We have already opened our branches in Bangalore and NCR, and will be setting up shop in Mumbai soon. We will also use the capital to increase our team ...

Indian media group Network 18 is moving towards a US listing of its wholly owned online retail arm, HomeShop18, that could raise about $100 million, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said. The group is in talks with institutional investors, including private equity firms, to take up shares as part of the listing plan, said the sources, who declined to be identified as the talks are not yet public. “The process has just begun. We are in talks with bankers and investors,” said one of the sources. Indian online retail firms are raising capital to position themselves for ...

Mitsui & Co. Global Investment Ltd (Mitsui Global Investment), the private equity arm of the Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co., Ltd, has opened an India office in Mumbai and set up MGI Group India Pvt Ltd, which will build a local team and invest across several sectors. Mitsui Global Investment will hold 95 per cent stake in the India arm while the rest 5 per cent will be held by its parent firm Mitsui & Co, according to a statement issued today. Mitsui Global Investment comes under Mitsui & Co’s financial & new business unit and it has appointed managing director Tetsuya Koide as ...

Hyderabad-based skills development and training company TalentSprint Educational Services has raised Rs 20 crore ($4 million) in series A funding from Nexus Venture Partners. As part of the investment, Anup Gupta, managing director of Nexus Venture Partners, will join the company’s board. Co-founded by Madhumurty Ronanki, Santanu Paul, and JA Chowdary in 2009, TalentSprint offers employability programmes to professionals using experiential learning and iPEARL, its technology platform in the IT and BFSI sector. The programs offered are delivered to students during or after-college to make them job ready as separate from academic learning. Santanu Paul, CEO and managing director ...

Bollywood films producer and distributor Eros International Plc is acquiring the remaining 76 per cent stake it does not own in the digital broadcasting firm B4U Television Network in a cash-plus-stock deal worth $53.1 million (Rs 270 crore). Eros International Plc, which is promoted by the Lulla family, is listed on London’s AIM exchange and is the parent firm of the Indian public company Eros International Media Ltd. B4U was formed as a media joint venture between billionaire steel baron Lakshmi Mittal, Gokul Binnai and the Lulla family. Currently, the Mittals and the Binanis are reportedly the majority ...

Avigo Capital Partners has roped in Mahendra Swarup as a partner for the SME-focused mid-market private equity fund manager. He currently serves as the president and the member of the executive committee of Indian Venture Capital Association, a national organisation representing venture capital and private equity firms. He will be the third partner at Avigo Capital, besides founding partner Achal Ghai and general partner S. Harikrishnan, who is currently leading all mid-market investments for the firm. Swarup is expected to join the PE firm’s Delhi office in May. Swarup has over 30 years of experience in operations, sales & distribution ...

Publicis Groupe, a French MNC specialising in advertising and communications, has acquired Mumbai-based full-service digital agency Indigo Consulting for an undisclosed amount. Consequently, Indigo will operate as a unit within one of its advertising agencies – the Leo Burnett Group – and retain its name. Indigo's founder Vikas Tandon will remain the MD and report to Arvind Sharma, chairman (Indian subcontinent) of Leo Burnett. Set up in 2000, Indigo Consulting employs a team of 160 at its Mumbai headquarters and Delhi office. The company provides a slew of services like website design and development, search engine optimisation, usability research & testing, and ...

The Chernin Group, the entertainment and digital media company Peter Chernin founded after leaving News Corp in 2009, has secured about $200m in new funds from a group of investors led by Providence Equity Partners, one of the sector’s most prominent private equity groups. Mr Chernin, who spent 12 years as Rupert Murdoch’s closest lieutenant, said the new partnership would have the resources to pursue “any deal of any size” around the world, from making multibillion-dollar bids to incubating start-ups. Its first potential deals were “very close” and could be announced within weeks, he said. He and Jonathan ...

 Real estate marketing services startup PropTiger Realty Private Limited which runs an online platform PropTiger.com has raised Rs 25 crore (~$5 million) in second round of funding from SAIF Partners and Accel Partners.  This follows an earlier round of funding by few HNIs last year. PropTiger was created in February 2011 by Dhruv Agarwala, Kartik Varma and Prashan Agarwal. Agarwala and Varma are classmates from Harvard Business School who had previously built iTrust Financial Advisors, a mass-market wealth management business, that they subsequently sold to the Karvy Group. Prashan is an alumnus of IIT Kanpur and ISB, Hyderabad who ...

DE Shaw Reviews India Plan, Lays Off Staff - The DE Shaw group, one of the world's largest hedge funds, is reviewing its India play. The fund, which launched its private equity business in the country in 2006, has exited about 60% of its investments in Indian companies. It has also put plans to launch an India-dedicated fund on the backburner, and has laid off some employees from its local unit. (Economic Times) Bain Capital, TPG To Make Lilliput Interim Audit Public - Private equity investors Bain Capital and TPG, embroiled in a legal battle with the owner of investee company ...

Private equity firm Actis and UK-based development finance institution CDC Group have exited their nine-year old investment in commercial vehicle maker SML Isuzu Ltd. The two investors sold their combined 12.33 per cent stake for Rs 73.15 crore ($14 million) in SML Isuzu, which was earlier known as Swaraj Mazda Ltd. Shares of SML Isuzu closed flat at Rs 410 after moving up to Rs 415.05 during intra-day trade on the BSE on Thursday. The company is currently valued at Rs 594.5 crore. Actis Agribusiness Ltd and CDC Financial Services (Mauritius) Ltd sold their stakes at ...

Bangalore-based Padma Infocom Pvt Ltd owned ExamsGuru.in has raised Rs 15 lakh ($30,000) in angel funding from Simarjit Singh Khera, who is currently working at Gurucool Online Learning Solutions. Khera, according to his profile on Linkedin, has also worked at Frost & Sullivan as the director of healthcare for the APAC region and just before joining Gurucool, was working at a pharmaceutical company called Quintiles Transnational. Although operational, ExamsGuru portal is currently in the final stages of development and will soon be out with all its features. The company was founded in December 2009 by Rahul Jain, Vikas Jain ...

Myshaadi.in, an online portal that offers wedding related services, has raised its first round of funding from Indian Angel Network (IAN). The investors include active angel investors Rajan Anandan, Sunil Kalra, Ashim Mehra and Rehan Yar Khan. The financials details of the deal were not disclosed but Rehan Yar Khan will join the board of directors of Myshaadi.in. Founded by Abhishek Jain, Myshaadi.in offers a host of wedding related services like personalised wedding sites, wedding event planning, budget calculator, shopping list, to do list, etc. The website also has a blogging section that talks about the latest ...

Future Supply Chains, India's largest supply chain company, plans to raise a second round of private equity funding to diversify into new consumer-driven sectors as retail growth in the country shows signs of moderation. The company, part of the Future Group, which runs the country's top retailer Pantaloon Retail, earns most of its revenue providing services to affiliated companies such as the Big Bazaar hypermarket chain. "Retail industry's expansion plans in the past 1-2 years have been witnessing a scale-down," Chief Executive Anshuman Singh told Reuters. "So we identified drivers of growth in the consumer-driven sectors instead ...

The mandate of a private equity investor is to produce higher risk-adjusted returns and this is where PE firms should be judged harshly. And Investing in a high growth economy like India should ideally make job simpler for investors. However, a host of structural issues are marring the potential to translate the high GDP growth into high returns. These concerns are worrisome as India’s attractiveness has plummeted in the minds of international investors. An industry veteran and senior partner at Baring Private Equity International, Rahul Bhasin throws light on such on-the-ground issues which PE firms are grappling with. Baring ...

Essar In Talks With Bain, KKR To Sell Aegis BPO - Diversified conglomerate Essar Group is considering a sale of its billion-dollar business process outsourcing (BPO) company Aegis, after receiving non-binding offers from private equity giants. Bain Capital and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co (KKR), among others, have been in discussions to buy out Aegis, which is the second largest independent back office firm after Genpact. Essar has appointed Standard Chartered Bank as adviser to a possible sale of Aegis, which is tracking $1-billion revenue in the current fiscal. (Times of India) Tata Drops Out Of Cable & Wireless Bid - Tata Communications has ...

If you missed out on this bit of news last weekend in the midst of all the talk about Facebook’s billion dollar deal with Instagram, here’s a recap. Facebook has struck another deal to buy a customer-loyalty near field communication (NFC) application Tagtile developed by two IITians working in the US. Developed by two Abheek Anand and Soham Majumdar it is basically a customer loyalty service which works with merchants to know what customers wants and retaining them. Anand was working with Engine Yard, a cloud computing startup, whereas, Mazumdar was working with Google as a software engineer ...

Serial entrepreneur Ashok Soota’s one year old IT services venture Happiest Minds Technologies has brought in around half a dozen individuals including two members who are part of its investor group to form an advisory board. These include three expats Rod Hefford, Mittu Sridhara and David Webb. Hefford is currently vice president of IT for Unilever and is responsible for all customer development and supply chain systems globally. He has more than 20 years industry experience including significant roles in Asia, Africa and Europe. UK-based Sridhara will be joining TUI Travel PLC as CIO and a member of the ...

Internet Broadcasting Corp (IBC), a US-based internet protocol television (IPTV) services startup dealing with Bollywood and other South Asian content, has raised Rs 2.5 crore ($0.5 million) in a series A round of funding from its existing investor Silver Stone Capital and also from four angel investors who are based in Washington D.C. The two-year-old firm will use the fund to roll out its services under Vibble TV and start its operations in the US market next month. The latest round is part of a larger funding round of $2 million of which $1.5 million is ...

IntelleGrow is a unique SME lending business in India which supports small & medium enterprises in the energy & infrastructure sectors to grow through commercial debt provision (under 2 crores/loan). The business started in 2010 and has lent to 12 companies to-date. The facility specifically targets small businesses that are unable to be served by banks, comprising the “missing middle” asset class.   After a successful 14 months in operation, we are seeking a Head of Business Development. This is a highly entrepreneurial role working for a fast-growing early stage organisation in a start-up environment, with overall responsibility for the growth of ...

IntelleGrow is a unique SME lending business in India which supports small & medium enterprises in the energy & infrastructure sectors to grow through commercial debt provision (under 2 crores/loan). The business started in 2010 and has lent to 12 companies to-date. The facility specifically targets small businesses that are unable to be served by banks, comprising the “missing middle” asset class.   After a successful 14 months in operation, we are seeking a Head of Business Development. This is a highly entrepreneurial role working for a fast-growing early stage organisation in a start-up environment, with overall responsibility for the growth of ...

Hindujas To Launch $500M Infra Fund - The Hindujas plan to launch a fund focused only on investments in infrastructure projects. The diversified group has plans to launch a $500-million (Rs 2500 crore) India-focused infrastructure fund by this year. The group itself would invest about 25 per cent of the fund. The Hindujas will look at investments across the areas including roads, ports and power sectors. (Business Standard) Lok Capital Eyes Exit From Janalakshmi - Lok Capital, a venture fund that invests in social enterprises, is preparing to exit from its investment Janalakshmi Financial Services, an urban microfinance company. The Bangalore-based company ...

Warburg Pincus-backed diversified firm Max India is acquiring a group firm which will develop senior home living projects. Max India will pump in Rs 240 crore ($47 million) in the firm as part of its business expansion plan. Analjit Singh-led Max India, which is into healthcare services, insurance and other businesses, will buy the firm from the promoter Antara Senior Living Pvt Ltd at par value of Rs 1 lakh and then invest afresh to build its operations. The senior living project will encompass properties for independent living with nursing and other human care services, besides social, educational, devotional and ...

Ajay Piramal Set To Buy European Drug Firm - The Ajay Piramal Group is set to buy a European drug firm that will expand the group's ability to conduct basic pharmaceutical research, a weakness that has long hobbled Indian pharma companies. The firm, whose identity is not known, will help the Piramal Group do basic research in collaboration with universities and public institutes. Piramal is expected to pay $50-100 million for the firm. (Economic Times) Sahara, ICICI Bank, Bharti In Fray For Parsvnath Land - Sahara Group, ICICI Bank, Bhushan Steel, Bharti Realty, Red Fort Capital and Shri Lal Mahal are ...