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Reliance Technology Ventures Limited (RTVL), the corporate venture capital arm of the Reliance ADA Group, has directed the investment of an undisclosed amount in Pelago, Inc. RTVL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Capital Ltd. Pelago offers a new break-through mobile and Web-based service that is at the intersection of social networking and local discovery. The service is offered under the brand name â€کWhrrl’. The Whrrl service catalogs peoples’ activities, chronicling an individual’s history of places visited and events attended through icons pinpointed on Whrrl’s built-in mapping application. Whrrl users and their friends can then rate, review, and comment on these places and events. Whrrl shares user-contributed information with others through a real-time micro-blogging feature called the “Whrrld Feed.†Whrrl users check in via SMS, the Whrrl mobile application, or the Whrrl Web site, instantly updating others on their location or status through their Whrrld Feed. Whrrl’s “passive visitization” technology can precisely detect if a person is walking into a store or merely walking by. […]
According to industry sources, Warburg holds stake in WNS, an India-based BPO listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It also holds stake in Metvante Investments(Mauritius), which holds a little over 20% stake in Firstsource. Industry players are speculating Warburg could talk to Metvante to buy out its 20% stake in Firstsouce. The next step would be to go for an open offer. And in case the open offer is successful, Warburg could propose a merger of Firstsource and WNS, in the process create a BPO giant. Warburg Pincus is the majority shareholder in WNS. A senior official at ICICI Bank said that the bank, which as a promoter holds nearly 27% in Firstsource, can not sell more than 5% in the BPO till August 2010. This is because, Firstsource went public last year and as promoters, part of ICICI Bank's holding are under a three year lock-in clause. […]
proposed deal between South Africa's MTN Group and India's Reliance Communications may result in a transfer of Chairman Anil Ambani's two-thirds stake in the Indian firm to MTN, the Economic Times said on Tuesday, citing sources. That would trigger an open offer from MTN for another 20 percent of Reliance Communications, as Indian law mandates such an offer to shareholders after an acquisition of more than 15 percent of a company. MTN would become a holding company of India's No. 2 mobile operator, and Ambani would in return get around a third in the South African firm, and keep an indirect holding of nearly 20 percent in Reliance Communications, the paper said, citing sources. The transaction would be a share-swap deal, the paper said, with the offer to minority shareholders in cash. […]
Global and Indian venture capital firms are continuing to have faith in the India market unperturbed by the global economic uncertainties. While the US-based Mayfield Ventures is said to be in the process of raising $150 million, India's Gaja Capital Partners have initiated the process for a $200 million fund. The appetite to absorb these funds in India is growing given the fact that $3.3 billion was invested here across close to 100 deals during the first three months of 2008, showing a growth of 22 per cent over the corresponding period of 2007. “Despite the turmoil in the global financial markets, PE investments during this period registered a growth over the corresponding period in 2007 thanks to a spurt in deals in the ‘late stage' segment which accounted for 60 per cent of the amount invested,” noted Arun Natarajan, Founder & CEO of Venture Intelligence, a venture research firm. “While the steep decline in public markets is leading Indian companies to adopt a wait-and-watch stance vis-à-vis their fund-raising plans, in the medium term, the correction is likely to favour private equity emerging as an attractive alternative,” he added. […]
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