Venture investments defy gravity

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: If dismal quarterly results and hammered stocks are painting a bleak picture of the tech sector, here is the proverbial silver lining. Venture capitalists (VCs) are surprisingly upbeat. Last week alone, five companies in India have raised funds from VCs like Intel Capital, SAP Ventures, Canaan Partners, Helion Venture Partners and SVB India Capital Partners (venture fund affiliate of Silicon Valley Bank).

“There is a lot of money chasing good technology stories,” according to the promoters of companies like iYogi and United Lex who have just raised money. While iYogi raised $9.5 million in Series B financing from SAP Ventures, Canaan Partners and SVB India Capital Partners; United Lex raised $6 million.

And so far data bears that out. In an otherwise tough economic environment, VC investments in the first half of 2008 are broadly at par with the numbers last year. In the six months to June, VC firms invested $340 million in 51 deals compared with $363 million in 55 deals in the same period last year, according to VC tracking firm, Venture Intelligence. Other investors, however, have not been able to weather the slowdown.

Private equity (PE) deals, for one, have shrunk to almost half in the first half of 2008. The total value of deals announced in the first half of 2008 was $760.17 million against $1.47 billion during the first half of 2007 respectively. Number of deals has also shrunk to 25 from 37 in first half of 2007. Mergers and acquisitions also reduced to deals worth $627.7 million compared to $1.02 billion in first half of 2007.

“VC investments this year are quite similar to what we saw last year. About half of our people are based outside US. So it’s only natural that we look for investment opportunities in other parts of the world,” explains Intel Capital president, Arvind Sodhani. Intel Capital pumped in $17 million into an online portal Yatra, events-oriented social network BuzzInTown, and an out-of-home (OOH) advertising company Emnet Samsara.

And Intel Capital is not alone. Several VC bigwigs have set up set up India-focused funds worth $300-400 million, besides investing senior partners time on evaluating Indian firms.

While everybody seems to be chasing innovation, ‘me-too’ type of business models have takers too. Portals like Yatra, for instance, secured a funding though half a dozen VC-funded travel portals already exist in the country, simply because every VC fund wants a travel portal in its portfolio.