Recent media reports suggest that one of your investors Mr PK Mittal has decided to reduce his holding in the company. Could you explain in detail-the extent of his investment and holding in the company and what the changes have been?
We have recently announced an additional fund of $150 million. This fund has been subscribed to by our original investors: Softbank, ePartners and Mr PK Mittal. Due to confidentiality agreements, we are not at liberty to disclose the individuals stakes of the investors. We confirm that all three investors have participated in the fund.

What is the size of your fund currently and who are the various investors?Our first fund was $40 million. Subsequent to that, we have additional funds of $150 million under our management.

It has been several months since you started investing in companies in India, would you be in a position to share the financials of your investee companies for the last quarter?
We prefer our companies to speak for themselves, and we are not in a position to share financial performance of individual companies. However, we would like to state that, we are happy with the performance of all our investments; all of our companies have a tested revenue model and several of them are already showing profits, despite being relatively young ventures.Do you have plans of raising more money? If so, what sort of time frame are you looking at to raise your next fund? While there are many other investors that have shown interest in contributing to our fund, we have no immediate plans for raising more money.

Can you describe the `Entrepreneur in Residence' (EIR) Programme that you have initiated and what precise role does eVentures India play in the investee companies?
The EIR as the name indicates is to get the individuals to work with us even if they have no concrete business plan. The EIR programme has always been a part of our starting philosophy and is a way to encourage talented individuals who are ready to leave their secure positions and are willing take on more risks. This is also a way for us to fund more interesting ideas, for example; getting people from academic institutions or leading research organisation which would give us an opportunity to invest in new technology spaces.

Could you elaborate on how this programme works?
Typically a person comes in for 3-6 months. They will be on the eVI payroll and will work with the eVI staff to either solidify a business plan or get an opportunity to align with one of the teams that come to us for funding. Once we fund the company our role as the investor, as the partner comes into play. We provide support for infrastructure, technology, legal and financial structuring. During the EIR phase we will help him not only by providing the required information but also attend meetings jointly and allocate time from experts ion other areas. For example. The HR team from eVI will help designing the requirements of a business plans for the organisation. The experts from our finance departments will help in the financial structuring of our company. An example of this is makemytrip.com whose founder Mr Deep Kalra was one of the high performers at GE. He was interested in the new economy, but was unsure of it. He had strong management skills, was willing to take on risks and had the ability to buildteams round him - all of which are the characteristics for an EIR. We then spent time with him looking into his business modules and online travel was what we agreed on. We then, helped structure the company, provided the initial funding, and basically helped him define the overall business concept. Mr Deep then built his own team, hired the right professionals from the travel industry, hired the right people for technology and customer services. The online site was launched five months, post date he came to eVI.

Does this imply that eVI would have a majority stake in the company?
This does not necessarily mean a major stake. We continue to work with him, very closely as board members and lead investors but Mr Deep runs the company independently. We also aid in bringing other investors in the initial round of funding. In this aspect we play another role, as an EIR may find it difficult to raise the capital on their own.

Wouldn't this amount to excessive involvement which could be perceived as interference by the entrepreneur?
Our philosophy is that we will counsel the CEO and not dictate to the CEO. As a VC, we are in the business of investing behind individuals and behind teams and provide them with ongoing support. EVI is not in the business of running the company. We are very careful of who we choose to bring on. As an EIRs success in their previous professional lines and hands on approach are critical for an EIR to launch a new venture.