Photographs: Paresh Gandhi Rediff Business Desk
An entrepreneur who has proved his mettle beyond doubt, N R Narayana Murthy now wants to help budding entrepreneurs.
He has initiated the first step towards starting a venture capital fund focussed on India. The fund will encourage and support young entrepreneurs who have brilliant business ideas.
The Infosys chairman offloaded 800,000 shares from his personal holding, to raise about Rs 177 crore (Rs 1.77 billion) a few days ago to start Catamaran Venture fund.
The fund will primarily invest in India, though it might consider investing overseas on a 'case-to-case basis'.
Murthy joins the league of top corporate honchos who have launched private equity funds to assist budding entrepreneurs and upcoming ventures across various sectors in India...Read on. . .
Corporate big guns who fund new ventures
Photographs: Jagadeesh NV/Reuters
Wipro chairman Azim Premji launched a private equity (PE) fund worth Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion). Called PremjiInvest, it has funded around 50 publicly listed and private companies. It has invested textile, healthcare, and hospitality companies.
Corporate big guns who fund new ventures
N S Raghavan, co-founder and former joint managing director of Infosys Technologies Ltd, founded the Nadathur Holdings and Investments Pvt. Ltd for investments in early stage companies.
He started the fund with the aim of nurturing knowledge-based and innovation-driven ventures that cater to the Indian market or the global market. Nadathur supports companies in life sciences, IT and engineering service sectors.
Corporate big guns who fund new ventures
Former chief of ICICI Venture Renuka Ramnath launched the Multiples Alternate Asset Managemen in 2009.
Multiples is raising their first private equity fund targeting both domestic and international institutional investors and ultra high networth individuals.
The target size is approximately $400 million. Multiples Alternate Asset Management will make sector-agnostic investments in India.
Corporate big guns who fund new ventures
Vivek Paul started a private equity fund with a corpus of $300 million to $400 million.
The fund, Akansa Capital, is understood to have signed some seed capital and is hoping for its first closure in the fag end of 2009. Paul is starting this fund at a time when limited partners are shying away from private equity funds.
Paul's new fund will support companies in India. Vivek Paul had joined the Texas Pacific Group after he quit Wipro Technologies as vice-chairman in 2005.
Corporate big guns who fund new ventures
Photographs: Amit Dave/Reuters
The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group plans to invest Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion) in a PE fund being floated by group company Reliance Capital Ltd.
The PE fund is likely to raise around Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion). This will include a contribution from Anil Ambani.
Corporate big guns who fund new ventures
Photographs: Rediff archives.
Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla will invest around Rs 300 crore in the group's private equity fund.
The Aditya Birla Group's PE fund will have funds to the tune of Rs 1,500 crore (Rs 15 billion).
Corporate big guns who fund new ventures
Former Citi Venture Capital International managing director Ajay Relan has founded CX Partners. Relan plans to raise a $750 million fund.
Pulak Prasad quit Warburg Pincus in 2006 to start Nalanda Capital in Singapore. The firm invests exclusively in listed companies and has notched up several deals since last October.
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