Matrix Partners India
It's fairly hard, in this day and age, to refrain from trotting out clever puns about an outfit with the word 'Matrix' in its name. Fairly hard, that is, until you figure Matrix Partners India currently has $150MM under management.
These guys have their fingers in a whole heap of pies. (To digress just for a moment, this writer maintains that the best pie in Bangalore, is still found at the Only Place.) To get back to Matrix Partners, however, well try saying all this in one breath, Shankar Mahadevan style:
InternetMobileFinancialServicesHospitalityFood&BeverageMedia&Entertainment
RealEstate&RetailServicesHealthcareTravel&Tourism.
Deep breaths. Deep breaths. Relax.
Recovered yet? Good.
So what exactly do these guys do with all this money and all these pies? No, they're not about to put grandmas in America out of business. Not yet, anyway. What they do, is invest money in start-ups with good ideas focused on consumer services businesses. What they don't do (typically) is invest in Real Estate and/or Retail Development, Manufacturing and Outsourcing.
If this were the Economic Times, you'd be reading about how they invest $10million+ over multiple rounds, with an initial investment ranging from $500K to $10million. And how they consider larger investments in partnership with Matrix Partners U.S. and Matrix Capital, a leading U.S. hedge fund with significant India investing experience.
But then, this is not the Economic Times. And if all of us actually read it, we'd probably have enough money to invest in good ideas ourselves.
Visit Matrix Partners
Lightspeed Venture Partners
Remember learning to ride a bike?
You had a few falls. A few scrapes. A little bit of running back to Mommy. But pretty soon, you were zipping down the street, no-hands-on.
Now, remember the person who taught you how to ride?
Well, when it comes to investing, Lightspeed is that person.
The partners of Lightspeed have invested over $800M in more than 100 companies over the past two decades, across the U.S., India, China and Israel.
Which, anyway you look at it, is one whole lot of training wheels.
They have contributed strong operational and sector expertise to market leaders such as Blue Nile, Brocade, Ciena, eHealthinsurance, Galileo Technology, Informatica, Kiva Software, Metasolv, Phone.com, Quantum Effect Devices, Sirocco and Waveset, by working closely with these companies throughout the early stages of their business development lifecycles.
And their focus on investments in specific sectors, means portfolio companies benefit from Lightspeed's specialized industry knowledge and deep global network of relationships.
Their areas of investment focus include tech., non-tech., early stage and growth companies.
So just how dedicated is Lightspeed to in being a lead and active investment?
Well, the thing they're most proud about, should provide the answer.
A whole bunch of people whom they've partnered in the past, have come back to get Lightspeed to play lead investor, in their subsequent projects.
None of which means that ruling the investment business is as easy as falling off a bike.
And nobody's more aware of this than the folks at Lightspeed.
Far from resting on their laurels, for about ten years now, they've been expanding their portfolio to include Israeli companies such as Galileo Technology, Optier, ScaleMP and Skybox Security.
They've also launched the Lightspeed-Gemini Internet Lab, a joint initiative with Gemini Israel Funds to seed Israel-based Internet companies.
And they've further committed to expanding their investment footprint in China with recent non-tech investments such as LuckyPai and MSP.
Of course, they're actively investing here in India with TutorVista, Mercantila and yours truly.
All of which pretty much boils down to one thing.
If you're planning on taking a new business idea out for a spin, get Lightspeed to teach you how.
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SVB India Capital Partners
Behind every great investor, is a story.
This is the story of SVB India Capital Partners.
Once upon a time (1983, to be precise) a firm was founded.
It was called Silicon Valley Bank.
SVB began serving the technology and life science markets, at a time when they were not well-understood by the financial services industry.
And when many of today's leading players in these industries, were just getting started.
It was a time of high adventure. A time of great discoveries.
As Silicon Valley grew to be the world's center for technological innovation, SVB was there to foster its growth.
And helped thousands of companies succeed along the way.
With more than 1,000 employees and nearly $6 billion in assets, SVB (Nasdaq: SIVB) provides diversified financial services to more than 11,000 emerging, growth and established companies, in the technology, life science, private equity and premium wine markets around the world.
Twenty years after its creation, SVB re-created history when it brought the spirit of Silicon Valley to Bangalore.
Adventure and discovery began again.
Like any great protagonist, SVB wanted to share its know-how with people in places far, far away.
By first, by leading a group of foremost venture capital investors to Bangalore, and then opening its own operation and expanding its services, SVB kicked-started the creation of a Silicon Valley-like environment in India.
Thus was SVB India Capital Partners born.
These are a bunch of people who are living proof, that investing is as much about knowledge and relationships, as it is about money.
SVB India Capital Partners closed a $54 million equity fund focused on India and has a large kingdom of supporters and several sister businesses to help fight the good fight for entrepreneurs, spanning all sectors and stages of a company's growth.
All of which, in fairytale language, means they go around creating a lot of happy endings, for a whole lot of people.
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Rishi Navani
If Rishi Navani were a fashion designer, his name would probably be Armani.
Why? Simply because when it comes to the investment sector, he leads the way.
And then a whole bunch of people follow in his footsteps.
But don't take our word for it, just take a look at all the man has done.
Rishi has been investing in India since 1996.
(Unlike all the johnnies-come-lately, who've just jumped on the India band-wagon.)
As we speak, he's the co-founder and Managing Director of Matrix India.
In earlier days, he was the main man (read Managing Director) at Sequoia Capital India where he pretty much did it all, to get things going.
He has worked at Apax Partners, Indocean Ventures, an affiliate of Soros Fund Management and JP Morgan Partners based in Mumbai. While Rishi doesn't drop names, we have no compunctions about doing so on his behalf, and telling you he also pulled a stint as management consultant at A.T. Kearney and McKinsey & Co.
Today, Rishi is on the board of directors of several companies, some of which, read asklaila and seventymm.
Rishi has also previously invested in Firstsource (BSE: FSL), Indecomm Global Services, Jamdat Mobile (JMDT, acquired by Electronics Arts), Nazara and Zayata (acquired by Apollo Health Street).
As you can see, Rishi is certainly not a fashion designer.
But he's definitely the kind of suit we appreciate having on our board.
Bejul Somaia
Bejul sometimes describes himself as an active early-stage investor.
(No, despite what this sounds like, it's not an acute medical problem.)
In actuality, Bejul is your average, ordinary, mild-mannered over-achiever.
The most recent evidence of Bejul overshadowing us puny mortals, is his role as Founder, Chairman & Lead Investor of Open List, a Boston-based vertical web search company with an emphasis on local search, that he started in 2004.
(Open List was acquired by Marchex, Inc, who knew they were onto a good thing, in May 2006.)
But that's just the latest item on Bejul's list of achievements.
And the list is long, indeed.
Before Open List, Bejul was a Principal at General Catalyst Partners, a major US-based venture and growth equity fund.
Before General Catalyst, Bejul was a strategy consultant with Bain & Company, based in San Francisco.
Before Bain & Co., he was an Investment Banker in the Equity Capital Markets Group of Salomon Brothers International, in London.
Before that, he was busy getting his BSc (First Class) in Economics from The London School of Economics and an MBA from Harvard Business School.
(Before that, we don't know, but we certainly hope Bejul took some time off, to have a good time.)
Today he's on the board of U.P. Twiga Fiberglass Limited, India's leading manufacturer of thermal and acoustic insulation for construction and non-construction applications.
And at sometime in the future, he intends to don tights and a cape, and show that Kryptonian faker how to really save the world.
Jake Seid
We could just mention that Jake holds a BS in Electrical Engineering, and an M. Eng. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT, where he earned the Karl Taylor Compton Prize, the highest honor given to an MIT student.
And leave it at that.
We could talk about Jake's seven years of venture capital experience. And the 20 plus investments he worked on at Lightspeed, across mobile (Rhythm New Media, Icebreaker), Internet (Kosmix, TheFind, TutorVista, StyleHive), systems (Aerohive, Identity Engines), software (Personeta, Sailpoint, Skybox) and components (SiPort, Unity).
(And, leave you gasping for more.)
We could toss you tidbits about how he co-leads Lightspeed's India initiative, and the firm's involvement in the Lightspeed-Gemini Internet Lab.
(And hold our peace.)
We could dazzle you with the details of his stints at Cisco Systems, and Boston Technology (Comverse), in Tokyo.
(And let his "Best of Show" and "Best Networking Hardware" at Comdex'99, speak for themselves.)
We could casually tell you Jake serves on the Board of the MIT-Stanford Venture Lab, and the Venture Capital Advisory Board for the Fabless Semiconductor Association.
(And that would be all we'd really need to say.)
We could, in other words, have cut this really, really short.
And had you impressed by Jake in a zillion different ways.
Instead, we'll just say that Jake Seid is on our board.
(And ask you to fasten your seatbelts.)
Kiran Konduri (Co-Founder)
Kiran is what is known as a serial entrepreneur.
(He founds start-ups, the way most of us change underwear.)
First, he was co-founder and CEO of Zephyr Software in 1997, one of the web's earliest community services providers for the Indian diaspora.
The company was purchased by Infospace in 1999.
Then, he co-founded Cogniti, a provider of business intelligence and analytics solutions to the retail industry.
(Always busy, our Kiran.)
He is one of the pioneers of the hybrid model for a start-up,where an offshore development center and back office operations
are established in India, business operations, conducted in the US.
Before accepting The Economist as his personal saviour,Kiran made a lot of money for other people, at Microsoft and Wipro,in business development, account management and partner management.
For some inexplicable reason, Kiran spends all his time between start-ups,discovering new Andhra and Indo-Chinese restaurants.
Shriram Adukoorie (Co-Founder)
Shriram spent the past 10 years, with Microsoft. And survived.
(Several EU nations have nominated him for their medals of gallantry.)
He launched MSN in India, and then went above and beyond the call of duty, by serving as its Country Manager from 1999 to 2003.
During this time he was extensively involved with growing the Internet and mobile data services industry in India.
He was instrumental (with a few colleagues from the industry)in founding the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI).
(So now we know who to blame!)
He then led a hardcore team of meta-humans with mercenary zeal, and launched MSN in Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines and Indonesia.
While at Microsoft, Shriram admits to also managing the Telecom and ISP business for India.
Shriram loves photography.
A hobby he perfected over years of intercontinental travel funded by Microsoft, as the corporation strove to keep the airlines happy.
