At least seven Indians have made it to the Forbes magazine’s coveted list of top 100 start-up investors across the world, for putting their “midas touch” to help grow adolescent companies into profit-making ventures.
The Midas List 2009 features at least seven India-born investors led by Ram Shriram, who was named third on the esteemed list. Shriram made a fortune as one of Google’s original backers and board members. At present Shriram invests heavily in India and his bets include Mobile ad marketplace mKhoj and job-hunting site Naukri.Com. He is followed by fellow venture capitalists like Navin Chaddha who was ranked 11th in the coveted list, Arjun Gupta at 32nd position, Deepak Kamra (70), Raman Khanna (72), Ravi Adusumalli (75) and Promod Haque (96).
The year 2008 was, however, a bad year for the venture capitalists (VCs) as they made less money largely on account of the global financial meltdown. According to Forbes, VCs raised $28 billion and poured roughly the same into companies.
“The contraction of the US economy, however, made it tough for new companies to reach the public market: Only six venture-backed companies had IPOs in 2008, down from 86 companies in 2007,” Forbes said.
Forbes further said, “the new watchword of this past year: growth equity, which means investing in adolescent companies where managers have already figured out how to turn a profit.”
The list that seeks to identify venture capitalists who generate profits for their investors and assist in building valuable, long-lived technology and life sciences companies was topped by John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, followed by Sequoia Capital’s Michael Moritz in the second position.
Meanwhile, the other Indian-origin people who were named by Forbes include Navin Chaddha with successes like India Infoline (financial services) and Provogue (fashion).
In 2008, he invested in Gigya, which distributes widgets and content across the web and attaches relevant advertisements.
Besides, Arjun Gupta (32 rank) has made a big jump from his 2008 ranking (51). He has made successful investment in Omnipoint and Bombay Cellular and in 1996, he started his own firm, TeleSoft Partners.
The list also featured web and telecom investor Deepak Kamra, who had big hits with IPOs of Acme Packet and SuccessFactors. He has also invested in matchmaking sites like India’s BharatMatrimony and Zoosk, a US dating website.
The Midas List also includes Raman Khanna whose current portfolio includes Mixercast (advertising on social networks) and Permuto.
Meanwhile, Ravi Adusumalli Head of India investments for SAIF, racked up big payout from investment financial services giant IL&FS, which went public on the Bombay Stock Exchange in 2005. He was an associate partner at Mobius Venture Partners. His portfolio also includes Makemytrip.Com (India's answer to Expedia) and IntelliGroup (business process outsourcing).
Promod Haque's investment plans include Indian tech firms that have outgrown the start-up phase. He has recently hired a dedicated growth capital investor to track down strong companies that will survive the recession and ultimately thrive.
