VC Handbook

VENTURE
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Private Company
Financials, Transactions,
Valuations
Handbook on
Venture Capital
An Entrepreneur's guide to
Early Stage Funding
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Table of Contents
Venture Capital Investor Landscape in India
"Startup Era" - Regulatory Issues and

Recent Governmental Reforms
Fund Raising: A Methodical Approach
10
Term Sheet Investment Terms: Anti Dilution and Liquidation
12
The Life of an Entrepreneur - Before & After Funding
17
Early Stage Investments And Legal Due Diligence:

Issues for Consideration
19
Accelerator, Angel or VC: How to Chooose?
24
Emplouee Stock Option Plan for Private Companies
25
The Business Plan Document 2.0
27
Venture Capital Investor Directory
31
- Accelerators
32
- Incubators
33
- Angel Investors
39
- Seed Funds
44
- VC Firms
46
- SME Investors
61
- Healthcare Focused Investors
64
- Social VC / Impact Investors
65
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Handbook on
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Landscape of Venture Capital

Investors in India
Typical Investment
< Rs.50 Lakhs
Typical Investment
Rs.50 Lakhs - 2 Crores
Typical Investment
Rs.50 Lakhs - 2 Crores
Typical Investment
Rs.2 - 10 Crores
Accelerators Incubators
500 Startups
TLabs
VentureNursery
GSF Accelerator
IIM-A
Venture Center
NSRCEL
SINE
Angel
Networks
Chennai Angels
Hyderabad Angels
Indian Angel Network
Mumbai Angels
Seed
Level Funds
Blume Ventures
Orios Venture Partners
India Quotient
Kae Capital
YouWeCan Ventures
YourNest Angel Fund
VC Funds
Early Stage
Accel India
Lightspeed Ventures
IDG Ventures India
Inventus Capital
Nexus Ventures
Sequoia Capital India
Ventureast
VENTURE
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Handbook on
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Landscape of Venture Capital Investors in India
Typical Investment
Rs.10 - 25 Crores
Typical Investment
Rs.25 - 100 Crores
VC Funds
Growth Stage
Exfinity Fund
Helion Ventures
Kalaari Capital
Nexus Ventures
SAIF
SIDBI VC
PE Investors
SME Focused
Aditya Birla PE
Bessemer
Eight Roads Ventures
Gaja Capital
IFC
Lighthouse Funds
Matrix Partners India
Mayfield
NEA
Tiger Global
Zephyr Peacock
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START UP
Era Regulatory Issues and

the Recent Governmental Reforms
(As of November 2015)
Increasing access to funding (including a robust angel investment
networks and contemplation of alternative platforms for listing), a
growing domestic market and governmental reforms/initiatives have
increasingly fuelled the emergence of Indian entrepreneurs and startups. Indian cities like Bangalore and the NCR Region have been
consistently recognised as start-up hubs and one also sees start-ups
across India engaged in diverse businesses, including IT/ITES, ecommerce, healthcare, transport and education. As per a 2014 report by
NASSCOM, India is the fastest growing start-up base after the US and
the UK: NASSCOM has also predicted that by the year 2020, India would
have (approximately) 11,500 start-ups from over 3,100 start-ups in
2014. The Indian Government's Economic Survey Report1 of 2015
further highlights the emergence of a significant number of start-ups in
India and has ranked India as the 4th largest start-up hub in the world. In
terms of investments, over USD 1 billion has been invested in the last 3
years in the start-up space, alone. These investments are not limited to
the poster boys of the Indian start-up ecosystem (Flipkart, Snapdeal and
PayTM) but are widespread with global conglomerates investing into
diverse start-ups in India. As such, India continues to hold great promise
for the emergence of a start-up ecosystem.
On the other hand, the World Bank's 'Doing Business 2015' report ranks
India at 158th on the parameters concerning the ease of starting a
business2. Accordingly, whilst there is sufficient promise for India to
develop as a start-up hub, the Indian start-up ecosystem is still quite
nascent, underdeveloped and functions within the milieu of multiple
regulators, tax ambiguity and the realities of setting up / operating
businesses in India. A prominent example would be the recent proposal
to regulate Indian e-commerce entities by 9 different governmental
ministries.
Given this background, the authors seek to highlight the start-up growth
inhibitors peculiar to India as also highlight the recent governmental
initiatives to fillip the start-up ecosystem.
The Oft-Faced Regulatory Conundrums

Multiplicity of Indian enactments coupled with the lack of regulatory
guidance exerts considerable operational strain on Indian start-ups with
non-conventional business models. App based taxi aggregators such as,
Ola and Uber were alleged to violate the 'Radio Taxi Scheme' of the
Government of NCT and were banned from plying in the NCT region.
Regulatory complexities have always posed one of the more significant
challenges for entrepreneurs looking to do business in India3. For
instance, start-ups that list third party content on an electronic medium
are required to comply with a plethora of legislations - the Information
Technology Act, 2000, the Indian Penal Code, 1860, the Indecent
Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986 and several judicial
pronouncements. Specifically, in the context of the burgeoning Indian ecommerce start-up space, the lack of a legislative framework governing
online marketplaces has made it difficult to ascertain regulatory risks
involved in conducting business-to-consumer (B2C) retailing. In
August 2015, the Delhi High Court admitted a petition to examine the
legality of such online marketplaces from the perspective of B2C
retailing in India and the matter is still being heard.
Another area of concern is taxation: applicability of value added tax to a

tech / e-com start-up is also not resolved, as currently only three Indian
states (Delhi, Rajasthan and Kerala) have exempted online
intermediaries from the purview of value added tax.
..........................................................................................................
http://indiabudget.nic.in/es2014-15/echapter-vol2.pdf
http://www.doingbusiness.org/rankings
http://qz.com/390524/despite-a-startup-boom-in-india-regulatory-challenges-arespooking-entrepreneurs/
Funding Challenges
There remains significant institutional funding gap to the start-ups in
India despite the governmental attempts to streamline bank financing
to start-ups / MSMEs. Fourth Census on MSMEs reveals that only
5.18% of the MSMEs have availed credit from financial institutions4.
Non availability of bank financing, particularly to the asset light and
technology focussed start-ups which have no guaranteed cash flows
makes entrepreneurship extremely challenging in India. Several Indian
start-ups including, MakeMyTrip and WNS Holdings Limited have listed
on the NASDAQ. IBS Software Services and InMobi, which are two of
India's fast-growing start-ups, are also conducting preparatory work for
a public float in the US, which offers a relatively relaxed listing regime.
Apart from the fact that the investors in developed markets would
understand their business better, this decision to list overseas, in some
measure, is also driven by the onerous disclosure and eligibility
requirements to list on an Indian exchange. Of late, several Indian startups also opt for an overseas holding company structure to hold their
Indian company / assets. These transactions often termed as FLIPs
result in steady flight of capital from India into developed economies
like Singapore primarily due to favourable tax, regulatory and
infrastructural landscape.
Kickstarting the Start-ups: Recent Initiatives

The Government of India has initiated measures to boost
entrepreneurship and promote start-ups in India. Given India's track
record in the ease of doing business (as aforesaid), a lot of emphasis has
been provided on simplification of existing rules and introduction of
information technology to make governance more efficient and
effective.
The eBiz Portal

The eBiz portal implemented under the aegis of the DIPP, seeks to create
an investor-friendly business environment by making available relevant
regulatory information dealing with company incorporation,
operational permits / licenses, and winding up - available to the
concerned stakeholders on an online portal. As of date, 14 services,
including company incorporation related services and basic tax
registrations have been integrated with the eBiz portal to provide a
single window clearance for operating a business in India. The Ministry
of Labour and Employment has also launched the Shram Suvidha Portal
in October, 2014 to enable compliance with 16 out of 44 labour laws
through a unified filing system. These are transformational initiatives as
it results in direct interaction between the regulator and the
entrepreneur eliminating middlemen and reducing unnecessary delays
and red-tapism.
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START UP Era Regulatory Issues and the Recent Governmental Reforms
Make in India Initiative: 'Start up India, Stand up

India
The Make in India Initiative (MII) launched by the Government of
India on September 25, 2014 seeks to facilitate investments, promote
innovation, augment skill development, and establish world class
infrastructure in India for manufacturing and providing services. To
further the goals set out under MII, the Small Industries Development
Bank of India (SIDBI) has set up an India Aspiration Fund (IAF) in
August 2015 to catalyse investments into start-ups. IAF has been set up
as a fund of funds with a corpus of INR 2,000 crores to provide equity
financing to MSMEs and start-ups. SIDBI has also set up an INR 10,000
crores debt fund named SIDBI Make in India Loan for Entrepreneurs
(SMILE) which seeks to provide mezzanine financing to MSMEs.
SIDBI has also incorporated the Mudra Bank with an initial corpus of INR
5,000 crores to provide capital to banks seeking to refinance small value
business loans under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana. These initiatives
have tried to address the lack of conventional form of lending to the
start-ups. There is also been an increase in lending to the start-up
incubators IIT, ISB etc.
............................................................................................................
https://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/BS_SpeechesView.aspx?Id=859
SETU Scheme
The Indian Government has allocated INR 1,000 crores towards the Self
Employment and Talent Utilization Scheme (SETU Scheme). The
SETU Scheme has been set-up as a techno-financial, incubation and
facilitation programme to give support and encouragement to young
start-ups and other self-employment technology-intensive ideas.
Additionally, the 'Atal Innovation Mission,' has also been created with a
fund of INR 150 crores to promote a network of world-class innovation
hubs. A company which has benefitted significantly from the incubator
model is 'Oyo Stays' which received piecemeal funding over a period of
time and today boasts of a successful marketplace business model
providing budget branded hotel rooms.
Internet of Thing (IOT)

The draft 'Internet of Things' policy (IoT Policy) released in April 2015
aims to creating an IoT ecosystem and develop IoT products specific to
Indian needs in the domain of agriculture, health and water quality
amongst others. The IoT Policy, which deals with the interplay of
software, telecom and electronic hardware industry, targets to create an
IoT industry worth USD 15 billion in India by the year 2020. Some of the
proposed benefits offered to start-ups / MSMEs under the IoT policy
includes providing easy import of capital goods and raw materials for
manufacturing IoT products with duty benefits of up to 100%;
reimbursement on excise and central sales tax for domestically acquired
raw materials; and offering land to small firms and start-ups at subsidised
rates for developing IoT centres.
The new Companies Act, 2013

A start-up's evolution to maturity is dependent on an effective business
structure. The Companies Act, 2013 (2013 Act) provides flexibility to
start-ups in establishing a corporate entity in the form of a one-person
company (OPC). Further, the 2013 Act has abolished the minimum
paid-up capital requirements of a private limited company. These
changes are significant in the context of start-ups as it allows
entrepreneurs to set up limited liability entities in India with limited
capital and restrictive ownership rights. Statistics available with the
Ministry of Company Affairs reveals the resounding success of the OPC

regime 478 OPCs have already been incorporated in India from April
1, 2014 until August 31, 2014.
SEBI's array of initiatives

Exiting from one's investment in start-ups has always been a concern
and the cumbersome regulatory norms for listing have only made it
tougher for investors to exit. SEBI's recent move to amend the ICDR
Regulations of 2009 to provide an alternate listing / trading platform
for MSMEs has been a much needed relief. SEBI has permitted SMEs to
list without an initial public offer by introducing an institutional trading
platform (ITP Platform). This platform was accessible only to
informed investors and still provided for stringent promoter lock-in
requirements. However, SEBI further liberalised the ITP Platform
regime on August 14, 2015 which require stock exchanges to offer a
separate ITP Platform for listing technology driven start-ups having
substantial investments from qualified institutional buyer(s).
Requirement of a profit track record for listing has been done away
with. SEBI has also rationalised disclosure requirements in the offer
documents for the start-ups, reduced the minimum application size for
listing pursuant to a public issue to INR 10 lakhs and relaxed the
mandatory lock-in period for promoters and other pre-listing investors
to six months as against three years for other companies. Though the
feasibility of the reformed ITP Platform for capital raisings in India is yet
to be tested, SEBI has made a promising move by laying down the red
carpet to start-ups for listing in India.
Crowd funding norms

SEBI has also warmed up to the idea of allowing crowd-funding in India
and released a consultation paper in June 2014. Crowd-funding
involves seeking funds from multiple investors through a web-based
platform or a social networking site for a business venture or social
cause. SEBI's proposal is to cap the number of investors from whom
start-ups could raise money to 200, in line with the private placement
norms under the 2013 Act. It is hoped that once the proposal is
implemented, it would offer start-ups an alternative to offshore listings.
Recent news reports also indicate that crowd funding norms would also
incorporate additional exemptions for Indian start-ups on the lines of
the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act, 2012 of the US.
Conclusion The need to nurture the start-up

movement
India would need to ensure that the entrepreneurial spirit of the startups is not discouraged by over-regulation and provide promotional and
regulatory ecosystem for the start-ups. Though the recent
governmental initiatives seek to ensure that unconventional business
models of MSMEs/ start-ups do not result in legal and regulatory
challenges in operating a business in India, there still remain certain
challenges for the start-ups. A dedicated industry representation
specific to the start-ups would also help in effectively espouse their
needs and concerns.
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About Cyril
Amarchand Mangaldas
Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas was founded on May 11, 2015 and takes forward the legacy of the erstwhile 97-year old Amarchand & Mangaldas &
Suresh A. Shroff & Co., whose pre-eminence, experience and reputation of almost a century has been unparalleled in the Indian legal fraternity.
Tracing its professional lineage to 1917, the Firm of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas is now the largest full-service law firm in India, with over 600
lawyers, including 90 partners, and offices in India's key business centres at Mumbai, New Delhi, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Chennai and
Ahmedabad. The Firm advises a large and varied client base that includes domestic and foreign commercial enterprises, financial institutions,
private equity funds, venture capital funds, start-ups and governmental and regulatory bodies.
The firm Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas was also recently awarded India Deal Firm of the Year, 2015 by ALB SE Asia Law Awards, 2015 building
upon the several awards that the erstwhile Amarchand & Mangaldas & Suresh A. Shroff & Co. had won in the past.
Our Core Values:

PROFESSIONALISM integrity, diligence, timeliness, hard work, attention to detail, confidentiality, responsiveness.
CLIENT FOCUS client first approach, absence of conflict, reliability, loyalty commitment, relationship orientation, solution orientation.
EXCELLENCE technical expertise, erudition, clarity, lateral thinking, collaboration, modernity, depth and breadth of advice, ambition.
HUMILITY politeness, respect, moderation, tolerance, humor, grace.
Global Approach:
Through its Best Friends' Networks, the Firm has established relationships with leading international law firms including those in the USA,
UK, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong, China, Germany, and France. These cross-border relationships allow the Firm to provide local
advice to its clients with a global outlook.
Our Practices Groups:
Corporate
Projects
Disputes
Banking & Finance
Capital Markets
Competition
Employment
Financial Regulatory
Real Estate
Intellectual Property
Private Client
Tax
TMT
Investment Funds
Bankruptcy
Investigations
Key Contact:
Mr. Cyril S. Shroff
Managing Partner
Email: cyril.shroff@cyrilshroff.com
Our Offices
Mumbai
Tel: +91 22 2496 4455
Email: cam.mumbai@cyrilshroff.com
New Delhi
Tel: +91 11 6622 9000
Email: cam.delhi@cyrilshroff.com
Bengaluru
Tel: +91 80 2558 4870
Email: cam.bengaluru@cyrilshroff.com
Hyderabad
Tel: +91 40 6633 6622
Email: cam.hyderabad@cyrilshroff.com
Ahmedabad
Tel: +91 79 2468 7900
Email: cam.ahmedabad@cyrilshroff.com
Chennai
Tel: +91 44 6668 4455
Email: cam.chennai@cyrilshroff.com
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About Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas
Harsh Kumar
Rishabh
Cyril Shroff
Partner
Areas of expertise
: General
Mergers Corporate;
& Acquisitions;
Private
Private
Client
Equity
Practice
Qualification
: National
Bar Council
University
of Maharashtra
of Juridical
andSciences,
Goa, India;
India
Solicitor, Supreme Court of England & Wales
: +91 11 6622 9000
: +91
22 2496 4455
harsh.kumar@cyrilshroff.com
rishabh.shroff@cyrilshroff.com
Contact
Contact
Rishabh Shroff is a Partner in the Mumbai Office of Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. After completing his LL.B at the London School of
Economics, London, England, he joined the Firm in 2007 and has now been working in the Firm for the past seven years. He was admitted as
an advocate in the Bar Council of Maharashtra & Goa in the year 2007. He is also a Solicitor, Supreme Court of England and Wales. He is
based in the Mumbai office of the Firm, and also spends significant time in the Firm's New Delhi office as well.
Rishabh is part of the Firm's Corporate team, specializing in foreign investments into India, private mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures,
private equity, insurance, and property / real estate transactions. He has also worked in the Firm's Projects and Projects Finance team for 2 years
(2007 - 2009). He is the Co-Head of the Firm's Japan Desk, and works very frequently with Japanese clients.
He is also a part of the Private Client Practice Team, specialising in family settlements / constitutions, trusts, wills and succession planning; and
he also advises promoters of Indian business on issues concerning their personal and corporate (i.e. 'next-generation') succession planning.
He had worked for 3 months in Homburger AG (Zurich, Switzerland) in 2008 as part of a Secondment Program between the Firm and
Homburger AG.
Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

peninsula chambers, peninsula corporate park, ganpatrao kadam marg, lawer parel mumbai - 400 013, india.
Tel: +91 22 2496 4453 | Fax: +91 22 2496 3666 | Email: mumbai@cyrilshroff.com
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Harsh Kumar
Partner
Areas of expertise
: Mergers & Acquisitions; Private Equity
Qualification
: National University of Juridical Sciences, India
Contact
: +91 11 6622 9000

harsh.kumar@cyrilshroff.com
Harsh Kumar is a Partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas' Delhi Office.

Harsh is a part of the Firm's Corporate Practice Team and focuses on Mergers & Acquisitions.
Harsh has advised various Indian blue chip and foreign companies on inbound and outbound acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic alliances,
and corporate restructurings across a range of industries and jurisdictions. He has also worked on private equity investments and interacts
closely with professionals from other disciplines including investment bankers and chartered accountants.
Harsh is the Co-Head of the Firm's Japan Desk. He also frequently advises Japanese companies in relation to their investments into India. He
has also travelled to Japan for India related work and has also authored several articles on India-Japan related matters.
Harsh has worked in the London office of Herbert Smith LLP where he was involved in international corporate transactions.

4th floor, religare building, d-3, district center, saker, new delhi - 110 017, india
Tel: +91 11 6622 9000 | Fax: +91 11 6622 9009 | Email: cam.delhi@cyrilshroff.com
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POWERED BY
Fund Raising: A Methodical Approach

By Krish Subramanian, Co-Founder & CEO, ChargeBee
First time fund-raisers often approach the process
of raising capital in an unplanned manner. In this
article, the founder of ChargeBee, a subscription
billing SaaS startup, draws lessons from his
experience of raising angel and series-A rounds for
his venture
(This article first appeared in the May 2015 edition of The
Smart CEO; Krish authored this article at the request of the editorial team).
When I quit my corporate job, a wise man told me figure a way to stay
in business for 36 months. That is like a magic number to stay relevant
and if you see through that period, you will have a business to build.
Thinking back after close to three years, those words were very wise
indeed.
Four of us, who are also friends, quit our well-paying jobs in mid-2011
and started ChargeBee, a SaaS-based subscription billing company. The
best way to build any business is to bootstrap it with customer revenue,
provided you get enough revenue to invest quickly and grab the market
opportunity. And we did just that. We bootstrapped through the first 15
months, making some mistakes and taking several right decisions while
building our early customer base. We decided to keep our nest egg for
later and wanted to raise some funds from our friends to ensure we had
sufficient buffer.
What started off with a US $40,000 friends angel investment, turned
into a US $370,000 convertible debt round with professional angel
investors. We also soon raised a Series-A round from a prestigious
venture capital firm, Accel Partners. Funding is a key milestone for most
startups, as it is a great validation that someone other than your wife,
parents and father-in-law is willing to bet on it. The future of a start-up is
decided basis the decisions taken during the fund-raising stage. This
article, in a nutshell is the story of how we built ChargeBee, and more
importantly, key lessons on fund raising we learnt along the way.
The funding lifecycle

Deciding how much money to raise is a tricky one. A Rule of Thumb is to
ensure that you raise enough to get to the next stage of your venture.
Expect fund raising rounds to take 3-5 months. Engage an accountant
from the early days to keep all the basic housekeeping clean; The due
diligence process gets easier. Keep track of all pre-incorporation
expenses in a spreadsheet, as all that can be optionally converted into
debt/sweat equity (preferably without interest). Additionally, do not
sweat too much about valuation in the early stages especially Series-A. If
you extrapolate outcome scenarios, you will realise how little difference
a US $3 million vs. US $4 million valuation makes. It is a different scenario
if you can raise at US $7 million pre at Series-A stage like YC companies.
Have multiple-conversations
Talk to as many investors and get multiple term sheets, if possible. But
choose wisely not just based on valuation. You should put higher value
for a clean term sheet than a higher valuation.
Tip: Just like employee references, you should discreetly talk to past and
present portfolio companies of every investor. You will be surprised
what candid feedback you can get through these.
Our angel investors and advisors were very helpful in constantly
pushing us to build a team. Rather than trying to do most things inhouse to conserve cash, they encouraged us to start building a viable
business and build a team (very common trait of a bootstrapper).
Do not underestimate the network effect. Consider every discussion a
sale: When we decided to raise a convertible debt round, we reached
out to our friends and received a commitment for US $40,000. One of
them mentioned about this investment to his angel investor friend in
San Jose. One conversation led to another and we raised US $370,000
as angel round. The lead investor committed to invest US $100,000 in
just 3 skype calls, truly an angel. They were most helpful as a sounding
board through the early decisions.
Lessons:
Look for expertise in investor team that complements your strengths

Simplify the fund raising process and have parallel conversations
Do not overcomplicate terms
Be ready to walk away from deals, if there is lot of work involved that
keeps you away from product development.
Fund raising is a distraction

Fund raising is a distraction, which could keep you away from serving
customers or making your product better. Get it to a closure as fast as
you can. One thing we did right during our fund raising mode was that, I
was the only one who was doing it and rest of the team was shielded
from the everyday updates. We had weekly updates.
Lessons:
Find your 'angel' or super connector who can help you with
introductions and vouch for you and your team. This makes a huge
difference.
Talk to as many folks as you can and short list them so that you spend
quality time.
Preparedness
When should you raise an angel round? We are in an era when it costs
so less to build a product but costs a lot more to reach your target
market. Having a working product, with traction, is essential to raise an
angel round. This is a pre-requisite for most product startups if you need
your investors to take you seriously.
VENTURE
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Fund Raising: A Methodical Approach By Krish Subramanian, Co-Founder & CEO, ChargeBee
Lessons:
Lessons:
Leverage customer testimonials find what your customers love

about your product and craft your messaging around that. Our
customers absolutely love our customer support and responsiveness.
Find adjacent markets but be clear about the ones you are focusing on.
Acknowledge competitors' strengths and study their weaknesses
carefully. There is nothing more compelling you could say than winning
a customer from a competitor even with a MVP. Just focus on what is
lacking and sharpen your message around that.
Remember, you are selling the vision of product and team to
investors.
Decide on an 8-12 week cycle to close your funding round

completely and work towards it.
If any investor is not sure even after two meetings, ask them directly
what would help them make a decision and move on quickly.
Do not compromise on good legal counsel. Get introduced to a good
lawyer and consult.
Experience, domain expertise

Assembling a great team with proven capabilities is a great validation of
product vision and belief. There is no substitute for that. Understanding
your market is a necessity. In our case, we knew SAAS as a segment
extremely well because we are developers ourselves and we learnt more
about payments and billing from customers and carefully studied the
competitors as well.
Lessons:
You need at least one person in your team to be the champion when it
comes to domain knowledge. It is very hard to convince an investor
when he knows more about your market and domain than you do.
Investors always look for leaders within your group who will at least
initially take responsibility for technology, sales, marketing and
customer support. One person can hold multiple roles, but be sure he
knows enough to validate that.
Term sheets, negotiation, equity

Before starting off, we knew nothing on these subjects. While you don't
need to know any of this to build a great product, you should, however,
spend enough time reading all the good blogs on startup equity
compensation and term sheets to know enough to have a sensible
conversation.
Key take-aways:
Read Paul Graham's blogs, bothsidesofthetable.com and venture beat's
dummies guide for raising angel investment.
Learn from the videos of learn startup canvas model, on how to
prepare a business plan.
Closing a fund raising round

When we raised the angel round, we kept getting introduced to new
people, which is a great situation to be in because of the quality of team.
We have to draw a line somewhere to artificially create a deadline and
close the fund raise. It is otherwise very easy to stay distracted by talking
to a lot of people. Your time is best spent on writing a blog that will help
get more traction and not in meetings.
Stay networked
We did not go into a full-fledged fund raising mode while raising our
Series-A. But many of our customers raised the question about our
background and wanted to know if we will be around. Having a great
VC name would take away many of those questions. So we started
networking with many investors, but without going into fund raising
mode.
Eventually, we were talking only to investors who were helping us
shape product vision and with the readiness for a Series-A, more as a
discovery for themselves and us. It takes a long time for any VC to
commit to a team, so it makes sense to start talking to them on an
informal basis and meet whenever possible to build relationships.
Lessons:
Learn the VC side of the equation and what makes them want to
invest.
Collaborate than trying to figure answers yourselves. It is okay to ask
questions to investors about market size and we received plenty of
help. They have tons of data points.
Treat these conversations as discovery phase and opportunity for you
to learn about VCs.
In my experience, these are practical yet essential steps to a
successful fund raising process. Being prepared is half the battle won.
Do not hesitate to reach out for help. After all, we, as entrepreneurs,
have to cover for each other. Happy building!
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TERM SHEETS
Investment Terms:
Anti Dilution and Liquidation

Timing of the Term Sheet
Once the discussions between a founder, the company and the potential
investor have commenced and before the investor takes steps towards
undertaking a financial and legal review of the company, the parties
typically execute a term sheet to set forth various key commercial terms.
A term sheet serves as a tool for the parties to agree on the broad outline
of the proposed transaction and lay down their expectations from the
next stages. The execution of a term sheet is, therefore, the first step in a
series of steps that will ultimately lead to signing of definitive
agreements amongst the parties and consummation of the proposed
transaction.
Binding and Non-Binding Provisions

A term sheet is typically a non-binding document except for certain
provisions which govern the conduct of the parties from signing of the
term sheet until finalization of the definitive documents. These include:
confidentiality, which requires that the parties keep the information
shared and the existence of the term sheet itself confidential,
exclusivity or no shop, which obligates the parties to negotiate solely
between themselves (and not approach a third party) for an agreed
period,
dispute resolution related clause(s), which set forth the manner of
dealing with disputes/ disagreements arising out of the term sheet.
Additionally, two other key provisions commonly requested for by

investors in term sheets are the anti dilution protection and liquidation
preference clauses which we have attempted to discuss below in more
detail, including their potential impact and enforceability.
Anti-Dilution Protection
Dilution refers to the reduction of a shareholders stake in the company
(either in value or in relative percentage) occurring due to an increase in
the number of outstanding shares by way of issuance of new shares,
exercise of stock options or warrants or conversion of convertible
instruments. Anti-dilution clauses are insisted upon by investors to
protect their stake in the investee company from dilution due to
subsequent issuances, especially those occurring at a lower price than
the investors entry price. Some specific clauses which are commonly
used to capture this protection are:
pre-emptive rights: a right given to the investor to acquire new shares
issued by the company when it undertakes an issuance of further shares
in favour of another party,
anti-dilution provisions for convertible securities: in the case of
convertible securities, it becomes possible for investors to adjust the
conversion price of their securities, without incurring any expense or
making further investment, in the following events:
Corporate structural changes - certain anti-dilution provisions

proportionately adjust the number of shares underlying the
investor's convertible securities and the related conversion price on
the occurrence of events which affect the structure of the
company's capitalization such as stock splits, reverse stock splits,
mergers, amalgamations or other reorganization. By way of an
example, if the investee company undertakes a stock split resulting
in the subdivision of stock into greater number of shares, this type
of an anti-dilution provision will operate to proportionately reduce
the conversion price of the convertible preference shares of the
investor thereby entitling the investor to more shares on
conversion.
Down round investments - a down round occurs when the

subsequent round of investment is at a price which is lower than
the price paid by the investors in the previous round. Provisions
designed for price protection in such instances include full ratchet
clauses which reduce the conversion price of the existing
convertible securities of the investor to the price at which the new
shares are issued in the later round. Such provisions can be
immensely burdensome on the equity shareholders since they bear
the entire downside risk of such an adjustment. A more balanced
method of price protection which is also more commonly used is
the weighted average method which takes into account the size as well
as price of subsequent rounds in determining the re-pricing of the
previously issued convertible securities.
These provisions may not initially receive much attention of the parties
as their focus would primarily be on the various commercial terms of the
investment, which are to be captured in the term sheet. However, these
provisions will assume importance where there are unforeseen delays in
the course of the transaction or in the event that the parties decide to
not proceed with the transaction.
Key Investment Terms

Although the primary intent of a term sheet is to capture the broad
commercial understanding of the parties, as mentioned above, the
clauses of a term sheet are not necessarily limited to commercial terms
and as such, the following key terms usually form part of investment
term sheets:
proposed investment amount and valuation criteria,
instruments through which the investor would invest (equity shares,
preference shares or debentures),
conditions to be fulfilled prior to investment (including regulatory, contractual
and internal approvals of parties, completion of financial, technical and legal
due diligence, finalization and execution of the transaction documents),
governance rights of the investor (observer rights, board seat,
committee seat),
protection sought by the investor by way of affirmative rights, consent
stipulations and negative covenants at the board and shareholder
levels,
lock-in periods and mutual restrictions on transfer of shares,
exit rights of the investor tag/ drag along rights enabling the
investors to opt for the sale of their shareholding in the investee
company, put option and/or initial public offering of the investee
company.
Depending on the negotiations between an investor and the investee

company, the anti-dilution clauses can also contain carve outs through
which the issuance of securities by the investee company in specified
cases will not trigger an investor's dilution protection rights such as,
issue of stock options by the company, conversion of pre-existing
convertible securities. An investee company would need to think ahead
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
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TERM SHEETS Investment Terms: Anti Dilution and Liquidation
what its funding requirements are likely to be since such clauses, apart
from limiting the investee company's right to approach third parties for
funding, may place operational constraints, should an opportunity/
scenario arise for which funds may be required in a fairly expedited
manner.
Common methods for implementing the anti-dilution clauses,
particularly with respect to convertible securities include the issuance of
shares to the existing investor at zero or minimum consideration,
adjustment to the conversion ratio, or issue of bonus shares to the
investor. These present a number of challenges from the Indian
regulatory perspective. In the case of foreign investments, the
regulations prescribe pricing guidelines for determining the floor price
applicable to the investment. Additionally, the conversion price or
formula (for convertible instruments) is required to be declared upfront.
Therefore, if any of these anti-dilution adjustments are not aligned to
the prescribed pricing criteria then approval of the Reserve Bank of India
will become necessary. The Companies Act, 2013 (Act) also poses
challenges since it requires that preferential issuances are at a fair value
determined by a registered valuer who will also provide the conversion
price or price band for the securities.
Liquidation Preference
A liquidation preference clause is designed to protect an investor against
specific events such as a winding up, insolvency of the company or its
promoters, sale of substantial shares or assets, merger or even a change
in control of the company. Liquidation preference clauses essentially
provide that in the event the company is liquidated or upon the
occurrence of specified events, the investor will receive a certain amount
of the proceeds before any other shareholder. The variations to the
liquidation preference clauses include, (a) the investor agreeing to
receive its investment amount or an agreed amount in preference to
other shareholders (a non-participating preferred right), or (b) a right
where the investor would not only be entitled to its original investment
amount in preference to other shareholders, but also to a double dip,
i.e., a right to demand its share in the surplus left over for the equity
shareholders after the initial distributions.
Liquidation preference clauses may be enforceable between the parties,
but in some cases there may be practical impediments to the
implementation of these rights, for instance the enforceability of a
liquidation preference provision in the context of a winding up of the
company is yet to be tested in Indian courts and the Act does not oblige a
liquidator to be guided by the terms of the agreement amongst the
parties and therefore the provision may not be implemented as
envisaged.
In conclusion
Whether the parties negotiate a detailed term sheet which captures
more than the key terms discussed above or a very brief one which
captures only the critical commercial matters, it is a key document both
from the perspective of the investor as well as the company/ founder,
which sets the tone for the next stages of the transaction and acts as a
guide to the parties. As such, the company and the founder need to
focus not only on the commercial terms but on all the provisions that
get included in the term sheet and negotiate these terms appropriately
and with assistance from counsel.
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
About Cyril
Amarchand Mangaldas
Our Core Values:

Global Approach:
Corporate
Projects
Disputes
Banking & Finance
Capital Markets
Competition
Employment
Real Estate
Private Client
Tax
TMT
Investment Funds
Bankruptcy
Investigations
Key Contact:
Mr. Cyril S. Shroff
Managing Partner
Our Offices
Mumbai
Tel: +91 22 2496 4455
New Delhi
Tel: +91 11 6622 9000
Bengaluru
Tel: +91 80 2558 4870
Hyderabad
Tel: +91 40 6633 6622
Ahmedabad
Tel: +91 79 2468 7900
Chennai
Tel: +91 44 6668 4455
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
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Reeba Chacko
Partner
Areas of expertise
: Private Equity & Venture Capital; Mergers &

Acquisitions; General Corporate
Qualification
: Bar Council of Delhi, India
Contact
: +91 80 2558 4870

reeba.chacko@cyrilshroff.com
Reeba Chacko is a Partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, presently heading the Bangalore office, and has been with the firm since 1999. She
is also the Co-Head of the Firm's General Corporate practice (that includes mergers and acquisitions, private equity, general corporate
advisory) in the Mumbai region (viz. Mumbai and South India). She also supports the other South practices of the firm including in Chennai
and Hyderabad.
Reeba specializes in private equity / venture capital investments, mergers & acquisitions, takeover and joint ventures. She handles transactions
including inbound as well as outbound acquisitions, private equity and venture capital investments, corporate restructuring, entry strategies in
restricted sectors and other structured investments. She advises both buy side and sell side in strategic sale transactions in India as well as
financial investor stake sales.
She brings to the table her vast experience working with foreign clients as well as international counsel structuring complex private equity
deals, mergers and acquisitions spanning several jurisdictions, advising clients on Indian acquisition strategies, foreign exchange control
regulations and other regulatory aspects. She represents both several leading private equity funds as well as several large Indian corporates in
connection with investments into companies engaged in business in various sectors in India. Her work experience ranges across various sectors
including real estate and infrastructure, technology, retail and ecommerce, pharmaceuticals & healthcare, defence and education, to name a
few.
Reeba is ranked in Band I for Corporate M&A: Bengaluru by Chambers Asia 2011 and Chambers Asia 2012 which says Bengaluru practice head
Reeba Chacko continues to impress with a solid work product. Sources agree she is an incredibly competent practitioner (Chambers Asia 2011).
She is named as a recommended PE lawyer by Chambers Asia 2012 for Private Equity. Chambers Asia 2013 sources note that she is meticulous,
process-oriented and a good deal manager. Reeba has also been named in Who's Who Legal The International Who's Who of Business Lawyers
- Mergers & Acquisitions 2012 as one of the thirteen named lawyers from India.
She has graduated from National Law School of India University, Bengaluru and has completed her LL.M from London School of Economics &
Political Science (LSE).

201, midford house, midford garden, off. m.g. road, bengaluru - 560 001, india.
Tel: +91 80 2558 4870 | Fax: +91 80 2558 4266 | Email: cam.bengaluru@cyrilshroff.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Ritika Rathi
Partner
Areas of expertise
: Mergers & Acquisitions; Joint Ventures & Private Equity
Qualification
: Bar Council of Delhi, India,

Bachelor of Law from Delhi University
Contact
: +91 11 6622 9000

ritika.rathi@cyrilshroff.com
Ritika Rathi is a Partner with Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas and is based out of the Delhi office.
She is part of the Firm's corporate team. Her practice covers diverse areas of corporate commercial laws including advising on inbound and
outbound investments, joint ventures, private equity, business acquisition and restructuring, along with corporate and regulatory advisory.
She has advised numerous Indian and foreign clients across sectors which include, real estate, pharma, financial services, broadcasting, travel
and hospitality, telecom, insurance and retail.
Prior to joining the firm, Ritika was a partner with AZB and Partners.

4th floor, religare building, d-3, district centre, saket, new delhi 110 017, india.
Tel: +91 11 6622 9000 | Fax: +91 11 6622 9009 | Email: cam.delhi@cyrilshroff.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
The life of an entrepreneur

before & after funding
POWERED BY
By Madhumita Prabhakar
Someone asked a coffee entrepreneur, a billionaire, in New York; what's
your story? And he said, somebody loaned me 50 cents, I bought a cup
of coffee from a nearby stall, sold it to a customer for one dollar, invested
that dollar, sold one more coffee and made two dollars. I followed the
same pattern week after week. At the end of one month, I met a
billionaire's daughter and married her
this is the story Ajith Karimpana, founder and CEO of online furniture
rental firm, Furlenco, narrates as he began his talk at The Smart CEOStartup50 Conference & Awards (where Venture Intelligence was the
Data Partner) about the 'Life of an entrepreneur before and after
funding'.
Now, here's how his story goes.
Karimpana founded Furlenco at a time when the concept of online
furniture rental was still uncommon in India. Being a passive
entrepreneur at first, he undertook projects only from expats and ones
which came through references. It was only when he decided to soak
both feet into the business that he and his team began fulfilling more
customer orders. As Karimpana indicates, between January 2012 and
November 2014, Furlenco undertook 180 orders for customers in
Bengaluru. While that enhanced the company's value proposition, being
an asset heavy model (wherein for every furniture the company invests X
amount of money and receives Y amount on rentals), it soon ran out of
money and furniture. That's when Karimpana began to actively scout for
external funding from venture investors.
The Early Stage

To put it in perspective, Furlenco was initially funded by family and
friends (along with Karimpana's own investments), up to Rs. 20 lakh.
However, as the founder says in his own words, 80 per cent of the
money goes into manufacturing assets. So, with that money we could
hardly furnish ten homes. Hence, as early as 2013, Karimpana began
his search for potential investors, only to be turned down by close to 50
of them. The company was faced with several challenges at this point;
lack of sufficient funds to manufacture furniture, lack of money in bank
account to pay employee salaries and more. A chance conversation
with a college senior on Facebook Messenger and my persuasion led him
to invest Rs. 50 lakh into the business and eight months later, Lightbox
Ventures invested a Series A of Rs. 38 crore into the business. The
investors observed the company for close to eight months before
investing. With this round from Lightbox, we proved that even assetheavy businesses can raise money from VCs, he adds.
But, the story doesn't end here. Pre and post-funding, a startup
undergoes significant changes in terms of time, money and resources. In
this article, we detail some of the key changes a venture and the
entrepreneur goes through after raising capital from outside.
What happens to your employees?

Pre-funding, my wife used to say she hardly sees me at home. Postfunding, my employees claim the same, chuckles Karimpana. He
observes that post-funding, most of the entrepreneur's time goes into
hiring, charting out growth plans, meetings with investors and of course,
working with the senior team to ensure operations is on track. However,

one big difference after fund-raising is that you tend to delegate more,
since you have the financial ability to hire more people, setup processes
and systems and the headroom to make a few senior hires.
Pre-funding, the buck stopped with me. I used to assign work to
empoyees and challenge them he reveals and adds, However, today,
the tables have turned. When your employees are passionate about
what they do, they will act as entrepreneurs and design strategies to
grow the business. At such time, you need to be in a position to catch up
with them and give your nod of approval.
Drawing the line of control

As a single entrepreneur, pre-funding, Karimpana was familiar with
every going on in the company; right from the office boy's woes to
progress being made growth-wise. However, post-funding, he
reinstates that it is important for the founder to empower other
employees to take control of the business.
Clarity of communication
When you are a small company, you communicate to five to seven
senior team members who will convey the same to the other 20
employees. At such time, if you have conveyed something wrong, you
can always go back and rectify it. However, post funding, when you
run a business with 150 employees, you must ensure that you
communicate (especially your vision) clearly even to the 130th
employee. Every decision made at every level needs to be in sync with
the founder's vision, explains Karimpana. Internal communication
needs a lot more focus after fund-raising.
Staying motivated
When I took the first order for my business, the furniture took 48 days
to get ready. When it did, the truck (carrying it) met with an accident on
the day of delivery. I was personally working on sorting this out. Then
again, in January 2014, 14 days before salary was due to employees, I
was left with just Rs. 5,000 in my bank account. It was upto me to deal
with this, recalls Karimpana and adds that as an entrepreneur, you will
face several such circumstances where things won't go as planned. At
such time, it is important to stay motivated and identify possible
solutions to the problem. For example, when the company was met
with the challenge of lack of funds to pay salaries, Karimpana
reconnected with a college senior who agreed to invest Rs. 50 lakh into
the business. From thereon, the company began doubling in sales every
month and its revenues began growing six times month on month.
Now, it would've been a different case if you had investor-backing.
Then, you would've had their support to overcome this challenge. he
opines. Essentially, the point Karimpana is making is that pre-funding, it
is upto the entrepreneur to steer the venture. There is very little help
internally, so one has to be a hustler while dealing with problems.
These are very few anecdotes on how the life of an entrepreneur will
change before and after fund-raising. The point is, as an entrepreneur,
you should be prepared for this kind of a change.
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
THE LIFE OF AN ENTREPRENEUR BEFORE & AFTER FUNDING BY MADHUMITA PRABHAKAR

Today, Furlenco has launched operations in Mumbai and has done fairly well in terms of sales in Bengaluru. As Karimpana says, tounge in cheek,
Ultimately, the basic difference between pre and post funding is just a bunch of zeroes added here and there.
As is often repeated, from a day-to-day role standpoint, the entrepreneur's routine may change drastically post-funding. But one thing is for sure, a
good entrepreneur's passion and commitment to the business will never die down. The key is to realize that things are bound to change, the pressure
to build scale is a lot more, challenges are more, you need to manage more people and it is this passion that'll keep you going
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Early Stage Investments And Legal

Due Diligence: Issues For Consideration
1.How critical is a legal due diligence for an early

stage investment?
As with any investment decision, an early stage investment should also
be ideally undertaken after due diligence on the target start-up entity
(Start-up Target). Whilst the due diligence exercise would typically be
on technical, financial, tax, operational and legal matters, an additional
facet of diligence in case of a start-up would be regarding the business
plan of the start-up and its viability. Whilst each of these diligences deal
with specific areas of operations, a legal due diligence provides a picture
of the how compliant the Start-up Target has been during its existence
and the legal exposure involved. It also helps in identifying the regulatory
landscape within which the Start-up Target operates and the relevant
risks thereto. Apart from understanding the operational constraints this
may present, including on account of growing/expanding the business, a
legal diligence also reveals non-compliances, if any.
2.How is it different from a legal due diligence on

an established entity?
As the operations of a Start-up Target would be fairly limited, legal due
diligence thereto would be lesser than in case of an established entity.
However, as mentioned above, one of the key differentiators in a legal
diligence on a Start-up Target in the start-up space would also be to
understand the regulatory landscape within which the Start-up Target
operates. Accordingly, it is important, especially where the Start-up
Target is involved in a niche business, to understand if Indian regulations
around the said business are clear or if there is a grey area around the
permissibility of the business, itself or if the business presents challenges
around scalability and continuance/ expansion.
3.What are the practical issues that a potential

investor may come across during the diligence?
Many Start-up Targets typically throw up a predictable set of challenges
for a potential investor (Investor) who is trying to carry out a legal due
diligence and the most common among these is the lack of sufficient
information/documents. A Start-up Target usually functions with a lean
and mean team and seldom does the team focus on legal matters or on
engaging with lawyers/ law firms. As such, apart from compliance
related matters, maintenance of corporate records and other filings may
be oft-delayed. Accordingly, a legal due diligence reveals noncompliances, if any, and the clean-up costs of the same and the severity
of the penalties imposed. Such diligence also assists the Investor in
determining the extent to which it would want to be involved in the daytoday operational affairs of the Start-up Target.
4.What are the legal issues that one may expect to

encounter when carrying out diligence on a startup?
Apart from the apparent issues pertaining to the presence of investors in
the Start-up Target (who are sometimes investors in an entity competing
with the Start-up Target as well) and the special rights available to them,
or the presence of a sub-stratum/ an asset base of the Start-up Target
and its overleveraging, multiple other issues may emerge pursuant to a
legal due diligence on a Start-up Target.
A key issue that is relevant for various internet based start ups
today, including radio taxi aggregators and e-commerce platforms,
is the lack of clarity on the regulatory regime applicable to them.
This is notwithstanding the recent liberalisation of Indias Foreign
Direct Investment Policy, which allows manufacturers to sell their
products through wholesale and/or retail, including through ecommerce platforms, without prior government approval. It is to
be seen whether the trend of e-commerce platforms establishing
physical stores impacts the regulatory analyses of their operational
status. An illustration in this context would be the multiple cases
that one of the most prominent e-commerce websites faces in the
Delhi High Court and the Kerala High Court to examine the legality
of operating on a purported marketplace model and offering
discounts on products that are not manufactured by it. Whilst the
matter is currently sub-judice, an adverse decision by the courts
regarding this website may negatively impact the businesses in
question. Similarly, very recently the Union Governments
Commerce Ministry has ordered the Enforcement Directorate and
the Reserve Bank of India to see if certain such e-commerce
platforms are engaging in prohibited B2C activities. The Delhi High
Court has recently taken on record the Enforcement Directorates
investigation of 21 e-commerce websites for violation of Indian
foreign direct investment regulations. Another case in point is the
ban of certain app based taxi aggregators on the grounds of
violation of the Radio Taxi Scheme of the Government of the
National Capital Territory of Delhi and the ongoing case in the Delhi
High Court where two prominent aggregators are parties. As such,
apart from obtaining clarity on the business model that the Startup Target follows, an independent analysis would also have to be
undertaken as to the regulatory regime the Start-up Target
functions within and its scalability. For instance, if the Start-up
Target functions as a LLP, approvals would be required for further
funding.
Additionally, a diligence would also assist an Investor in identifying
the terms and conditions of employment of the promoters and
other key employees. The Investor would be keen on the
promoters and the key employees of the Start-up Target
continuing post-investment and continuing to operate the Startup Target in accordance with the business plan. As such, the legal
due diligence would assist the Investor in understanding whether
the relevant protection built in into the engagement/ employment
related documentation is adequate or if further protection would
be required.
As mentioned above, a legal due diligence would also reveal the
degree of non-compliances in the Start-up Target and it would
assist the Start-up Target in putting in place a policy/ manual of
SOPs that would avoid such non-compliances in the future.
Lastly, diligence findings typically end up reflecting in the
transaction documents in the form of representations/warranties,
indemnities and conditions precedent, each intended to provide
the Investor with a layer of protection and comfort around existing
legal/ operational issues. In the case of a Start-up Target,
conditions precedent may often be more significant as the Start-up
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
EARLY STAGE INVESTMENTS AND LEGAL DUE DILIGENCE: ISSUES FOR CONSIDERATION
Target would need to address non-compliances and/or the various risks identified as part of the legal due diligence.
As such, as much as the diligence process assists the Investor in its investment decision, it would also assist the Start-up Target in understanding,
appreciating and addressing its risks that may have hitherto been not focused upon given the size of its team or the pace of its operations.
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
About Cyril
Amarchand Mangaldas
Our Core Values:

Global Approach:
Corporate
Projects
Disputes
Banking & Finance
Capital Markets
Competition
Employment
Real Estate
Private Client
Tax
TMT
Investment Funds
Bankruptcy
Investigations
Key Contact:
Mr. Cyril S. Shroff
Managing Partner
Our Offices
Mumbai
Tel: +91 22 2496 4455
New Delhi
Tel: +91 11 6622 9000
Bengaluru
Tel: +91 80 2558 4870
Hyderabad
Tel: +91 40 6633 6622
Ahmedabad
Tel: +91 79 2468 7900
Chennai
Tel: +91 44 6668 4455
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Vandana Shroff
Partner
Areas of expertise
: General Corporate; Financing;

Private Equity and Funds
Contact
: +91 22 2496 4455

vandana.shroff@cyrilshroff.com
Vandana Shroff is a Partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas. She has over 28 years of wide-ranging experience in general corporate matters
and specific expertise in private equity and funds related areas.
She has extensive experience in corporate law and has been advising both domestic and international clients on all aspects of its activities,
including mergers, acquisitions, restructuring, foreign investment and commercial agreements.
She has acted for several foreign and domestic private equity funds and venture capitalists, both in public and private investments and has
handled all aspects, including due diligence, regulatory fillings, open offers and other compliance issues. Her clientele includes blue-chip
private equity funds across a range of geographies. rkets. He has also undertaken pro bono work for certain foreign not-for-profit entities
towards restructuring of their operations in India.

VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Anshuman Jaiswal
Partner
Areas of expertise
: General Corporate Advisory
Qualification
: Bar Council of the State of Andhra Pradesh
Contact
: +91 22 2496 4455

anshuman.jaiswal@cyrilshroff.com
Anshuman Jaiswal is a Partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas, Mumbai. Anshuman specializes in transactional and corporate advisory matters
and has assisted foreign and domestic entities with a multitude of matters, including acquisitions, joint ventures, strategic investments,
structuring entry into India and establishment of operations, commercial contracting and advice on specific regulatory compliances (sectorspecific and otherwise). Some of the sectors in which Anshuman has been thus involved include infrastructure (in the telecom, power and EPC
sub-space), education, mining (including the establishment of Asia's first mineral beneficiation plant, amongst other matters), oil drilling
(offshore), manufacturing sector (heavy industries as well as SME space), pharma and biotech, hospitals/ health care, BFSI, microfinance,
hospitality, telecom software and real estate/construction.
In addition to this, Anshuman has advised various companies and investment banks on securities offerings in Indian and international markets
and has acted on various landmark offerings by Indian entities across diverse sectors including infrastructure, insurance, banking, hospitals,
newsprint, microfinance and IT/ITES.
Anshuman has further undertaken pro bono work for certain not-for-profit entities towards restructuring of operations in India and advising
them on day-to-day compliance related matters. As a part of his pro-bono initiatives, Anshuman has co-published a legal handbook for startups in India. He has also been featured in leading Indian dailies in relation to promoting legal education in India and promoting investments
into India.
Anshuman co-heads the Firm's Korea Desk and has advised Korean companies in relation to their investments into India and their operations in
India.
Anshuman graduated in 2003 from the National Academy of Legal Studies and Research, Hyderabad and has been with the Firm since.

VENTURE
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Handbook on
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Accelerator,
Angel or VC How to choose?
What type of seed capital investor should entrepreneurs prefer - if they have the luxury of a choice between accelerators, incubators, angel
investors and VC firms?
ASHWANI GAUR
MUKUND MOHAN
"As a first time entrepreneur, especially straight out

of college, friends and family funding is not readily
available. At this stage, Accelerators are a good
option. In India, angel investors seem to come with
their own agendas. At the very early stage, when
you might have to pivot your business model a
couple of times, to have someone breathe down your neck might not be
such a good idea. Accelerators are however professionally run and they
give you sufficient flexibility and exposure to attract the next round
investors," said Ashwani Gaur, Founder, Oku Tech & Playcez, while
speaking at the Venture Intelligence APEX'15 PE/VC Summit.
"(I would recommend) to get the right investors at

the right stage of your company. At the early
stage, angel and seed stage firms make sense, and
later on using their help to get VC's is a good
approach," says Mukund Mohan, former head of
Microsoft Ventures (in a blog post titled "Does raising
institutional money at the seed stage help or hurt?").
SATEESH ANDRA
Accelerators should not try and be all things to all
people. They are great for fast moving businesses like Internet, Mobility, Cloud-based technologies,
etc. - which need things to be put on a fast track.
But you cannot accelerate anything for a Retail
consumer company, said Sateesh Andra,
Managing Partner of VenturEast Tenet Fund while speaking at the
Venture Intelligence APEX'13 PE/VC Summit.
Companies that require longer gestation and diligence (to solidify their
business model) - like ventures in Cleantech, Medical Devices, etc should go to incubators. Angel networks are good for very domain
specific businesses where the entrepreneur is fairly seasoned and
already knows what they want to do. Seed funds can bet up to a $1
million even on concepts, but need to see full fledged teams, he added.
According to him, the downside of raising seed capital from a VC firm

includes the signalling effect if they refuse to invest in the follow on
round (and) the likelihood of them investing in other competing startups
in the same space.
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Employee stock option plan

for Private companies
Start-up companies are keen to hire and retain talent in an increasingly
challenging environment. Since typically they are not cash-rich until they
are able to raise funding, it becomes imperative to structure incentives in
innovative ways. Employee Stock Option Plans are one way in which to
do so. In this article, we address frequently encountered queries on
ESOPs.
An employee stock ownership plan (ESOP Scheme) is an equitybased, deferred compensation plan for the employees of a company. To
put it simply, Employee Stock Options (Options) are options granted
(typically, for no cost) to certain employees (based on eligibility
parameters) which gives such eligible employees a right (but not an
obligation) to purchase shares of the company at a fixed price, called the
Strike Price or the Exercise Price. Since the Exercise Price stays fixed
over a period of time, the employee holding the Option expects to see an
upswing in the value of the shares underlying the Options over a period
of time and hopes that upon exercising his Options for the
corresponding number of shares and selling such shares, he will see a
substantial return on his Options.
Eligible Employees
Factors governing Vesting

As per the Act, vesting of the Options may only commence after the
expiry of 12 (twelve) months from the date of grant of the Options.
Typically, the shares vest in equal tranches over an annualized schedule
of 3-4 years. Some companies also may provide for Accelerated
Vesting of the Options. Accelerated Vesting of Options is a scenario
where the unvested Options of certain or all employees are immediately
vested upon the occurrence of a change of control / merger scenario.
Employees are able to monetize their Options when the company is
acquired especially when they are not offered a comparable role in the
acquired entity.
Determination of Exercise Price

Exercise price payable by an employee is generally lower than the fair
market value of the shares (FMV) in order to incentivize the employee
to participate in the equity holding of the company. The exercise price
may be equal to the par value or at a discount to FMV, as determined by
the company. In most early stage companies, the shares are offered at
par value and as the company matures, the exercise price is revised and
is given at a discount to the FMV.
The Companies Act, 2013 (the Act) defines an Employee to mean:
Separation of the Employee
(a) a permanent employee of the company working in India or out of

India; or
The Act contemplates the manner in which companies are required to

deal with unvested Options in the event of resignation, termination
(without cause), death and permanent incapacity. Companies may
however, in addition, specify (i) the manner in which the Options
(vested and unvested) of an employee terminated for cause (for
instance, gross negligence, willful misconduct, fraud etc.) will be dealt
with; and (ii) require the employee to transfer the shares held by
him/her to the (a) company; (b) the promoters; (c) the investors; (d)
another employee; (e) an ESOP trust; or (f) to any other person: on
terms and conditions as the company may deem fit, to ensure that the
capitalization table of the company does not get fragmented.
(b) a whole-time director of the company; or

- an employee as defined in (a) or (b) above, of the subsidiary of the
company in India or out of India or of a holding company, but does
not include (i) an employee who is a promoter or a person belonging
to the promoter group; and (ii) a director who either himself or
through his relative or through anybody corporate, directly or
indirectly, holds more than 10% of the outstanding equity shares of
the company.
The Company may prescribe additional eligibility criteria for determining
eligible employees.
Re-Transfer of Exercised Shares
Reconciling existing ESOP Schemes with the

Companies Act 2013
Buyback of exercised shares by private companies are governed by the

Act. The Act imposes several compliances on buy-backs including the
requirement to purchase shares from its free reserves. Given this
restriction, alternate structures have been adopted by companies.
These include:
For a company which has granted Options prior to the coming into force
of the Act (i.e. before April 2014), the previous Companies Act, 1956
shall continue to apply and the company can execute separate stock
option agreements with such employees specifying the terms and
conditions applicable on their Options. In these agreements, it may be
specified that the term of the agreement shall be until the expiry of the
exercise period for the last of the vested Options and that all Options
granted to them after April 2014 will be governed by the company's new
ESOP Scheme.
(a) Purchase by promoters / investor: This mode of purchase may be

difficult for the company to implement if it has multiple investors.
(b) Purchase by employees replacing the separating employee:
This mode of purchase may not always work unless the employee
is agreeable to purchase shares using his personal funds.
(c) Purchase by ESOP Trusts: Under this mode, the shares are
transferred to the existing ESOP pool for future grants.
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Handbook on
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Employee stock option plan for Private companies
Retaining Control over Exercised Shares
Alternative Structures
Shareholder rights: Retaining control over the shareholders' rights is

crucial for companies since certain matters under the Act require
unanimous consent of all shareholders. To ensure employees do not
exercise their vote in an adverse manner, companies may consider
adopting the following:
An ESOP Scheme may not always be a viable mode of incentivizing

employees, especially where the company does not intend for the
employees to become shareholders of the company or for other
commercial or tax-related reasons. Stock Appreciation Rights (SAR)
and Phantom Stocks (detailed below) are two kinds of cashless stock
based/ stock indexed incentive plans.
(a) Power of attorney (POA): Companies may require every employee

to execute a POA in favour of a promoter/ ESOP trustee and
authorize such persons to exercise all his shareholder rights.
(b)Proxy:ESOP Shareholders may be required to appoint approved
proxies who will vote on their behalf at general meetings.
Share transfers: An employee may be subject to several share transfer
restrictions by the company. This includes, imposition of a lock-in period;
restriction on sale to competitors; permitting the employee to sell the
shares to an ESOP trust; requiring the employee to seek the Company's
approval before any share transfer; requiring the employee to first offer
the shares to the existing shareholders of the company; binding the
employee with 'drag-along' clauses; or such other restrictions as
prescribed in the Articles of Association of the company.
SAR: In this scheme, the employee is eligible to receive cash/shares for

an amount equal to the difference between the FMV and the exercise
price of the stock of the company over a specified duration. In the event
the SARs are equity settled, the employee is required to pay the face
value for the shares. From an accounting perspective, SAR is
expenditure for the company.
Phantom Stock: Phantom stock is akin to a long-term deferred
consideration paid to the employee, where the benefit is indexed to the
stock of the company. The compensation value keeps fluctuating
depending on the value of the shares of the company. The benefit is
cash-settled on the basis of the share price as on date of settlement.
* The responses provided through this primer do not constitute legal advice or tax
advice and should not be construed as such.
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POWERED BY
The Business Plan Document 2.0

There is enough literature online about why a formal business plan is obsolete in today's age of disruptive technologies and rapid
change. Of course, entrepreneurs-turned-authors, Eric Ries and Steve Blank, the pioneers of the 'Lean Startup' movement, have
propagated the concept of 'Build-Measure-Learn' to encourage entrepreneurs to launch 'Minimum Viable Products', measure and
learn from the experience of early customers, gather feedback on product features, pricing, distribution, etc. and then use this
learning to launch the next version of the product. Ries and Blank believe it is impossible to put together a five-year business plan, like
it was done several years back, simply because of the rapid change in the environment. Quiet simply, it is impossible to predict what a
customer will want or how the market will look like even two years out.
However, it is crucial to have some element of 'business planning' even as entrepreneurs pursue the cycle of 'Build-Measure-Learn'. In
this article, we stitch together ideas on what needs to go into a new age business plan document, in addition to the usual suspects.
(The ideas for this article have been borrowed from various interviews conducted by The Smart CEO Magazine).
By Team Smart CEO
1. Define your company, its USP, its culture

One key point that needs to make its way into the business plan
document is 'explaining' the primary goal of the company you're
building. Defining the company, its role in the world, its culture
and how its people will come together to build something are key
elements that need to be documented.
Such a document will help the co-founders and key employees
understand the broader goal of the venture you are setting out to
build and importantly, behave and act according to its values and
culture.
Lakshmi Narayanan, Vice Chairman, Cognizant Technology
Solutions, says, While implementing your processes, you need
to identify what you want your company to be recognised for.
Management experts say that a company could excel in one of
these three areas innovation, customer experience or
operations. If you look at Apple, it is recognised for its
innovation. But, there are other companies in the world that are
far better, operationally. So we need to understand that we
hardly see a single company that excels in all three areas.
At Cognizant, we actually came into the industry when there
were several large players. In the first few years, we were figuring
things out. Once we reached US $2 million in revenues, we
discussed this internally and said to ourselves - we do not have
the deep pockets to be innovation-driven, but let us relentlessly
focus on customer-experience.
The business plan needs to articulate such details, to ensure the
company's entire population is on the same page.
2.Strategy Formulation
Conventional wisdom encourages building a great team (of people
smarter than you) and delegating as much as possible. However,
K. Ganesh, the serial entrepreneur, suggests that certain jobs
should never be delegated.
According to Ganesh, three key tasks - driving strategy, building the

core team and raising money in the early-phase must always be the
responsibility of the founder.
In several of his ventures, Ganesh often had to modify the business
model, tweak an operational process or even completely change the
business strategy. He says, Handholding strategy is the most important
responsibility of an entrepreneur.
But, the question is how does the formulated strategy make its way into
the business plan document? For a budding entrepreneur, it is important
to realize that this part of the business plan is a continuously evolving
process. But, documenting it will ensure clarity in strategy at any given
point in time.
Irrespective of whether a strategy is working or not, noting down the
key metrics, making sense of it and tweaking strategy is the primary job
of an entrepreneur.
3.Hiring
Another key aspect that needs to be included into the business plan is
your hiring strategy. Vinod Khosla, the renowned Silicon Valley investor,
recommends a 'hire to mitigate risks' strategy while recruiting for
technology-driven ventures. Essentially, his point is, when there is a
technology risk in your venture, identify the key risks and hire people
who have the expertise to mitigate these risks.
If your startup is all about getting the execution right, then roll out a
watertight process, and hire people who can ensure delivery of each
process. Of course, all this is easily said than done. But, having a
business plan that details the people roadmap will certainly help.
Girish Mathrubootham, founder and CEO of Freshdesk, says, one
should always hire people for their inherent talent and what there are
instinctively passionate about.
Freshdesk is also now well known in the SaaS industry for its unique
culture of offering freedom to its employees. Girish says, it was a book
titled 'First break all the rules' that influenced him heavily on this subject.
He explains, The book taught me the difference between skill,
knowledge and talent. The author actually says something like 'you
VENTURE
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Handbook on
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THE BUSINESS PLAN DOCUMENT 2.0

cannot put inside you, what God intentionally left out'. To me, this was
an eye opener. People must be hired for the inherent talent they have. If
someone is extremely excited about content writing or brand building, if
you put them in those roles, they do very well.
Today, at Freshdesk, Girish focuses on finding the right talent for the
various roles and gives them the freedom to do their jobs. This approach
is at the core of the Freshdesk culture.
Now, while putting together your business plan, it may make sense to
put together the people roadmap with this tip in mind.
4.Your Failure Plan

Planning for failure a failed product launch, failed strategy, etc. is
often never included in a business plan. Traditionally, business plans are
about several assumptions on how the business will pan out.
Ries' Lean Startup Movement and Blank's Business Model Canvas
recommend that you arrive at a business model after several
experiments and based on real customer data.
But the key here is to ensure that you don't fail so bad, that you cannot
get back up on your feet.
Biocon founder and Chairperson, Kiran Mazumdhar-Shaw, often
says, The important thing is to learn from failure and give it another go.
Sometimes, you may have to give up. But that doesn't mean you go so
far that your company doesn't have the financial wherewithal to rise
again.
For fledgling entrepreneurs, it is crucial to understand and document
that upper limit of financial failure, and prepare to fail way before hitting
the limit so there is room to take corrective action.
5.Plan B
This point is in line with the 'Lean Startup' model suggested by Eric Ries.
John Mullins, Professor at London Business Professor and the
author of the book 'Getting to Plan B' says, There are two ways you
can formulate your business model. You can pull numbers out of thin air
and hope, or, you can base your assumptions on some kind of evidence.
Our advice to entrepreneurs is that most ideas are not completely
unique. When Steve Jobs invented the iPod, he had data from Sony's
Walkman, which had sold more than 300,000 units. You gather that
data and it will give you some insights.
Let us take the story of Jeff Bezos of Amazon. Bezos raised money really
early with the assumption that he could sell books online. It hadn't been
done before, so he didn't know for sure if it would work, but as soon as
he launched Amazon, he started measuring. Are people willing to pay
for shipping? What kind of discounts do they expect online? There were
a whole bunch of metrics he vigorously tracked and this was crucial for
him.
The point Mullins is making is to make decisions from your own
customer data or data from other businesses. Entrepreneurs would do
well to identify what key metrics they need to track and include that into
the business plan document. According to Mullins, it is empirically
proven that the Plan A of most businesses fail. The very purpose of the
first few years of your startup to arrive at a Plan B (or Plan C or D) that
works.
6.Scaling all aspects

Mindtree's co-founder and Chairman Subroto Bagchi believes, too
many entrepreneurs are trying to scale up their ventures on a weak

foundation. He says, Think of your enterprise as a continuous effort to
create infrastructure physical, emotional and intellectual.
He says, I maintain that systems and processes alone help you scale up.
They cannot be an afterthought. Too many entrepreneurs think of
crossing the ocean over a bamboo bridge. It works only for the Gods.
Sometimes, it may even work for a human being. But it is not scalable.
Think of your enterprise as a continuous effort to create infrastructure.
Build the physical infrastructure with love; build the intellectual
infrastructure (of which systems and processes are a part) with future
value in mind and build the emotional infrastructure based on the idea
of legacy.
From a business plan perspective, it is highly recommended that
entrepreneurs clearly document the following three needs as the scaling
up journey starts; one, the physical infrastructure, two, systems and
processes and three, people roadmap.
Of course, this scale up phase comes much after the early days;
nevertheless it is important for the founders to understand this at the
business planning stage itself.
7.Brand
In addition to the people, physical and process infrastructure, your
company will slowly have a persona, much like people do. It is crucial to
'handcraft' and 'build' this brand persona through careful messaging,
positioning and communication.
From a business plan documentation perspective, it would be very
helpful to identify the tasks at hand to carefully nurture this brand.
Eventually, a brand is built by what it means to three key entities
employees, shareholders and customers. Suppliers, industry bodies and
other related stakeholders will play a role as well.
It is also important to understand here that the timeframe to build a
brand has shortened drastically, thanks to the digital world we live in
today. While Coke and Unilever took eons to evolve into a brand,
brands like Facebook and Twitter established within two years or less.
In an Indian context, Krishnan Ganesh believes that the size of the
country offers a wonderful opportunity to create new brands in very
little time, as little as 2-3 years. He says, Across the country, be it Tier-I,
Tier-II or Tier-III cities, people are hungry for brands. And, he believes
that this provides the opportunity for startups to create brands in microniche segments.
From a cost perspective, building a brand in India costs much less when
compared to what one spends on building a brand in the developed
markets. He also believes that a brand is built much faster today. Ganesh
says, New technologies and social media gives us a huge opportunity
to build brands today, which 20 years ago, would have taken a lot more
time to build. Ganesh has led the brand development activities (within
2 years) of several startups including BigBasket and BlueStone. This was
possible only because both these companies solved unique problems in
a very specific category. For example, BigBasket has built a solid brand in
the specific segment of home delivery of grocery products.
The takeaway here is that, your company's strategy and brand go handin-hand. Is it possible for you to position your company uniquely, in a
world filled with startups and entrepreneurs? This is a question your
business plan must answer.
VENTURE
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THE BUSINESS PLAN DOCUMENT 2.0
In Conclusion
As you probably already realize, the seven points suggested above (not exhaustive by any means) are suggestions on what needs to go into a
business plan document, for the self-reference of the founders.
We felt that movements like 'Lean Startup' and 'Business Model Canvas' sometimes resulted in early-stage entrepreneurs ignoring the business plan
document completely. However, this document, with the right corrections made, can serve as a very useful tool to modify and fine-tune strategy and
operations as the business scales.
The Business Plan document is not only used to raise money and send to potential investors, but also a key record that details the finer nuances of a
company's game plan for the benefit of its co-founders.
VENTURE
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Introduction and overview

Samvd: Partners is a partner-led, solution-oriented law firm, formed by the merger of Narasappa, Doraswamy & Raja (NDR) and V Chambers
of Law. The Firm is committed to providing smart and quality legal advice to our clients; maintaining the highest levels of professional integrity; and
nurturing our lawyers in a work environment that motivates them to achieve and maintain the highest standards.
The Partners of the Firm Ms. Apurva Jayant, Ms. Ashwini Vittalachar, Mr. Harish Narasappa, Ms. Neela Badami, Ms. Nivedita Nivargi, Ms.
Poornima Hatti, Mr. Rohan K. George, Mr. Siddharth Raja and Ms. Vineetha M. G. are leaders in their respective fields of practice. The majority of
our Partners have a rich mix of domestic and international experience, having worked in several legal and financial capitals around the world,
including London, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mumbai, New Delhi and the Hague. Our lawyers are truly international, with several being admitted to
practice law in India, England & Wales and New York, bringing with them a deep and diverse international perspective.
.
With offices in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai and New Delhi the Firms partners and the legacy firm NDR have regularly received the highest
accolades and ranking from our peers, including recognition in Chambers & Partners and Legal500, over the past few years.
NEELA BADAMI,
Partner
ROSHNI SINHA,
Associate
Neela Badami works primarily in the areas of

mergers & acquisitions, private equity & venture
capital, general commercial contracts and
corporate advisory.
Roshni Sinha works in the areas of banking &

finance, private equity / venture capital
transactions, general corporate & commercial
laws.
Neela holds a B.A.,B.L (Hons.) degree from the National Academy of

Legal Studies and Research (NALSAR) University of Law, Hyderabad
(Gold Medallist) and an LL.M from the University of Michigan Law
School, Ann Arbor, U.S.A (Michigan Grotius Scholar).
Roshni has previously worked in the Corporate Legal Group of ICICI

Bank of Bangalore. She has handled a variety of matters relating to
structured finance products, project finance, and domestic and offshore
lending. She has advised and assisted internal business teams in
financing transactions with corporate clients, specifically with regard to
banking compliances, regulatory requirements and security structures
and also assisted the senior legal managers of the bank on product
development and standardization of internal documents.
Prior to joining the Firm, Neela was an associate in the Capital Markets
Practice Group at Amarchand Mangaldas, Mumbai. Neela has also
worked as a Law Clerk at the International Criminal Court in the Hague,
Netherlands (Legal Advisory Section, Office of the Prosecutor).
Neela stays connected to academia through both writing and teaching
engagements recently, she has taught a 1-credit elective course at her
alma mater, NALSAR, on Private Equity and Venture Capital
Transactions in India. She has been consistently highly ranked in
Chambers & Partners, Asia Pacific and Global Editions, since 2013.
Roshni has a B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) from Gujarat National Law University,
Gandhinagar (2012).
She can be reached at roshni@samvadpartners.com
She can be reached at neela@samvadpartners.com.
Adhunika Premkumar works primarily in the

areas of mergers & acquisitions, private
equity/venture capital transactions and
general corporate and commercial matters.
Adhunika holds a B.B.A., LL.B. (Hons.) degree
from School of Law Christ University,
Bangalore (2009-2014). She is a topper at her
university and has been awarded the Basant Kumar Sarala Birla
Gold Medal for being the best student of her batch.
She can be reached at adhunika@samvadpartners.com
DISCLAIMER: PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CONTENTS OF THIS ARTICLE ARE NOT MEANT TO BE A SUBSTITUTE FOR OBTAINING LEGAL ADVICE.
IT IS ONLY AN INTRODUCTION FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES AND WE URGE YOU TO CONSULT YOUR LAWYERS FOR SPECIFIC
ADVICE.
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Premium Listings
Ventureast
Logo
www.ventureast.net
Preferred Sectors:
Technology (Mobility, Cloud, Internet) and technology-enabled
(Education, Digital Healthcare, Financial services, Cleantech and
high-impact, invention-based social businesses); Life science and
Clean Environment; Seed and incubation stage businesses.
Ventureast is a pioneering Indian VC fund manager

with a rich history of investing in innovative
businesses across multiple sectors, and multiple
stages of a business - from seed and early to growth
stages. Patience and nerve, combined with a
wealth of operational experience and knowledge
gained by helping our investee partners
differentiate- this best defines Team Ventureast,
w h o i s e v e r e xc i t e d t o j o i n t r a i l b l a z i n g
entrepreneurs in a shared journey of building a
great company.
Some marquee investments:

Portea Medical, Bharat Light & Power, Goli Vada Pav, Atyati,
Little Eye Labs, Sresta (24 Mantra), Polygenta, Loylty Rewardz,
Richcore, Seclore, CPS (Central Parking Services)
Office Address:
Contact Details:
Chennai:
Email: info@ventureast.net
Address: 5B,
Ramachandra Avenue,
Seethammal Colony, First Main Road,
Alwarpet,
Chennai - 600 018,
Tamilnadu, India.
Social: @Ventureast
Tel: +91 44 2432 9864 / +91 44 2432 9863

Hyderabad:
Ventureast Plaza,
Plot No. 40 & 41,
Financial District,
Behind ICICI Bank,
Gachibowli Post, Nanakramguda,
Hyderabad- 500 032,India
Tel: +91-40-6551 0491
VENTURE
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Directory Section - Active Accelerators

500 Startups
Green House Accelerator
Delhi
Gurgaon
www.500.co
www.ghvaccelerator.com
Anil Joshi
GSF Accelerator
HealthStart
Gurgaon
Noida
www.gsfindia.com
www.healthstart.co.in
Kyron
Microsoft Ventures Accelerator
Bangalore
Bangalore
www.kyron.me
www.microsoftventures.com
The Startup Centre
Startup Village
Chennai
Kochi
www.thestartupcentre.com
www.startupvillage.in
Tlabs
Tracxn Labs
Noida
Bangalore
www.tlabs.in
www.tracxnlabs.com
VentureNursery
Mumbai
www.venturenursery.com
VENTURE
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Handbook on
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Directory Section - Active Incubators

Abhiyan, IIM
AIP, ICRISAT
Lucknow
Mumbai Angels
Hyderabad
T: 91 90053 72642
www.dilbert.iiml.ac.in/~abhiyan
T: 91 40 3071 3071
www.aipicrisat.org
Anil Joshi
Amity Innovation Incubator
Amrita TBI
Noida
Kollam
T: 91 120 4659 000

www.amity.edu/aii
T: 91 476 280 4503

www.amritatbi.com
BEC STEP
Bagalkot
T: 91 8354 220 689
www.becbgk.edu/step.php
CIBA
Goa
www.ciba.org.in
CIE, IIIT
CIIE, IIM
Hyderabad
Ahmedabad
T: 91 40 6653 1354
www.iiith.org
T: 91 79 6632 4201
Composites Technology Park
DKTE TBI
Bangalore
T: 91 80 6599 7605
www.compositestechnologypark.co
eHealth TBI
Bangalore
T: 91 80 2574 3600
www.ciie.co
Kolhapur
T: 91 230 242 1300
www.dktetbi.com
Ekta Incubation Centre

Kolkata
T: 91 33 2367 3978
www.technologyembryo.com
VENTURE
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Listing of Active Incubators

Faraday Bicentanary Sciente Park
Global Incubation Services
Guwahati
Mumbai Angels
Bangalore
T: 91 361 260 6610
T: 91 80 2520 0916
www.edccottoncollege.org
www.ginserv.in
Anil Joshi
i2India
IAN Incubator
Bangalore
Delhi
T: 91 80 65696979
T: 91 11 4075 5713
www.venturefactory.in
www.indianangelnetwork.com
icreate
IIITB Innovation Centre
Ahmedabad
Bangalore
T: 91 79 2791 2803
T: 91 80 4140 7777
www.icreate.org.in
www.iiitb.ac.in
IKP Knowledge Park
Incubation and Entrepreneurship Centre, SRM
Secunderabad
Chennai
T: 91 40 2348 0002
T: 91 44 2474 2836
www.ikpknowledgepark.com
www.srmuniv.ac.in
InnAccel
Bangalore
T: 91 80 40923864
www.innaccel.com
Innovation Park, IIM Calcutta

Kolkata
www.iimcip.org
JSS STEP, JSSATE
Kerala Startup Mission
Noida
Trivandrum
T: 91 120 240 1484

www.jssstepnoida.org
T: 91 471 270 0270

www.startupmission.kerala.gov.in
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Khosla Labs
KIIT TBI
Bangalore
Mumbai Angels
Bubaneshwar
T: 91 80 4212 4272
T: 91 674 272 5466
www.khoslalabs.com
www.kiitincubator.in
Anil Joshi
MCIIE, IIT Varanasi
Varanasi
T: 91 542 236 8948
www.mciieiitbhu.org
MICA Incubator
Ahmedabad
www.mica.ac.in/edc/mica-incubator
MUTBI
NDBI, NIID
Mumbai
Ahmedabad
T: 91 820 292 5055
T: 91 79 2662 3692
www.mutbimanipal.org
www.ndbiindia.org
NDRI
NITK-STEP
Karnal
Surathkal
T: 91 184 225 2800
T: 91 824 247 5490
www.karnal.gov.in
www.nitkstep.org
NSRCEL, IIM Bangalore

Bangalore
T: 91 80 2699 3769
www.nsrcel.org
PayPal Start Tank

Chennai
www.starttank.com
Periyar TBI
PSG STEP
Thanjavur
Coimbatore
T: 91 4362 264 520

www.periyartbi.org
T: 91 422 436 3300

www.psgstep.org
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Handbook on
Venture Capital

RTBI, IIT Madras
Shriram Institute for Industrial Research
Chennai
Mumbai Angels
Delhi
T: 91 44 6646 9872
T: 91 11 2766 7267
www.rtbi.in
www.shriraminstitute.org
Anil Joshi
SID, IISc Bangalore
SIIC, IIT Kanpur
Bangalore
Kanpur
T: 91 80 2356 1298
T: 91 512 259 6646
www.sid.iisc.ernet.in
www.iitk.ac.in/siic
SINE, IIT Bombay
SJCE STEP
Mumbai
Mysore
T: 91 22 2576 7072
T: 91 821 254 8321
www.sineiitb.org
www.sjcestep.in
Startup Village
STEP IIT Roorkee
Kochi
Roorkee
T: 91 484 211 0799
T: 91 1332 272 337
www.startupvillage.in
www.iitr.ac.in
STEP, IIT Kharagpur
STEP, Thapar University
Kharagpur
Patiala
T: 91 3222 281 091
T: 91 175 239 3011
www.stepiitkgp.in/entrepreneurs.html
www.thapar.edu
Tagore Center for Green TBI
TBI KEC
Shibpur
Erode
T: 91 33 2668 1073
www.tcgtbi.iiests.ac.in
T: 91 4294 226 633

www.tbi-kec.org
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital

TBI KIET
Mumbai Angels
Ghaziabad
www.tbi-kiet.in
TBI, Anna University

Chennai
T: 91 44 2235 8363
www.annauniv.edu
Anil Joshi
TBI, Bannari Amman Institute of Technology
TBI, BITS Pilani
Sathyamangalam
Pilani
T: 91 4295 226 322
T: 91 1596 245 073
www.bittbi.com
www.discovery.bits-pilani.ac.in/tbi
TBI, Graphic Era University
TBI, IGIT Sarang
Dehradun
Delhi
T: 91 111 222 3333
T: 91 11 2659 1057
www.tbigeuddn.com
www.igitsarang.ac.in
TBI, NIT Calicut

Calicut
www.tbi.nitc.ac.in
TBI, University of Hyderabad

Hyderabad
T: 91 40 2313 5002
www.uohyd.ac.in
TeNeT
TotalStart
Chennai
Kolkata
www.tenet.res.in
www.totalstart.org
TREC-STEP
UDSC TBI
Tiruchirappalli
Delhi
T: 91 431 250 0085

www.trecstep.com
T: 91 11 2411 6559
www.udsctbi.org
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital

UnLtd India
Venture Centre
Mumbai
Mumbai Angels
Pune
T: 91 22 6888 8036
T: 91 20 6401 1026
www.unltdindia.org
www.venturecenter.co.in
Anil Joshi
Villgro
Chennai
T: 91 44 6663 0400
www.villgro.org
Woxsen Trade Tower

Hyderabad
T: 91 40 4444 8888
www.woxsen.edu.in/site/Trade_Tower
VIT-TBI
Vellore
T: 91 40 2313 5000
www.vittbi.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Listing of Active Angel Investors

ah! Ventures
T: 91 98203 85685
www.ahventures.in
Calcutta Angels
www.calcutta-angels.com
CCube Angels
Chennai Angels
T: 65 9188 0399
T: 91 87 5449 4134
www.ccubeangels.com
www.thechennaiangels.com
Growx Ventures
GSF Superangels
T: 91 11 4607 4000
T: 91 99 5834 1479
www.growxventures.com
www.gsfindia.com
Hyderabad Angels
Indian Angel Network
T: 91 40 6451 3397
T: 91 11 4162 8566, 4075 5713
www.hyderabadangels.in
Kshatriya Ventures
Lead Angels
T: 91 99 302 45221
T: 022 65660023
www.kshatriyaventures.com
www.leadangels.in
Mumbai Angels
Native Angel Network
T: 07506 711249
T: 91 452 4390410
www.mumbaiangels.com
www.nativeangelsnetwork.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Listing of Active Angel Investors

Palaash Ventures
Navlok Ventures
T: 91 11 4890 0000
www.navlok.com
www.palaashventures.com
Rajasthan Angel Investor Network

Powai Lake Ventures
T: 91 98 2835 5513
www.powailakeventures.com
www.rainjaipur.co.in
Sarthi Angels
Seeders
T: 91 02 2265 28671/72
www.seeders.in
www.sarthiangels.com
Singapore Angel Network
Splice Capital
www.sgan.sg
www.splicecapital.com
Sprout Angels
SRI Capital
T: 91 44 4344 6700
www.sricapital.com
Srijan Capital
VentureNursery Angels
T: 91 81 9753 5302
T: 91 22 2670 1133
www.srijancapital.com
www.venturenursery.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Listing of Active Individual Angels
Abhishek Rungta
Alok Mittal
talash@indusnet.co.in
alokmittal@gmail.com
Aloke Bajpai
Anand Ladsariya
abajpai@ixigo.com
anand@everestflavours.com
Anand Lunia
Anupam Mittal
anand@indiaquotient.in
agmittal@yahoo.com
Binny Bansal
Deep Kalra
binny@flipkart.com
deep.kalra@makemytrip.com
Deepak Shahdadpuri
Girish Mathrubootham
deepak@shahdadpuri.com
girish@freshdesk.com
Growth Story (K Ganesh)
Kalpataru Ventures
ganesh@growthstory.in
trs@sagesupport.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Kunal Bahl
Madan Padaki
kunal.bahl@snapdeal.com
madan.padaki@head-held-high.org
Oswal Techno Ventures
Phanindra Sama
jbokadia@oswalvalves.com
phanindra.sama@gmail.com
Rajan Anandan
Ravi Gururaj
ranandan@google.com
ravi@gururaj.com
Rohit Bansal
Sachin Bansal
Rohit.bansal@snapdeal.com
sachin@flipkart.com
Samir Bangara
Samir Sood
samir.bangra@gmail.com
samir@indiaforge.in
Sanjay Kamlani
Sunil Kalra
sanjay@pangea3.com
viaprojects@gmail.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Vijay Shekhar Sharma
Zishaan Hayath
vijayshekhar@yahoo.com
zishaan@toppr.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Listing of Active Seed Capital Investors

Angaros Capital
50k Ventures
T: 91 40 4949 2000
www.50kventures.com
www.angaroscapital.com
Blume Ventures
Das Star Ventures
www.blumeventures.com
T: 91 98844 22270
Epiphany Ventures
India Innovation Fund
T: 91 22 2652 8635
T: 91 80 4335 6666
www.epiphanyventures.in
www.indiainnovationfund.in
Jungle Ventures
India Quotient
T: 65 6423 9516
www.indiaquotient.in
www.jungle-ventures.com
Kae Capital
Ladderup
T: 91 22 2202 4184
T: 91 22 4033 6363
www.kae-capital.com
www.ladderup.com
Mercatus Capital
My First Cheque
T:65 6776 7819
www.myfirstcheque.com
www.mercatus-capital.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Listing of Active Seed Capital Investors

Navam Capital
Orios Venture Partners
T: 91 33 4025670
T: 91 22 6457 6457
www.navamcapital.com
www.orios.gi
Prime Venture Partners

www.angelprime.com
Seedfund
T: 91 22 2490 2201
www.seedfund.in
Singularity Ventures
Snow Leopard Technology Ventures
www.singularityventures.in
www.snowleopardtechventures.com
StartupXseed Ventures
Unicorn India Ventures
T : 91 80 41501409
T: 91 9323810171
www.startupxseed.in
www.unicornivc.com
Ventureast
YourNest Angel Fund
T : 91 44 2432 9864
T: 91 124 404 2155
www.ventureast.net
www.yournest.in
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Listing of Active Venture Capital Funds (Early Stage)

Aarin Capital
Accel India
Bangalore
Bangalore
T: 91 80 3078 9100
www.aarincapital.com
T: 91 80 4353 9800
www.accel.com
Aditya Birla PE
AdvantEdge Partners
Mumbai
Delhi
T: 91 22 4356 7400
www.adityabirla-pe.com
www.advantedge.vc
Agnus Capital
Bangalore
Ankur Capital
Mumbai
Amex Ventures
Palo Alto, CA
wwww.americanexpress.com/us/content/amexventures
ASK Pravi
Mumbai
www.ankurcapital.com
T: 91 22 4225 8100
www.askpravi.com
Astarc Ventures
August Capital Partners
Mumbai
Singapore
T: 91 22 6683 2755
www.astarcventures.com
T: 65 3152 1248
www.augustcp.com
Avigo Capital
Battery Ventures
Delhi
Menlo Park, CA
T: 91 11 4368 3300
www.avigocorp.com
T: 1 650 372 3939

www.battery.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital

Bay Capital Investments
Mumbai
T: 91 22 4346 8000
www.bay-cap.com
Bedrock Ventures
Mumbai Angels
Noida
Sandeep Singhal
Beenext Partners
Bangalore
www.beenext.com
Bertelsmann India Investments

Noida
www.bertelsmann.com
BlueHill
Singapore
Berggruen Holdings
Mumbai
T: 91 22 4083 1701
www.berggruenholdings.com
Bessemer
Bangalore
T: 91 80 30829000
www.bvp.com
Blume Ventures
Mumbai
T: 65 6438 5616
www.bluehill.com.sg
www.blumeventures.com
BOLD
Bravia Capital
Gurgaon
Mumbai
www.boldbydesign.com
T: 91 22 6700 0500
www.braviacapital.com
Bright Ventures
Mumbai Angels
Amsterdam
www.brightventures.nl
Burman Family Office

Delhi
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital

Canbank Ventures
Capvent
Mumbai Angels
Bangalore
Bangalore
T: 91 80 2558 6506
www.canbankventure.com
T: 91 80 4112 89 00
www.capvent.com
Sandeep Sinhal
Cargill Ventures
Delhi
Carpediem Capital Partners

Gurgaon
T: 91 11 4601 0389
www.cargillventures.com
www.carpe-diem-capital.com
Catamaran Ventures
Cisco
Bangalore
Bangalore
T: 91 80 26649440
www.catamaranventures.com
T: 91 80 4159 3000
www.investor.cisco.com
CLSA Capital
Creador Capital
Mumbai Angels
Mumbai
Chennai
T: 91 22 5650 5050
www.clsacapital.com
T: 91 044 2493 4033/34

www.creador.com
Darby Overseas Investments
DFJ
Mumbai Angels
Mumbai
Menlo Park, CA
T: 91 22 6751 9100
www.darbyoverseas.com
T: 65 233 9000
www.dfj.com
DMGT
London
T: 44 20 7938 6000
www.dmgt.com
Dragoneer Investment Group

San Francisco, CA
T: 817 871 4968
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
DreamzVentures
DST Global
Switzerland
Moscow
www.dreamzventures.com
www.corp.mail.ru/en
Earlsfield Capital
London
Ennovent
Delhi
www.earlsfieldcapital.com
T: 91 11 4385 1999
www.ennovent.com
Epiphany Ventures
ERM Low Carbon Enterprise Fund
Mumbai
London
T: 91 22 24918153
www.epiphanyventures.in
T: 44 20 3206 5331
www.ermfoundation-lcef.com
Exfinity Fund
Faering Capital
Bangalore
Mumbai
T: 91 80 45459200
www.exfinityventures.com
T: 91 22 6154 9500
www.faeringcapital.com
FidelisWorld
Fortisure Ventures
Dubai
San Francisco, CA
www.fidelisworld.com
T: 1 415 398 1970
Forum Synergies
Foundation Capital
Bangalore
Menlo Park, CA
T: 91 80 4000 6400
www.forumsynergies.com
T: 650 614 0500

www.foundationcapital.com
Mumbai Angels
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital

Frontline Strategy
Mumbai
Fulcrum Ventures India
T: 91 22 2826 4534 / 36
www.frontlinestrategy.com
T: 91 22 6712 8484
www.fulcrumventureindia.com
Fuse Capital
Gaja Capital
Menlo Park, CA
Mumbai
T: 65 325 9600
www.fusecapital.com
T: 91 22 2421 2280
www.gajacapital.com
Mumbai
Global Asia Partners

GenNext Ventures
Gurgaon
Mumbai
T: 91 124 472 0300

www.gapvc.com
Global Brain
Global Founders Capital
Tokyo
Amtsgericht Munchen
www.globalbrains.co.jp
www.globalfounders.vc
Granite Hill
Gray Ghost Ventures
Mumbai Angels
San Mateo, CA
Chennai
T: 1 650 787 2716

www.granitehill.net
T: 91 98410 71043
www.grayghostventures.com
Gray Matters Capital

Bangalore
www.graymatterscap.com
GTI Group
Delhi
T: 91 11 4967 9999
www.gticapitalgroup.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Hausela Capital Partners

Mumbai
www.hausela.com
Haystack Investment
New York
T: 1 646 883 4777
www.haystackpartners.com
Helion Ventures
Bangalore
ID Enablers
T: 91 80 4018 3333
www.helionvc.com
Kanpur
IDFC Alternatives
IDG Ventures India
Mumbai
Bangalore
T: 91 22 4222 2000
www.idfc.com/alternatives/about/idfc-alternatives.htm
T: 91 80 4043 4836
www.idgvcindia.com
India Innovation Fund
India Internet Fund
Bangalore
Delhi
T: 91 80 4335 6666
www.indiainnovationfund.in
T: 91 99103 70732
www.indiainternetfund.com
India Quotient
Mumbai Angels
Ahmedabad
www.indiaquotient.in
IndusAge Partners
Chennai
T: 91 44 43504050
www.indusage.com
Infosys Innovation Fund

Infinity Alternatives
Bangalore
Mumbai
T: 91 80 2852 0261
www.infosys.com/about/innovation-fund
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital

Infuse Ventures
Ahmedabad
Innovations Investment Management
T: 91 79 6632 4201 / 4234 / 4233

www.infusecapital.in
T: 91 0804 9155 900

www.iinnovations.com
InnoVen Capital
Mumbai
T: 91 22 6744 6500
www.innovencapital.com
Intel Capital
Bangalore
Bangalore
Insitor Fund
Delhi
www.insitormanagement.com
Inventus Capital Partners

Bangalore
www.intelcapital.com
T: 91 80 41256747 / 40946510
www.inventuscap.com
IvyCap Ventures
JAFCO Asia
Mumbai
Singapore
T: 91 22 6700 0567
www.ivycapventures.com
T: 65 6224 6383
www.jafcoasia.com
Jungle Ventures
Kae Capital
Mumbai Angels
Singapore
Mumbai
T: 65 6423 9516
www.jungle-ventures.com
T: 91 22 2820 2005
www.kae-capital.com
Kaizen PE
Kalaari Capital
Mumbai
Bangalore
T: 91 22 6767 5757
www.kaizenpe.com
T: 91 80 67159600
www.kalaaricapital.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital

Khosla Ventures
Menlo Park, CA
Kima Ventures
T: 650/376-8500
www.khoslaventures.com
www.kimaventures.com
Kin Advisors
Kitara Capital
Bangalore
Mumbai
T: 91 80 4124 2921
www.kinadvisors.com
T: 91 22 6117 3600
www.kitaracapital.com
KITVEN
Lantern Capital
Bangalore
Dallas, TX
T: 91 80 2228 5627, 2238 6836

www.kitven.com
T: 1 469 554 7900

www.lanterncp.com
Lightbox
Mumbai
www.lightbox.vc
Paris
Lighthouse
Mumbai
T: 91 22 4204 1000
www.lhfunds.com
Lightspeed Ventures
Delhi
Lionrock Capital
T: 91 11 4980 0800
www.lightspeedvp.com
Singapore
Mumbai Angels
Low Carbon Enterprise Fund
Gurgaon
T: 91 124 417 0300
www.erm.com
M&S Partners
Singapore
www.ms-capitalpartners.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Maiden Lane Ventures

San Francisco, CA
www.maidenlane.com
Mandala Capital Fund

Mumbai
www.mandala-capital.com
Mangrove Capital Partners
Mantra Ventures
Luxemberg
Pune
T: 352 26 25 34 1
www.mangrove-vc.com
T: 91 20 66 08 1700
www.mantraventures.in
Mayfield
Mumbai
Mumbai
T: 91 22 67680000
www.matrixpartners.com
T: 91 22 6627 3000
www.mayfield.com
Mcap Fund
Mercatus Capital
Gurgaon
Singapore
T: 91 124 481 6100

www.mcapfundadvisors.com
T: 65 6776 7819
www.mercatus-capital.com
Milliways Ventures
Motilal Oswal
San Francisco, CA
Mumbai
www.milliwaysventures.com
T: 91 22 3089 6680
www.motilaloswal.com
Multiples PE
Naya Ventures
Mumbai
Hyderabad
T: 91 22 6624 5500
www.multiplesequity.com
T: 91 40 6654 5466
www.nayaventures.com
Mumbai Angels
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital

NEA
Nazara Game Fund

Mumbai
Bangalore
T: 91 22 40330800
www.gamefund.in
T: 91 80 6771 0801
www.nea.com
Nereus Capital
Mumbai
Nexus Venture Partners

Mumbai
www.nereuscap.com
T: 91 22 6626 0000
www.nexusvp.com
Nirvana Ventures
Nokia Growth Partners
Mumbai
Gurgaon
T: 91 22 6742 3800
www.nirvanaventures.in
T: 91 9654998909
www.nokiagrowthpartners.com
Norwest
Now Capital
Mumbai
Jacksonville, FL
T: 91 22 6150 1111
www.nvp.com
T: 1 888 810 8305

www.startupfundsnow.com
Oliphans Capital
Mumbai Angels
Mumbai
Omdiyar Network
Mumbai
www.oliphans.com
T: 91 22 6118 7300
www.omidyar.com
Omnivore Partners
Orios VP
Mumbai
Mumbai
T: 91 22 2519 4490
www.omnivore.vc
T: 91 22 6457 6457
www.oriosvp.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital

Outbox Ventures
Delhi
T: 91 11 41677890 /91 9990912307
www.outbox.ventures
Parampara Captial
Hyderabad
www.paramparas.com
Peesh VC
Delhi
P39 Capital
San Francisco, CA
www.p39capital.com
Peepul Capital
Chennai
T: 44 4223 5000
www.peepulcapital.com
Persistent Venture Fund

Pune
www.peeshvc.com
T: 91 20 6703 0000
www.persistent.com
Plexus Capital
Powerhouse Ventures
Charlotte , NC
Washington DC
T: 704 927 6255

www.plexuscap.com
T: 91 99089 98074
www.powerhouseventures.com
Prime Venture Partners
Purvi Capital
Mumbai Angels
Bangalore
Chicago
www.angelprime.com
www.purvicapital.com
Qualcomm Ventures
RAAY Global Investments
Bangalore
Mumbai
www.qualcomm.com/ventures
T: 91 22 6742 3815
www.raayinvestments.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital

Rajasthan VC
Jaipur
Rare Enterprises
Mumbai
T: 91 141 407 1680/ 681/ 682

www.rvcf.org
T: 91 22 6513 0206
Ratan Tata
Rebright Partners
Mumbai
Singapore
T: 91 22 6665 8282
www.srtt.org
T: 91 99005 76972
www.rebrightpartners.com
Recruit Strategic Partners

California
www.recruitstrategicpartners.com
Reliance Venture
Mumbai
T: 91 22 3032 7039 / 3032 7000
www.relianceventure.com
Reliance Capital
Mumbai
T: 91 22 30479800
www.reliancecapital.co.in
Rianta Capital
London
T: 91 44 20 7016 4300
Ribbit Capital
Rise Capital
California
San Francisco, CA
www.ribbitcap.com
www.risecapital.com
Mumbai Angels
Rocket Internet
Gurgaon
www.rocket-internet.com
Ru-Net Holdings
Moscow
T: 7 495 797 9763
www.ru-net.ru/en
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital

Saama Capital
Bangalore
T: 91 80 4112 8282
www.saamacapital.vc
SAIF
Gurgaon
T: 91 124 496 5500
www.saifpartners.com
Sands Capital
Arlington
Saha Fund
Bangalore
www.sahafund.com
Samaa Capital
Bangalore
www.saamacapital.vc
SEAF
Mumbai
www.sandscapital.com
T: 98 1027 4483, 22 3226 7952

www.seaf.com
Seedfund
Mumbai
Bangalore
T: 91 22 2490 2201/2/3/4
www.seedfund.in
T: 91 80 4124 5880
www.sequoiacap.comindia
SIDBI VC
Sixth Sense Ventures
Mumbai Angels
Mumbai
Mumbai
T: 91 223947 3200
www.sidbiventure.co.in
T: 91 22 4017 6000
www.sixth-sense.in
Snow Leopard Technology Ventures
Social+Capital Partnership
Pune
Palo Alto, CA
www.snowleopardtechventures.com
www.s23p.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Sol Primero
Bangalore
www.solprimero.com
StartupXseed Ventures
Bangalore
T: 91 80 4150 1409
www.startupxseed.in
Tano Capital
Mumbai
Spark Capital
Chennai
T: 91 44 4344 0000
www.sparkcapital.in
TA Ventures
Kyiv
www.taventure.com
Tata Capital
Mumbai
T: 91 22 6746 8000
www.tanocapital.com
T: 91 22 6745 9000
The HR Fund
Tiger Global
Gurgaon
New York
T: 91 9818 055177
www.thehrfund.com
T: 1 212 984 8800 / 8847

www.tigerglobal.com
TNN Capital
Trans Continental VC
Mumbai Angels
Luxembourg
Mumbai
www.tnncapital.com
T: 91 22 4073 3030
www.transconcapital.com
Translink Capital
California
T: 1 650 330 7353
www.translinkcapital.com
Unicorn Venture Capital

Mumbai
www.unicornivc.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital

Unilazer Ventures
Mumbai
T: 91 22 61093730
www.unilazer.com
Valiant Capital
San Francisco, CA
Uniqorn Ventures
Bangalore
Velos Partners
Los Angeles
T: 415 659 7201
T: 91 22 6751 9100
www.velospartners.com
Ventureast
Vertex
Chennai
Bangalore
T: 91 44 2432 9864 / 2432 9863

www.ventureast.net
T: 91 80 6759 0555 / 0364

www.vertexmgt.com
Viktor Koenig PE Fund
YourNest
Dubai
Gurgaon
T: 971 4 328 9205

www.vk.ae
T: 91 124 4042155
www.yournest.in
YouWeCan Ventures
Mumbai Angels
Gurgaon
www.youwecanventures.com
Zodius Capital
Mumbai
T: 91 22 6110 8484
www.zodius.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
Listing of Active SME Investors
Lighthouse Fund
T: 91 22 4204 1000
www.lhfunds.com
T: 91 22 6768 0000
www.matrixpartners.com
Sandeep Singhal
NEA
Mayfield
T: 91 80 67710801
www.nea.com
T: 91 22 6627 3000
www.mayfield.com
Vertex
Zephyr Peacock India
T: 91 80 67590555
www.vertexmgt.com
T: 91 80 4261 3300
www.zephyrpeacock.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital

Abraaj Group
Access PE
T: 91 22 67 874 500
www.abraaj.com
T: 91 22 65154700
www.accesspe.in
Aquarius
Bessemer
T: 91 80 4112 4880
www.aquarius.com.sg
T: 91 80 30829000
www.bvp.com
Mumbai Angels
Mumbai Angels
Sandeep Singhal
BanyanTree Finance
Canbank Ventures
T: 91 22 6623 5555
www.banyantreefinance.com
T: 91 80 2558 6506
EQ India
Gaja Capital
T: 91 22 66156300
www.eqindiaadvisors.com
T: 91 22 2421 2280
www.gajacapital.com
IFC
IFCI Ventures
T: 91 11 4111 1000
www.ifc.org
T: 91 11 4179 2800
www.ifciventure.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
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Abraaj Group
Access PE
T: 91 22 67 874 500
www.abraaj.com
T: 91 22 65154700
www.accesspe.in
Aquarius
BanyanTree Finance
T: 91 80 4112 4880
www.aquarius.com.sg
T: 91 22 6623 5555
www.banyantreefinance.com
Mumbai Angels
Mumbai Angels
Sandeep Singhal
Bessemer
Canbank Ventures
T: 91 80 30829000
www.bvp.com
T: 91 80 2558 6506
EQ India
Gaja Capital
T: 91 22 66156300
www.eqindiaadvisors.com
T: 91 22 2421 2280
www.gajacapital.com
IFC
IFCI Ventures
T: 91 11 4111 1000
www.ifc.org
T: 91 11 4179 2800
www.ifciventure.com
VENTURE
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Handbook on
Venture Capital
Listing of Healthcare Focused Investors
Asian Healthcare Fund

Delhi
T: 91 11 3061 1504
www.asianhealthcarefund.com
Mumbai Angels
Cipla New Ventures

Mumbai
T: 91 22 23082891
www.cipla.com
India Life Sciences Fund

Hyderabad
T: 91 40 2354 1305
www.evolvence.com
OrbiMed
Mumbai
T: 91 22 3066 2000
www.orbimed.com
Sandeep Singhal
RoundGlass Partners
Mumbai
www.round.glass
Sabre Capital
Mumbai
T: 91 22 6617 8800
www.sabre-partners.com
Sandeep Singhal
Somerset Indus Capital Partners
Mumbai
T: 91 22 6610 1199
www.somersetinduscap.com
VENTURE
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Handbook on
Venture Capital
Listing of Active Social Investors

Aavishkaar
Aavishkaar Goodwell
Mumbai
Mumbai
T: 91 22 4200 5757
www.aavishkaar.in
T: 91 22 61248900
www.aavishkaargoodwell.com
Accion International
Acumen Fund
Bangalore
Mumbai
T: 91 80 6723 6400
www.accion.org
T: 91 22 6740 1500
www.acumenfund.org
ADB
Delhi
T: 91 11 2410 7200
Ankur Capital
Mumbai
www.ankurcapital.com
www.adb.org
Aspada Investments
Bangalore
www.aspadainvestments.com
Belgian Investment Company for

Developing Countries
Brussels
T: 32 2 778 99 99
www.bio-invest.be
Bamboo Finance
Geneva
T: 41 22 544 2070
www.bamboofinance.com
Bellwether
Hyderabad
T: 91 40 6629 7100
www.bellwetherfund.com
Capricorn
Palo Alto
T: 1 650 331 8800
www.capricornllc.com
Contrarian Drishti
Mumbai
www.contrariandrishti.com
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital

Creation Investments
Developing World Markets
Chicago
Mumbai Angels
T: 001 312 784 3980

www.creationinvestments.com
Connecticut
T: 1 203 655 5453

www.dwmarkets.com
Dia Vikas
EMPGI
Mumbai Angels
Gurgaon
Delhi
T: 91 12 4452 9500
www.dia-vikas.org
T: 91 11 4377 5000
www.empgi.com
Elevar Equity
Encore Operating Partners
Bangalore
Dubai
T: 91 80 4335 6666
www.elevarequity.com
T: 9714 448 7155

www.encoresolutions.org
Ennovent
Mumbai Angels
Delhi
T: 91 11 4385 1999
www.ennovent.com
ERM Low Carbon Enterprise Fund

London
T: 44 20 3206 5331
Sandeep Singhal
GAWA Microfinance Fund
Gray Ghost Ventures
Mumbai Angels
Mumbai Angels
Madrid
T: 34 915760537
www.amberscocapital.com
Chennai
T: 91 98410 71043
www.grayghostventures.com
IAN - Impact
Gray Matters Capital
New Delhi
Bangalore
T: 91 11 4075 5713
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
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IFMR Trust
Invested Development
Chennai
Mumbai Angels
T: 91 44 6668 7000
www.ifmr.co.in
Boston
T: 1 617 245 0570

www.investeddevelopment.com
Inclusive Ventures
Incofin
Mumbai Angels
Dubai
Chennai
www.inclusiveventures.com
www.incofin.be
Intellecap Impact Investment

Network (I3N)
Khosla Impact
Mumbai
T: 91 22 6195 2700
www.bit.ly/217ZG1y
California
T: 650 376 8500
www.khoslaimpact.com
LGT Venture Philanthropy
Lok Capital
Mumbai Angels
Zurich
Delhi
T: 41 44 256 8110
www.lgtvp.com
T: 91 11 3090 0100
www.lokcapital.com
Sandeep Singhal
Michael & Susan Dell Foundation
MicroVentures
Mumbai Angels
Mumbai Angels
MicroVest
Norwegian Microfinance Initiative
Maryland
Oslo
T: 240 380 1028

www.microvestfund.com
T: 47 22 36 22 40
www.nmimicro.no
New Delhi
T: 91 11 4166 6300
www.msdf.org
Bangalore
T: 91 80 4095 7653
www.micro-ventures.in
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital

Oikocredit
Omidyar Network
Netherlands
Mumbai Angels
T: 31 33 422 40 40
www.oikocredit.coop
Mumbai
T: 91 22 6118 7300
www.omidyar.com
Omnivore Partners
Opes Impact Fund
Mumbai Angels
Mumbai
Milan
T: 91 22 2519 4490
www.omnivore.vc
T: 39 02 36769106
www.opesfund.eu
Responsability
Mumbai
Rianta Capital
London
T: 91 22 3077 0300
www.responsability.com
T: 44 20 7016 4300
Sorenson Impact Foundation
Unitus Impact
Mumbai Angels
Salt Lake City
Bangalore
T: 80149 01020
www.sorensonimpactfoundation.org
T: 91 80 6723 6400
www.unitusimpact.com
Sandeep Singhal
Upaya Social Ventures
Villgro
Mumbai Angels
Mumbai Angels
Washington
T: 1 206 788 5672

www.upayasv.com
Chennai
T: 91 44 6663 0400
www.villgro.org
VENTURE
INTELLIGENCE
Handbook on
Venture Capital
About Venture Intelligence

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VENTURE

"Startup Era" - Regulatory Issues and

Fund Raising: A Methodical Approach

Term Sheet Investment Terms: Anti Dilution and Liquidation

The Life of an Entrepreneur - Before & After Funding

Early Stage Investments And Legal Due Diligence:

Accelerator, Angel or VC: How to Chooose?

Emplouee Stock Option Plan for Private Companies

The Business Plan Document 2.0

Venture Capital Investor Directory

- Healthcare Focused Investors

- Social VC / Impact Investors

Landscape of Venture Capital

< Rs.50 Lakhs

Rs.50 Lakhs - 2 Crores

Rs.50 Lakhs - 2 Crores

Landscape of Venture Capital Investors in India

Rs.25 - 100 Crores

Era Regulatory Issues and

The Oft-Faced Regulatory Conundrums

Another area of concern is taxation: applicability of value added tax to a

Kickstarting the Start-ups: Recent Initiatives

The eBiz Portal

START UP Era Regulatory Issues and the Recent Governmental Reforms

Make in India Initiative: 'Start up India, Stand up

Internet of Thing (IOT)

The new Companies Act, 2013

Ministry of Company Affairs reveals the resounding success of the OPC

SEBI's array of initiatives

Crowd funding norms

Conclusion The need to nurture the start-up

Our Core Values:

Our Practices Groups:

About Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

About Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

: Mergers & Acquisitions; Private Equity

: National University of Juridical Sciences, India

: +91 11 6622 9000

Harsh Kumar is a Partner at Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas' Delhi Office.

Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

Fund Raising: A Methodical Approach

The funding lifecycle

Look for expertise in investor team that complements your strengths

Fund raising is a distraction

Leverage customer testimonials find what your customers love

Decide on an 8-12 week cycle to close your funding round

Experience, domain expertise

Term sheets, negotiation, equity

Closing a fund raising round

(As of November 2015)

Binding and Non-Binding Provisions

Additionally, two other key provisions commonly requested for by

Corporate structural changes - certain anti-dilution provisions

Down round investments - a down round occurs when the

Key Investment Terms

Depending on the negotiations between an investor and the investee

TERM SHEETS Investment Terms: Anti Dilution and Liquidation

Our Core Values:

Our Practices Groups:

About Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas

: Private Equity & Venture Capital; Mergers &

: Bar Council of Delhi, India