Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Lightspeed invests $29.5m in Bangalore net companies

Venture capital investors are making a beeline for India. Following Texas Pacific Group Ventures and Sherpalo, Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund Lightspeed Venture Partners, with $1.5 bn of assets under management, has invested in two Indian companies – Mercantila and TutorVista – both based in Bangalore.

Mercantila, a collection of hundreds of online specialty stores serving the US and Canadian markets, has received funding upto $22.5 mn, while online tutoring and test preparation company TutorVista has received $7 mn.

Lightspeed has recently raised a $475 mn fund, one-third of which would be invested in assets outside the US. Israel, China and India would be major recipients of this allocation. India itself may see investments in the range of $50-100 mn. Lightspeed is keen to make a mark in the growing Indian market and intends to establish an Indian office in the coming 12 months.

Read more in The Economic Times, Red Herring and ContentSutra.com.

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