Gujarat Venture Fund Limited (GVFL), the Ahmedabad-based venture capital fund, plans to invest in four companies at seed and early stage-level in information technology and biotech sectors. The investments would be made out of the Gujarat IT Fund (corpus – Rs. 20 crores) and the Gujarat Biotechnology Venture Fund (corpus – Rs. 50 crores).
GVFL is evaluating several proposals including those from the IIM-Ahmedabad incubator and NirmaLabs for making these investments. The deals are expected to be announced soon. The fund is also looking to divest its stake in some of its portfolio companies such as eInfochips, Icenet and Anupam Globalsoft this year as they have matured and are capable of giving optimum returns.
GVFL had divested from 6 of its investee companies in 2006 including Saraf Foods, Scicom Technologies, Parsec Loans, Broadcast Worldwide, Technology Media Group and Apex Electricals. These exits were made through strategic buyouts by promoters or other investors. Private equity player Baring Private Equity picked up part of GVFL’s stake in Gurgaon-based Parsec Loans for around Rs. 15-16 crores. In Noida-based Scicom Technologies, the promoters and employees of the company bought out GVFL’s stake.
GVFL had recently closed its Rs. 24 crore-first fund called the GVCF 1990 with substantial profits. The biotech fund, set up with help from Gujarat government, has invested Rs. 2 crores in Celestial Biologicals, an Intas Pharma subsidiary. Celestial Biologicals makes protein drugs by plasma fractionation. In the last 16 years, GVFL has raised five venture capital funds with a combined capital of Rs. 140 crores and has made investments in 58 companies.
Read The Economic Times article.
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