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Landmark Moments in Indian VC (Athera Venture Partners)

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ReportAthera Venture PartnersJune 202513 sectionsWeb report23 min readOriginal source
Key number
about $100 million
redBus acquisition value (2013) §8
What changed
228 micro-VCs
Micro-VCs counted at an event §5

Summary

  • TDICI, a joint venture between ICICI Limited and Unit Trust of India, was India's first venture capital fund, established in 1988.§2
  • TDICI's first fund was Rs. 20 crores, the second Rs. 100 crores, and the third at USD 50 million was the first expressed in dollars.§4
  • An event counted 228 micro-VCs, compared with 15-20 funds in the past.§5
  • redBus was acquired in 2013 in a sale of about $100 million, with all shareholders paid in cash.§8
  • One VC firm made one team change across 43 companies, where a US VC would likely have made 4-5 changes.§7
  • Gagan Goyal was an angel investor in 20+ companies, and ThinkLABS wrapped up in 2016.§10

Key insights

  1. redBus hit Rs. 60 crores in revenue and Rs. 600 crores in market cap before its all-cash buyout.§8
  2. India became one of three countries US funds looked to set up in, alongside Israel and China.§7
  3. Early deal documents were max 30 pages long, not the 300-page agreements of today.§4
  4. Parag Dhol joined Inventus India, now Athera Venture Partners, in 2008.§5
  5. In a good month, only 30-40 deals were seen by all investors.§11
  6. Banks that earlier refused to open accounts for startups created dedicated startup desks after the redBus exit.§8

Published by Athera Venture Partners (funder profile)

Topics and entities

M&A and exitsStartup ecosystemsVenture capitalBioconICICIMakeMyTripredBusTDICI

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