Tag Archive for Naaptol

Canaan Partners closes $600Million fund

 

Canaan Partners

Canaan Partners, the venture capital firm that focuses on the US, India and Israel, has closed its ninth fund at $600 million. The new fund has been backed by  both new and existing LPs and it takes the firm’s total assets under management to $3.5 billion.

About two-thirds of the fund corpus will be put toward digital media, consumer internet, mobile and communications companies, with the rest earmarked for biopharma, medical device and healthcare infrastructure investments.

“We’ve had the privilege of working with outstanding entrepreneurs – often over a long haul because it takes time to build a valuable company, and it’s rarely a straight line to get there,” John Balen, general partner at Canaan Partners.

Canaan’s current Indian portfolio companies include BharatMatrimony, which claims to be the world’s largest consumer internet site for matrimonial services, business support services provider iYogi, shopping portal Naaptol and legal process outsourcing firm UnitedLex. Recently Canaan Partners has led $45M investment along with Intel Capital at Happiest Minds, an IT services firm founded by former Mindtree Chairman Ashok Soota. Canaan funded web company – Chakpak was acquired by Flipkart.

 

-Hitesh, vcBytes

Naaptol being backed by Canaan Partners

Naaptol

There is a strong buzz in the market that Venture capital fund Canaan Partners is all set to invests in Naaptol a product comparison and shopping portal. Canaan Partners plans to pick up about 25% stake in Naaptol Online Shopping Pvt Ltd for Rs 40 Cr valuing the company at Rs 160 Cr.

This means it will put the valuation of the Mumbai-based company at `160 crore, nearly 2.3 times of its sales last year. Naaptol is founded by Manu Agarwal in 2008, it now registers 3,000 transactions a day and sells 500 brands.

This space has witnessed quite a lot of investments and qcquisitions, CompareIndia.com was acquired by Web18 in 2006. Another player in this space is Pricesbolo.com, a bangalore based startup. Canaan Partners invests in technology and healthcare companies. It has invested in e-commerce website Bharat Matrimony, Ceel Cast Asia holdings a  and entertainment website Chakpak Media.

It seems e-commerce portals have been catching attention from VC fraternity.

-Hitesh, vcBytes.com