The Hindu Business Line : GVFL plans more investments in IT, biotech

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Ahmedabad Feb. 7 GVFL Ltd, the country's pioneer venture capital company, today announced its plans to make four investments at seed and early stage in information technology and biotechnology sector in 2007.

The GVFL CEO, Mr Vishnu Varshney, said here that the company would be making these investments from the Rs 20- crore Gujarat IT Fund and the Rs 50-crore Gujarat Biotechnology Venture Fund (GBVF).

Last year, GVFL divested from six of its investee companies, namely Saraf Foods Ltd, Scicom Technologies, Parsec Technologies, Broadcast Worldwide Ltd, Technology Media Group Pvt Ltd, and Apex Electricals Ltd.

The exits have been made through strategic buyouts by promoters or other investors. GVFL has also profitably closed its Rs 24 crore first fund, i.e. GVCF 1990.

This yearGVFL was evaluating proposals including some from IIM-A Incubator and Nirmalabs, for investment, he said. In 2006, its thrust was on divestment and consolidation of good investee companies. This year, along with scouting for investment opportunities, GVFL will continue its focus on divestment, which may include "matured" companies such as eInfochips, Icenet and Anupam Globalsoft.

GVFL Ltd (formerly Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd) was started by Gujarat Industrial and Investment Corporation at the initiative of the World Bank in July 1990, as an independent, board-managed, autonomous venture finance company based at Ahmedabad.

Over the past 16 years, GVFL Ltd has raised five Venture Capital Funds with a combined capital of Rs 140 crore, invested in 58 companies across the country. Some of its significant success stories included Deccanet, eInfochips, Icenet, Scicom, Net4Nuts, Parsec Technologies and Neilsoft.

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