In June 2013, this column ran a story titled “Venture capitalists, entrepreneurs and the big tussle”. The piece sought to put some perceptions into perspective.

Back then, Ambarish Gupta, Founder and CEO of Knowlarity Communications, was of the opinion that entrepreneurs have to show “drive and the ability to take a business far” while looking for investors to believe in their ideas. Incidentally, the business telephony products and solutions company, expecting to have raked in nearly $5 million by March-end, is looking at raising about $15 million more.

Rao GS, Chairman and Managing Director of e2E Rail, had said that though access to funds was a challenge for the non-tech sector, the consulting firm for rail infrastructure projects found a suitable partner in VentureEast. The investment firm has an eye on India and is keen on the healthcare, environment and life sciences sectors for investment opportunities.

Sarath Naru, Managing Partner of VentureEast, had underlined that entrepreneurs should consider joining hands with fund managers “because of the availability of timely advice, among other things”. But can that ‘timely advice’ be sought even as the entrepreneur begins to think about raising funds?

A required leg-up In 2011, Lovleen Bhatia and Kapil Tyagi bootstrapped and kicked off Edureka, an online learning platform that caters to technology professionals and students in India, Australia, the US, the UK and the EU. In 2013, the company managed to get a round of angel funding. This deal was enabled by Khetal Advisors, a firm that has wrapped up 12 deals in the start-up space since its inception. Bhatia says, “Their value addition comes in the form of advising us on growing the business and financial matters. All of this is overwhelming for an entrepreneur who has to worry about matters that are core to the business. Their expertise spans domains and because they are also an M&A advisory firm, it helps to have them on board.”

Khetal Advisors had helped with the acquisition of the business Bhatia was running earlier.

Simplilearn, provider of online training and certification courses, sought the services of Khetal Advisors more than two years ago. In 2012, it raised an undisclosed amount from IndoUS Venture Partners. “All the steps towards fundraising, business analysis, business simulation, putting collateral together is time-consuming, but because our advisory firm has the experience of working with several firms and understands the entrepreneur’s mindset, their services add value,” explains Krishna Kumar, Founder and CEO of Simplilearn.

Dealing in nitty-gritty Kunal Walia and Shashwat Kumar started Khetal Advisors in 2007, after stints in equity firms and their own businesses. Says Walia, “For our M&A practice, the typical clientele is a $5-25-million India-based technology services firm. “But our positioning in the start-up ecosystem is very clear: our primary function is to help start-ups raise capital. “We work with early stage and late stage companies, and help them raise private capital through venture capital firms, private equity companies and strategic partners.” Walia and Kumar see an opportunity for their role to grow in the coming years as entrepreneurial activity increases.

“In the digital technology space, Big Data and Analytics are going to be the hot topics. For large enterprises, cloud-based CRM & ERP packages in addition to vertical specific business intelligence solutions, for example, are going to be the emerging technologies for the next 4-5 years. “According to us in the next 2-3 years, in the Big Data space itself the exits will be in the range of $100-500 million,” says Walia. Such projections mean that the right ‘connect’ between entrepreneurs and investment firms becomes increasingly vital for overall success. Advisory firms eventually aid better decision making for all parties concerned.

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