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Venture capital firm Saama Capital India Advisers, which has invested in companies such as Snapdeal and Paytm, has raised about $100 million from two funds and from a partially-closed third fund.
Saama Capital raised about $54 million for its series A fund, about $26 million in the second round and the rest in the third series which is partially closed.
Managing partner and co-founder Ash Lilani told BusinessLine that through the third fund, the venture capital firm has invested in four companies so far.
These include LendingKart, Eazydiner, Veeba Foods and Jifflenow.
“Indian entrepreneurs are more daring and there is this trend to organise the unorganised sectors, which has resulted in a slew of start-ups in the country,” Lilani, an early pioneer of the Indian venture capital ecosystem, said.
The first round was raised as part of the Silicon Valley Bank and the subsequent rounds as part of Saama Valley. Suresh Shanmugham, managing partner and co-founder of Saama Capital, pointed out that over the years, the quality of entrepreneurs from India has been getting better.
During the last 18 months, start-up valuations have been going up and “they have got ahead of fundamentals. There has to be a reset and (it) doesn’t mean that the company is not growing. It is just that how the growth is (being) valued at.”
Start-up sustenanceThere are too many companies, subsidising a lot, attempting to change the behaviour of the consumers. “You can’t sustain that for long, especially when the capital market starts to get tighter with money into these companies.”
Sharma said companies don’t go out of business, but they run out of cash and hence those companies which survive on funding all the time need to build a sustainable business. “…or they can raise additional capital, and if they can’t do that, they need to find something else to do. Many of them shut shop.”
He said some of the big e-commerce companies in India will sustain themselves and “if they can’t raise additional funds, it will be difficult for the others because they are the leaders.”
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