How agritech startups like Cropin are leveraging space data for better farm output
Lokeswara Reddy, an Indian farmer with two decades of experience, has seen his crops flourish after lean years, thanks to earth-observation satellites. Shifting climate patterns, high input costs, a scarcity of labour and erratic weather began to disrupt his earnings about 10 years ago, said Reddy, 52, currently a contract farmer ......
Dubai's DFDF plans to deploy half corpus by this year across direct, fund-of-fund bets
Dubai Future District Fund (DFDF), the region’s first evergreen venture capital fund-of-fund, aims to hit the halfway mark of its initial corpus in terms of deployment by the end of the current year, three years since its launch, according to a top company executive. Eyeing startups in the generative AI, climatetech ......
Fractional ownership platform Strata seeks SM REIT licence
Commercial real estate investment platform Strata, backed by Kotak Investment Advisors and Gruhas Proptech, has filed an application with the capital markets regulator to launch a small and medium real estate investment trust (SM REIT), making it one of the first few players likely to establish such a platform. The move ......
Grapevine: Bain, Temasek team up for Haldiram bid; ONGC, NTPC Green Energy eye Ayana
Bain Capital and Singapore's Temasek have joined forces to compete with a Blackstone-led consortium for a controlling stake in Haldiram's Snacks Food Pvt Ltd, a media report said. The Bain-Temasek partnership submitted a non-binding offer last week, valuing the Indian snack giant at $8-8.5 billion, The Economic Times reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Bain had ......
Searchlight: How a bootstrapped tour and travel firm stood its ground as peers struggled
India’s tour and travel services sector has gone through much disruption over the last decade with several companies folding up or merging with bigger competitors despite raising venture capital funding, but a handful of bootstrapped operators have managed to defy the odds. Mumbai-based Akbar Travels of India Pvt. Ltd is ......
UK’s BII extends timeline for final tranche investment in Mahindra’s EV arm
Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd said Thursday the company and British International Investment have mutually agreed to extend the timeframe for the final tranche of the UK firm’s planned investment in the Indian automaker's passenger electric vehicle subsidiary. BII, the UK’s development finance institution, had in July 2022 agreed to invest Rs ......
Exclusive: Poonawalla's Serum Institute forays into medtech via acquisition
Serum Institute of India (SII), the world's biggest vaccine maker, has picked up a minority stake in a medical technology company, two people aware of the development told VCCircle. Billionaire Adar Poonawalla-led SII, according to the people mentioned above, has invested in IntegriMedical, which is known for making needle-free injection systems (N-FIS). SII has picked ......
How much did Vivriti AMC return to its investors on closure of first fund?
Mid-market private credit firm Vivriti Asset Management, part of the Chennai-based Vivriti Group, has closed its first private credit fund, thereby returning money to investors, it is learnt. The asset manager had launched the Vivriti Samarth Bond Fund (SBF) in 2019, raising Rs 265 crore (nearly $38 million) from its investors, ......
Brookfield to take full control of four real estate assets, buy Bharti’s stake
Canadian alternative investment firm Brookfield is taking full control of four commercial properties in northern India after agreeing to buy joint venture partner Bharti Enterprises Ltd’s 50% stake. Brookfield said Thursday its India-listed real estate investment trust (REIT) will acquire Bharti's stake in the properties. The Canadian group, through its private ......
Bottomline: How PlasmaGen Bio plans to break its streak of revenue stagnancy
Bengaluru-based biopharmaceutical company PlasmaGen Biosciences Pvt. Ltd, backed by venture capital firm Eight Roads Ventures, is poised to break out from a stagnant revenue run-rate, as it shifts towards majority in-house manufacturing, top company officials informed VCCircle. While the company’s topline has been stuck in the range of Rs 100-110 crore ......
