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| February 16, 1998 |
Ace VenturaTDICI promises another venture capital fund for
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TDICI was required to complete the disbursals by December 1997.
TDICI sources say that the World Bank is yet to extend permission for the extension and if that fails to come through, TDICI has decided to float another IT fund on its own.
"We would be looking at the possibilities of floating a small fund, having acquired expertise in the IT sector,'' the sources said.
Even for the new fund, TDICI would be keen on funding the projects of reputed corporations and medium-scale units rather than focussing on start-up ventures.
According to TDICI officials, experience has shown that start-up ventures have a gestation period of at least three years before churning out profits. With venture capitalists expected to generate returns in a span of seven to eight years, TDICI is not very keen on first-generation entrepreneurs.
One of the investment policies of the venture capital company has been to look at medium-term projects with an investment potential of Rs 70-80 million.
The exit route would be simpler in the case of medium-scale companies as against the smaller companies. "Experience has shown that individual entrepreneurs are not very committed and are willing to take up a profession if their venture fails to take off,'' said a TDICI official.
This has proved to be one of the factors for the non-disbursal of the corpus, for TDICI.
Besides the medium-scale projects, TDICI also largely focuses on the product and service category in the IT sector.
"Although we are willing to fund software units with offshore development in the initial years, we expect the unit to move to product development at a later stage,'' the official pointed out.
TDICI has funded some software projects such as Microland and planetasia.com and VXL Instruments.
Earlier:
- Compiled from the Indian media
