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Year in review: Top 5 VC deals of 2012

By Madhav A Chanchani

  • 26 Dec 2012

Consumer internet continues to get most of the venture capital dollars, with two e-commerce firms and one classifieds player figuring among the top five investments in 2012. While Flipkart.com closed its much-anticipated mega round, Komli Media and Quikr also raised new rounds of funding this year. Interestingly, two of the five deals (Komli and Myntra) saw existing investors leading a much larger round of funding.

Here is a look at the top five VC deals of the year. 

Flipkart raises $150 million from Naspers, ICONIQ Capital: India’s largest consumer e-commerce firm Flipkart Online Services Pvt Ltd raised its much-anticipated mega round, led by two new investors – MIH (part of the Naspers Group) and ICONIQ Capital – besides participation from existing investors Tiger Global and Accel Partners. The e-tailer had earlier raised $31 million from Tiger Global Management and Accel Partners in three rounds of funding. While Naspers has backed businesses like Goibibo and BuyThePrice.com in India, this was the first investment in the country by ICONIQ Capital, a multi-family office that manages the wealth of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Zynga’s Mark Pincus, among others.

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Komli Media raises $39 million: Norwest Venture Partners led another round of capital infusion in Mumbai-based online ad network and audience measurement provider Komli Media India Pvt Ltd as it continues its aggressive inorganic strategy. Other investors in this round included Nexus Venture Partners, Helion Venture Partners, Draper Fisher Jurvetson and Western Technology Investment. With this round of funding, Komli has raised a total of $62 million across four rounds.

Funding from the latest round will be used for the acquisition of Admax Network, a South-east Asian digital media network, besides product enhancement, hiring and expansion across the Asia-Pacific region.

Warburg Pincus backs Quikr: In its first internet-related investment in the country in more than a decade, Warburg Pincus led a $32 million investment in Quikr Mauritius Holding Pvt Ltd, the parent company of Quikr India Pvt Ltd that runs the online classifieds site Quikr. The fifth round of funding takes the total money raised by the firm to $50 million. Other investors in Quikr include Matrix Partners India, Norwest Venture Partners, Omidyar Network, Nokia Growth Partners and eBay Inc. For Warburg Pincus, which also looked at another classifieds firm IndiaMART, this is the second consumer internet deal in India after Rediff.com.

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Nexus-backed Kaltura, Aryaka raise $25 million rounds: Two companies, backed by Nexus Venture Partners and headquartered in the US, are tied in the fourth spot with $25 million rounds. OpenOffice-based online video platform Kaltura Inc raised $25 million in Series D from Mitsui Global Investment and Orix Ventures, with participation from existing investors Intel Capital, 406 Ventures and Avalon Ventures besides Nexus Venture Partners.

Aryaka Networks Inc, a cloud-based WAN optimisation services provider with offices in the US and India, also raised $25 million in Series C. The round was led by InterWest Partners and Presidio Ventures, with participation from existing investors Nexus Venture Partners, Trinity Ventures and Mohr Davidow Ventures.

Myntra raises $20 million from Tiger Global: Bangalore-based Myntra Designs Pvt Ltd, which runs the fashion and lifestyle e-commerce site Myntra.com, raised $20 million in Series C funding, led by Tiger Global. The funding was raised to grow its logistics services and expand into new categories. Earlier, the company raised $14 million in its second round of funding from Tiger Global and existing investors IDG Ventures and Kalaari Capital. Myntra repositioned itself as a lifestyle portal from a gifts and merchandise portal last year.

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(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)

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