In yet another instance of people of Indian origin hitting it big, the Forbes magazine has listed as many as 14 in its 'Midas 100 List' of those who invest in start-up companies and then sell off their stakes with handsome gains.
This list of tech dealmakers is prepared every year by the business magazine based on the value of the companies these people have taken public or sold in the past five years as well as the capital and involvement it took to get there.
Ram Shriram, who invested early in Internet search giant Google, has been ranked third in the list, moving up from number four last year. He currently runs venture capital firm Sherpalo. He has invested in travel portal Cleartrip and internet-based photo service provider Xoom.in, besides online money management firm Mint.com.
L. John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield and Byers, whom Forbes has described as the 'mentor and money man to founders of Google, Amazon, Intuit and Sun Microsystems', has topped the Midas list.
Others of Indian origin on the list include Navin Chaddha (rank 10), an IIT graduate who heads India investments of Mayfield Fund, and well-known venture capitalist Vinod Khosla (rank 70).
Chaddha, ranked 58th in the previous year's list, has successfully managed deals like IL&FS Investsmart and India Infoline in financial services space and Provogue in fashion.
Parag Saxena of Vedanta Capital is at number 31. He had a big initial public offer (IPO) last year and has also raised a $1.4 billion fund called New Silk Route to take advantage of deregulation in India and elsewhere. His investments range from wireless to biotech.
Arjun Gupta, ranked 51, founded TeleSoft Partners in 1996. His big deals have included Salesforce.com and Sierra Design Automation.
The others of Indian origin who made it to the list are Aneel Bhusri of Greylock Partners (rank 16), Promod Haque of Norwest Venture Partners (rank 48), Ryan D. Limaye of Goldman Sachs (rank 52), Rob L. Soni of Matrix Partners (rank 58), Deepak Kamra of Canaan Partners (rank 69), Raman Khanna of ONSET Ventures (rank 74), Ravi Adusumalli of SAIF Partners (rank 77), Shirish Sathaye of Matrix Partners (rank 82) and Rob S. Chandra of Bessemer Venture Partners (rank 96).
The magazine's ranking considers venture-backed technology and life sciences companies that have gone public or been acquired in the past five years, as well as the amount of capital it took to get there and the level of involvement in a company by its investors and advisers.
Forbes' annual Midas 100 list surveys the top tech dealmakers in the world. Last year, companies that venture capitalists helped launch hauled in $34 billion from 86 public offerings and 304 acquisitions.
The final quarter of 2007 saw 31 initial public offers - more than any other quarter since the third quarter of 2000 - worth $3 billion.

Market skids in late trade

The market lost close to 300 points in late trade provisionally ending marginally higher after reports filitered in that India's Defence Attache Brigadier R D Mehta and three other Indians have been killed in a suicide attack on the Indian Embassy in Kabul today. A sharp slump in prices of Reliance Industries, Reliance Communcations, Reliance Infrastructure, Larsen & Toubro, and Bharat Heavy Electricals caused the late slide on the bourses.
IT, FMCG stocks gained whereas oil & gas and capital goods stocks fell. The market breadth was strong with small-cap and mid-cap shares staging a comeback after a sharp recent plunge. Market had remained firm in most part of the day on firm global cues and due to easing of political uncertainty.
Poitical worries receded with Samajwadi Party (SP), a regional party, on making it clear during the week end that it will support the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA), at a time when Left parties are on the verge of withdrawing support. The Left front has set 7 July 2008 as deadline for the government to let them know whether it intends to approach the International Atomic Energy Agency to seal the India-specific safeguards agreement.
European markets which opened after the Indian markets were in green. Key benchmark indices in France, Germany and UK were up between 0.09% to 0.59%.
The 30-share BSE Sensex provisionally rose 48.99 points or 0.36% at 13,502.99. At the day’s high of 13,793.39 hit in mid-morning trade, the Sensex had gained 339.29 points. Sensex was up 22.29 points at the day's low of 13,476.29 hit in opening trade.
The broader based S&P CNX Nifty ended up 14 points or 0.35% at 4,030.
BSE clocked a turnover of Rs 6,697 crore today 7 July 2008 as compared to a turnover of Rs 5,677.98 crore on Friday, 4 July 2008.
The BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.92% at 5,326.81, while the BSE Small-Cap index was up 2.15% at 6,588.32. Both these indices outperformed the Sensex.
The market breadth was strong on BSE, with 1817 gainers outpacing 820 losers. 65 stocks remained unchanged.
Among the 30-member Sensex pack, 21 advanced while the rest declined.
India’s second largest power utility firm by sales Reliance Infrastructure declined 0.31% to Rs 771.05. It came off from session's high of Rs 838.75. India’s second largest telecom services provider by sales Reliance Communications fell 3.9% to Rs 421.10. It came off from session's high of Rs 454.90.
India’s largest private sector bank by sales ICICI Bank slipped 0.76% to Rs 596.10. It came off from session's high of Rs 639.95.
India’s largest private sector firm by market capitalization and oil refiner Reliance Industries fell 3.88% at Rs 2,017.50. It was the top loser from the Sensex pack.
Cairn India (down 5.49% to Rs 237.70), Essar Oil (down 1.95% to Rs 176.20) and Reliance Petroleum (down 2.77% to Rs 166.55) edged lower. Shares of state-run oil marketing companies rose. BPCL (up 5.52% to Rs 240.90), HPCL (up 4.2% to Rs 192.20) and Indian Oil Corporation (up 1.96% to Rs 348) edged higher.
As per reports, private oil companies like Reliance Industries (RIL), Essar and Cairn may have to forgo some of their profits to share the huge subsidy burden in the oil sector. A proposal on these lines, which was first mooted by the Left parties, is now being considered seriously by the ruling party leadership, following a similar demand by the Congress' latest political ally, the Samajwadi Party. A windfall tax is normally levied on oil exploration and production companies who reap huge profits when global crude prices increase.
Capital goods stocks declined. India’s largest engineering and construction firm by sales Larsen & Toubro (L&T) lost 1.06% to Rs 2,408. The company today bagged an order worth Rs 446 crore from JSW Power Transco for transmission lines. India’s largest electric equipment maker by sales Bharat Heavy Electricals fell 2.26% to Rs 1466.35. However Suzlon Energy rose 1.35% to Rs 194.80.
IT stocks gained. India's second largest software exporter by sales Infosys Technologies rose 2.61% at Rs 1,801.20. The company will announce its Q1 Result on 11 July 2008. Satyam Computer Services (up 4.28% to Rs 481.95), Wipro (up 2.54% to Rs 440) and Tata Consultancy Services (up 0.98% to Rs 852) edged higher.
FMCG stocks rose. ITC (up 3.98% to Rs 177.60), United Spirits (up 4.15% to Rs 1,128.50), Hindustan Unilever (up 3.89% to Rs 209.45) edged higher.
Jaiprakash Associates (up 4.47% to Rs 160.15), Mahindra & Mahindra (up 4.4% to Rs 496.35), Maruti Suzuki India (up 4.34% to Rs 574.35), State Bank of India (up 3.92% to Rs 1,171.75), ACC (up 3.82% to Rs 496.20) edged higher from Sensex pack.
Tata Motors (down 2.07% to Rs 392.55), HDFC (down 0.02% to Rs 2,055), Ranbaxy Laboratories (down 0.65% to Rs 534.90), Ambuja Cements (down 1.07% to Rs 73.90) edged lower from Sensex pack.
Everonn Systems India rose 4.45% to Rs 452 after the company signed a memorandum of understanding with Himachal Pradesh state government to implement IT education in 793 senior secondary schools in the state.
Asian markets which opened before Indian market, edged higher. The key benchmark indices in China, Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan were up by 0.11% to 4.59%. US stock markets were closed for the Independence Day holiday on Friday, 4 July 2008.
US light crude for August delivery traded at $143.92 a barrel and London Brent crude rose 23 cents to $144.65 a barrel. Crude oil hit a record $145.85 on 3 July 2008.
Source: Capital Market