Venture Capital News
Clearstone Venture Partners Targets High-Growth Domestic Consumption Sectors for Early-Stage Investing in India
Clearstone Venture Partners, a leading early stage venture capital firm, announced August 17 the opening of an advisory office in Mumbai. Activities in India will be managed by Clearstone Venture Advisors, headed by Rahul Khanna, who will identify and support portfolio companies. Clearstone will focus its Indian investments on high-growth domestic consumption sectors including telecom, media, entertainment and financial services. Clearstone currently has US$650 million of committed investment capital, with its most recent fund totaling US$200 million. As a first step, Clearstone has already announced a US$5 million investment in Indiaideas.com Ltd., India's leading payment services provider, operating as Billdesk.
Clearstone Venture Advisors Pvt. Ltd., located in Mumbai is Clearstone's independent advisor on the ground in India. This office will develop and extend the firm's Indian entrepreneurial networks, evaluate new companies for investment consideration, and supervise Clearstone's interests in active portfolio companies.
Clearstone believes participating in the Indian entrepreneurial economy is imperative for ongoing success in technology venture capital. It has built a deep relationship with India, first by attracting seasoned Indian-born and educated business professionals to its team in the United States, who are members of the Clearstone fund three General Partnership. Over the years, it has developed a key relationship with TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs) the leading Indian entrepreneurial organization in the US and has made over a dozen investments in US-based companies with back end operations in India. The culmination of these steps is now having on-the-ground presence in India, through Clearstone Venture Advisors, and actively investing in India. The firm targets visionary entrepreneurs requiring help in building globally valuable companies through early stage funding in the range of US$2 to US$5 million
[ FYI Index ]
Student-Run University Venture Fund Makes Milestone Tenth Investment in Alianza
University Venture Fund (UVF), the nation's largest student-run venture capital fund, announced Tuesday that its milestone tenth investment will go to Alianza Global Communication Services, a Lindon-based Internet startup company created by a 26-year-old Utah entrepreneur.
UVF is unusual among education-based investment funds because students engage in an aggressive entrepreneurial process by researching and investing in pioneering small companies that are too risky for banks and standard capital markets to back. By contrast, nearly all other student investment funds buy and sell stocks of public corporations with well-known valuations and relatively predictable performance. UVF is a collaboration between university students and professional investors.
For their tenth investment, aspiring entrepreneurs and venture capitalists of UVF chose Alianza, which sells virtual PBX communication platforms, or companywide phone systems, that operate using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) rather than through a traditional phone company. Alianza's target market is Latin American businesses, and VoIP technology provides these enterprises with new services and cost savings. UVF collaborated with vSpring Capital, a Utah-based venture firm, which became lead investor in the deal.
Brian Beutler created the business plan for Alianza (Spanish for "Alliance") in 2004 and started the company using his credit card and home equity debt along with family donations. In 18 months, Alianza has grown from a dozen employees and 200 clients to 42 employees, over 1,000 clients and now has nine offices in Mexico. In 2005, Beutler won the Outstanding Business Plan Award in his division in the 22nd annual Global MOOT CORP Competition.
As the first and largest fund of its type, UVF has gained broad support from investors interested in educating the next generation of entrepreneurs. Early UVF backers include Tim Draper, one of Silicon Valley's highest profile venture capitalists, UBS Bank USA and Morgan Stanley Bank. Students research startup businesses, and those they find potentially lucrative they pitch to the fund's full-time managing partner and a volunteer investment professional overseeing which investments are included in the UVF portfolio. UVF's first nine investments were BaroSense Inc., LignUp Inc., Omniture Inc., Socialtext, Chakshu Research Inc., Infinera, HandiQuilter, InteliSum and Merrimack Pharmaceuticals.
Rather than use university endowment money as a source of funds, UVF students raise capital from limited partner investors with the intention of paying back a reasonable rate of return on money invested. To date they have raised $18 million in capital and are searching out private equity deals they deem likely to succeed.
A diverse group of graduates and undergraduates are enrolled in UVF, including engineering, medical and business students. UVF works with students from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, Westminster College in Salt Lake City, Brigham Young University in Provo, and the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.
[ FYI Index ]
Event: University of Central Florida Technology Incubator and Seminole Technology Business Incubation Center Team Up to Offer the "Cold Calling Boot Camp" (Aug. 30)
University of Central Florida Technology Incubator and Seminole Technology Business Incubation Center are bringing the Cold Calling Boot Camp training event to the Orlando area. The “Boot Camp” helps businesses grow by improving their phone prospecting. The all-day event is scheduled for Wednesday, August 30 from 8:30am to 4:30pm at Seminole Community College, 2505 Lockwood Blvd in Oviedo, Florida. This event promotes professional development through world-class training, all at an affordable price.
Why is a training session for cold calling a worthy endeavor? Actually, there might be nothing worse for a sales person than cold calling. It’s boring, it’s difficult, and it doesn’t bring much satisfaction! It doesn’t have to be a painful process, says Steve Farfsing, founder of the Cold Calling Boot Camp.
Statistics show that after four years, more than 50% of all new businesses fail and more than 50% of new product launches fail in the first year. Why does this happen? According to RevenueStream Consulting, a firm that specializes in the cold calling process, it is a failure of companies to engage in the best practices involved in direct communication with their prospective customers. They have found that even Fortune 500 companies fail to take full advantage of the most effective sales and marketing tool, the telephone.
This isn’t about the dreaded telemarketer who calls at dinner time and is barely audible. RevenueStream Consulting trains companies in the optimal skills of high-end business-to-business prospecting and the strategies around managing a calling database, call cycles, messaging, trends and statistics, data gathering, and voice mail.
The prospective customers who are going to say “no” need to be identified early. If it is a legitimate answer, and we learn what we need to learn, we move on. Five percent of any market is looking for your solution and they must be found as efficiently as possible. Objections are a barrier for sales people, but to a calling professional there should never be objections, only clear answers to insightful questions. Rejection is commonly felt without a “client facing” process. No one can withstand repeated rejection; we eventually give up and try something else.
RevenueStream Consulting is particularly familiar with outsource calling issues. Having done work for premier companies in outsource lead generation, RevenueStream has used that experience to develop its “OPEN” prospecting system and its unique statistical measurements.
The partnership between RevenueStream and the incubator clients will make available an otherwise expensive training opportunity. The participants receive an entire day of training, a 60 plus page work book, electronic templates, lunch, and an hour of free consulting with Mr. Farfsing anytime after the event. This could very well be the only way some of our clients could take advantage of this type and degree of training.
A business incubator has the mandate to provide all the tools and resources possible for a young company to grow and prosper. Central Florida business development is greatly enhanced when a new technology or product is developed here; it brings employment, revenue, and many other benefits to our community. We have found that cold calling or phone prospecting is the best way for a local or regional company to expand regionally and nationally.
Attendees are provided refreshments, accommodations, and lunch. The participants will leave the event with a handbook on calling strategies and methodologies and will be prepared to develop an effective message and the ability to successfully track results. Staff will also be available to set up a free one hour session with our speaker, Steve Farfsing, to further discuss individual company needs.
For additional information see the RevenueStream Consulting Website.
