Venture Capital News

Benchmark Capital Creates Balderton Capital

The partners of Benchmark Capital and the partners of Benchmark Capital Europe are pleased to announce the creation of a separate European business, newly renamed as

Balderton Capital. Balderton Capital will have approximately US$1.5 billion under management, making it one of the largest venture firms in Europe. Balderton has invested in over 70 companies across Europe, Russia, China and the US in the software, hardware, consumer Internet and clean-tech sectors.

This change -- which will unfold over the coming months -- will not alter existing fund or investor structures: it demonstrates the independence of Balderton and its maturity as a business. Benchmark's US, European, and Israeli portfolios have always been managed independently but have also been -- and will remain -- closely networked and substantially cross-invested. There will be no change in the Israeli team's name or organization, though the long-term goal is for it, too, to become an independent brand.

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Mayfield Fund Expands India Team

Representatives of Mayfield Fund announced the addition of Nikhil Khattau and Vikram Godse to its India investment team. These investment professionals will be based in Mayfield's new office in Mumbai, India. Their joining Mayfield follows the fund's two direct investments during the past six months in India in Tejas Networks and the seed fund. Mayfield's activities in India are being led by U.S.-based Managing Directors Navin Chaddha and Robin Vasan.

Nikhil and Vikram are seasoned investors with deep entrepreneurial, private equity, public markets, investment banking and venture capital expertise. Nikhil brings twelve years of investing experience in public markets and private equity. He was the founding CEO of SUN F&C Asset Management, now part of the Principal Financial Group, which was one of the first private sector asset managers in India with over $350 million under management and over 100,000 investors. He serves on several public boards including Marico, the MidDay group and Nagpur Power & Industries and private company boards including Indo Schottle.

Vikram brings over seven years of investment experience in private equity and venture capital and was a founding member of JM Financial Investment Managers Limited, a broad based, multi-sector India private equity fund where he led some of its key investments and served on several boards including: Satya Paul, the Sona Group, and International Tractors. His prior experiences include working for Cisco's investment arm in India where he led the investment in Bharti Telesoft and Infinity Venture Fund, one of India's first venture capital firms, where he made several notable investments including Indiagames (acquired by Tom Online), Brainvisa (an e-learning company) and was also involved in investments such as Avendus and Indiabulls.

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Netage Group, Inc. Appointed Kakutaro Kitashiro, Former IBM Japan President, to External Board Member

Netage Group, Inc. ,which acts as an incubator of internet business in Japan, is expected to appoint Kakutaro Kitashiro, head advisor to IBM Japan, to External Board Member at the next regular shareholders meeting on June 22. Netage, which has worked actively to expand internet business in Japan as a supporter of venture corporations, will be expanding their range of activity beyond Japan, where the net business is in its period of maturity, to other developing nations in Asia and the rest of the world. Netage is hiring Mr. Kitashiro for his deep understanding of venture corporation cultivation acquired through his experience working in the global IT field as president of Japan IBM and IBM Asia Pacific.

Kitashiro was born in 1944. In 1967 he joined IBM Japan. After working at the head office in N.Y., he was appointed Director of IBM Japan and then Representative Director and President in 1993. He rebuilt IBM Japan by adapting the company to the changes in the IT industry that occurred during the transition from a focus on hardware to software. In 1999 he was appointed Chairman of IBM Japan and President of IBM Asia Pacific. He actively applied IBM Japan's excellent business methods and CS (Customer Satisfaction) in the Asia Pacific region. During the four years from 2003 to 2007 he served as Representative Manager of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives.

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Financial Services Firms Bullish on Outsourcing, with Demand Increasing in Traditional and Emerging Processes, According to EquaTerra Perspective Paper

Multiple EquaTerra research studies have concluded that financial services organizations plan to expand their outsourcing initiatives into new geographies, business units and emerging processes more than other industries. The firm's research also found that organizations in this industry are among the heaviest users of IT outsourcing (ITO) and business process outsourcing (BPO). These findings, as well as financial services industry outsourcing satisfaction levels, complexities, drivers, anticipated benefits and a wide range of other topics are detailed and analyzed in a new EquaTerra perspective paper titled, "Outsourcing Trends in the Financial Services Industry."

According to EquaTerra research, IT is the back-office process most commonly outsourced by financial services organizations, followed by call centers and then HR. Other industry specific processes commonly outsourced include claims, transaction (e.g., credit card, equity trading) and check processing activities. The firm's research also identified emerging trends in financial services outsourcing, including an increase in the outsourcing of content and document management, as well as "knowledge process outsourcing" or KPO. The former is an important issue for financial services organizations since they generate huge amounts of electronic and paper documents particularly when undertaking capital markets and M&A work for their clients, and stringent regulatory requirements around the management of these documents drives up costs. Financial services firms, therefore, are exploring all options, including the use of third party service providers to help support these efforts.

KPO, a relatively new area, continues to gather momentum and encompasses a broad array of processes such as market research, financial analysis, M&A due diligence and related M&A legal work. The Indian market is particularly well-suited to KPO not only due to its lower costs, but also because of its reservoir of highly educated workers albeit with limited experience and context around some of the business processes they support.

EquaTerra research also found that financial services firms have greater future outsourcing investment plans than do other industries. For instance, 36 percent of financial services respondents whose firm's had outsourced one or more of the defined process areas planned to expand outsourcing into new geographies or business units, as compared to 30 percent overall in the study. Twenty-eight percent planned to expand outsourcing into new process areas. Financial services firms will continue to invest in multiple forms of service delivery models including shared services operations, captive centers and the use of outsourcing providers. While the nature of the industry complicates efforts, the potential rewards of adopted blended service delivery models, particularly impact on bottom line and share price, outweigh the additional constraints and complexities.

EquaTerra believes the most innovative financial services firms will lead the way by showing innovation in their strategies around service delivery models and balancing that innovation with execution excellence and cost efficiency. Those institutions that have already outsourced and are looking for ways to increase the value of their investment should consider the points below, among others:

• Is the outsourcing initiative achieving the value sought at the beginning of the relationship?
• Is your outsourcing governance team utilizing all the tools in the marketplace to effectively manage the relationship?
• Have changes in the regulatory environment put your firm at risk relative to outsourcing efforts? Can you ensure your service providers are maintaining the regulatory integrity of your operations?
• Are you diversified enough in your global services delivery footprint? What are regional options beyond India?

EquaTerra's new "Outsourcing Trends in the Financial Services Industry" perspective paper also contains insights into how both financial services organizations and outsourcing service providers are responding to the current market and its complexities. To request a copy of the study, please send an e-mail to: research@equaterra.com.