Bangalore: Vivek Madappa, chief executive of HummingBird Suites Pvt. Ltd, a Bangalore-based service apartment operator, has a new sales channel: its backer, Helion Venture Partners. Helion, which manages $350 million (Rs1,754 crore) in assets, invested $4 million in August in Madappa’s firm, and has since driven as much as one-tenth of the suites provider’s business.
New channels: HummingBird Suites CEO Vivek Madappa (left) and DFJ India CEO Mohanjit Jolly. Hemant Mishra / Mint
“Since our funding, we have grown by 250%. Our client base has risen from 70 to 320, of which up to 10% has come to us from Helion,” Madappa says.
Welcome to the world of family ties in the VC business. With a global economic slowdown, a slump in funding deals, expensive debt, and capital-raising difficulties seen in quarters ahead, investors are going the extra mile to help portfolio companies in generating revenues and garnering new customers.
The first step towards which has been to encourage the investee companies to take up each other’s services, work together if there is a synergy in their business offerings and introductions to prospective customers. “Investors will be more aggressive now as it has become crucial for them to make their companies successful in the current market,” says T.C. Meenakshisundaram, founder and managing director, IDG Ventures India.
IDG-backed Aujas Networks Pvt. Ltd, a provider of digital security services, and iViZ Techno Solutions Pvt. Ltd, which tests networks for hacking vulnerabilities, have also been working together since April. “With our complimentary services, we are now able to offer a larger number of services to our customers…something we would not have been able to do on our own,” says Sameer Shelke, co-founder and chief operating officer, Aujas, which caters to 15 customers. With a combined offering, Aujas says its prospects base has increased to up to 30 customers.
With an aggregated approach, the portfolio companies can insist on deals for a lesser price
Elsewhere, Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) India’s executive director Mohanjit Jolly says the firm is targeting its portfolio companies with travel packages from Cleartrip Travel Services Pvt. Ltd, a firm it has funded. Jolly did not give further details on the collaboration saying it is too early to make a statement.
DFJ family’s Gingersoft Media Pvt. Ltd, which offers what is called a permission-based mobile marketing platform, mGinger, is also advertising for Seventymm Services Pvt. Ltd, a movie rental company that is also a DFJ-backed business. Seventymm had raised $12 million in its third round of funding from NEA Indo-US Ventures, Matrix India, DFJ and ePlanet Ventures in August.