Kanwal Rekhi to invest in 15 Indian cos

Venture capital firm, Inventus Capital, plans to invest in 15 companies this year, including a Bangalore-based healthcare management entity and a consumer Internet company, a top company official said.

"We plan to seal the deal with the Bangalore company in about three weeks. The other deal is still in the discussion stage," Inventus Capital's managing director, Kanwal Rekhi, told PTI in Mumbai, without, however, divulging further details.

Inventus has already invested in one company, the Bangalore-based Telibrahma Convergent Communications.

Describing the healthcare and education sectors as holding an immense potential, Rekhi said that Inventus planned to undertake 4-6-investments every year.

The Kanwal Rekhi-run Inventus, invests primarily in technology-based companies.

On fund-size, he said that it presently stood at $51-million. "The size was supposed to be $125-million, but a lot of people who had committed, backed out. In this tight money market, investments into funds have dried up," Rekhi said.

The investments have a 10-year life, he said, adding that early investment envisaged was around $0.50 mn-$2 m which could be raised to $3 mn.

Asked whether the ongoing economic downturn had adversely affected investments, Rekhi said that recession was a good thing as it forced a change in behaviour.

"In the US, per capita income in the past few years was $42,000, while the approximate spending was $47,000, which is bad behaviour. Recession brings discipline and frugality. It also lowers one's expectations," he said.

During recessionary periods, resources get freed and entrepreneurship thrives, he added.

"It is the best time to be an investor as well as an entrepreneur because valuations are lower," Rekhi said, adding that entrepreneurship is now blossoming in the country.

Rekhi, an Indian Institute of Technology-Bombay alumnus, has personally invested in 53 companies and mentored over a 1,000 individuals, helping aspiring entrepreneurs set up their businesses.

Highlighting an interesting aspect of the present recession, Rekhi said that more men had lost their jobs now as compared to women.

"Women are smarter at keeping their jobs. It is true men form the major part of the workforce, but in the US almost every woman works," he said.