08/05/2019 Newsletter

Industry News

India may be looking at sweetening the employee stock option (Esop) deal for startups. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has begun discussions with the finance ministry on taxing shares granted by startups under their employee stock option plan only at the time of sale, as part of a package aimed at making the country a hub for startups. At present, Esops are taxed, as income, when employees exercise their options and convert them to shares.
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All independent directors may have to register as part of a new initiative by the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA), which also plans to introduce online training modules on various issues that these board members deal with. While registration is proposed to be made mandatory through an online facility, the training through electronic modules, that are being prepared by Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, will be purely voluntary.
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Funding News

Mid-market private equity firm Lighthouse has made the final close of its third India-focused investment vehicle—Lighthouse India Fund III—at $250 million (Rs 1,750 crore), taking its total assets under management to about $500 million.
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Education technology company CollegeDekho has closed $8 million (about Rs 55.5 crore) in fresh equity financing from existing investors GirnarSoft and Man Capital, the investment arm of London-based Mansour Group, the latest funding round after it raised $2 million in February last year.
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Technology-focused public relations solutions startup Wizikey has raised Rs 2.5 crore from the Indian Angel Network (IAN), the country’s largest and oldest angel funding network.
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Fitness discovery and booking platform Fitternity on Tuesday said that it has raised close to $4 million from consumer centric domestic venture fund Sixth Sense Ventures.
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Other News

NetApp, a data management and hybrid cloud firm, in partnership with Zinnov, a global management consulting firm, Tuesday announced the results of their first-of-its-kind study titled, ‘B2B Tech Startup Ecosystem and Role of Corporate Accelerators in India’. The study provides data-driven insights into the growth of B2B tech startups and the upsurge in both funding as well as the corporate accelerator programs in India over the last five years.
Read more on ET Tech