A group of venture capital firms from the UK and continental Europe have completed a fact-finding visit to India in their first big show of interest in a market that has been dominated by American companies. That's the subject of a Financial Times report (free MSN Money link here).
Portfolio holding 3i Group (III/LN) is among the firms mentioned:
More than 50 delegates from European companies such as Logitech, 3i, SAP Ventures, Nokia Ventures, Advent Venture Partners and Sofinnova made the trip, said Nish Kotecha of The Indus Entrepreneurs, a business association and one of the organisers of the visit.
Later in the piece:
During the visit, the foreign companies visited New Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai. They met leading domestic technology companies such as IT outsourcing groups Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Technologies, as well as smaller participants.
The groups looked at domestic companies in the mobile applications, network infrastructure, e-retailing and e-learning businesses, as well as at outsourcing for their own operations, said Mr Kotecha.
I'll add that one of 3i's competitive advantages is that it specializes in small-to-medium sized deals. How much or how little that turns out to be the case in India, I don't know at this point.
But many of these firms concentrate on mega-sized deals, leaving 3i free to scoop up the best business in an area with less competition. It will be interesting to see if this proves true in India.
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