Reliance Venture Asset Management, the corporate venturing unit of India-based industrial conglomerate Reliance ADA Group, has exited chipmaker Sequans Communications after the portfolio company’s flotation in New York, agreed the sale of Pelago to discount coupon company Groupon and seen new investment in its India-based portfolio company Yatra.
Sequans’ initial public offering (IPO) on New York Stock Exchange this week was the first for a company funded by an Indian venture investor.
The IPO raised a lower-than-expected $77m after pricing 7.7 million American Depositary Shares (ADSs), representing an ordinary share, at $10 each. Sequans had planned to offer 9.17 million ADSs for $11 to $13 each.
US equipment makers Alcatel-Lucent and Motorola last invested an undisclosed amount in November 2009, while Switzerland-based phone operator Swisscom and India-based Reliance ADA Group had also previously invested through their corporate venturing units in February 2008’s $28m round for Sequans.
Harshal Shah (pictured), chief executive of Reliance Venture, told news provider Economic Times: "This has been a yet another multi-bagger investment for Reliance Venture. "We are open to discussing financial information after observing a limited quiet period for 25 days after the IPO."
Separately, Groupon has agreed to acquire Pelago, known as Whrrl and a US-based provider of software that combines smartphone mapping technology with social networking, for an undisclosed amount.
Reliance had invested an undisclosed amount in May 2008’s series B round for Pelago to join corporate venturing peer T-Venture, which backed by Germany-based phone operator Deutsche Telekom, and venture capital firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Trilogy Equity Partners, Bezos Expeditions and DAG Ventures.
Pelago had raised $22.4m in its first two rounds from its launch in 2006.
In his blog, Jeff Holden, co-founder and chief executive of Pelago, said: "Whrrl’s mission has always been to increase the possibility of adventure in our daily real-world lives, and to that end, we invented an idea economy (with Whrrlbot as its inexhaustible champion!) It turns out that Groupon has a very similar mission, except they approached it by creating a new kind of deal economy.
"What does this mean for Whrrl? We’ve made the decision to close the curtain on Whrrl for now. You would be right to expect that the ideas underpinning Whrrl and many of the inventions contained within may re-emerge under the Groupon banner."
Finally, online travel reservations provider Yatra Online has raised R200 crore ($45m) from venture capital firms Valiant Capital and Norwest Venture Partners and Intel Capital, the corporate venturing unit of semiconductor company Intel, for a reported 26% stake.
Yatra previously raised R150 crore from Reliance Venture, TV18 Group, Norwest Venture Partners and Intel Capital.
Yatra had sales of $500m last year and is planning an IPO in next 12 to 18 months.