An investment holding company of India-based conglomerate Tata Group and media entrepreneur Robert Sillerman have backed the first fund of US and Netherlands-based information and measurement group Nielsen’s corporate venturing unit.
Apex Investments, a Mauritius-based subsidiary of Tata Industries, which invests in new and high-technology businesses for Tata, invested $5m in the Nielsen fund, Pereg Ventures, as part of its planned $50m fundraising drive, according to a person familiar with the fundraising.
Sillerman, who is also investing $5m in the fund, is the founder of multiple media companies, including dance music business SFX Entertainment, and also other businesses also called SFX, which secured big exits in the 1990s.
The two investors have helped take Pereg to about $30m raised, including an investment from Nielsen, and Pereg’s chairman Itzhak Fisher. The company is considering if it should make a first close soon, or, as it is close to raising its targeted $50m, simply make a first and final close on the fund slightly later on, the person added.
Fisher was founder and chief executive of RSL Communications, a Nasdaq-listed company. At RSL, Fisher bought all the shares of an internet protocol telephony company, Delta Three, for $10m, in 1997, which three years later was worth $1bn on Nasdaq.
One member of our advisory board said Nielsen was deserving of the award for best newcomer in corporate venturing this year as probably the “biggest legitimate fundraiser”, for raising funds from third parties. Most corporates generally start their units with balance-sheet money.