PEs,VCs invest Rs 843 crore in Bengal start-ups

Over Rs 843 crore have been invested by private equity firms, angel funds, start-ups, venture capitalists and others after Mamta Banerjee’s government came to power in West Bengal, said the state Finance and Industry Minister Dr Amit Mitra at an ASSOCHAM-IACC event held in Kolkata.

“We have crossed Rs 8 lakh crores of GSDP (gross state domestic product), so that means something is rolling and the rate of growth of nominal value are phenomenal, so this is the time that PE firms, start-ups, those angel funding people, have to now be here on the ground,” said Dr Mitra while inaugurating a conference on ‘Invest East: Where PE, VC & Angels will meet your ideas,’ organised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) jointly with Indo-American Chamber of Commerce (IACC).

Quoting a knowledge firm study, he said that PE firms had invested $8.4 billion in India between January and September 2014 as against $7.8 billion in 2013 thereby showcasing 38% jump year-on-year in PE firms’ investment in India.

“If that is true obviously Bengal comes into the reckoning, because with the kind of growth that the state has seen there are a lot of things happening parallely,” said Dr Mitra.

“Time has come when PE funds, particularly for funding start ups, angel networks as well as VCs are coming in large numbers to Bengal as the energy of entrepreneurship here is unbelievable and young people who wanted to only get a job before are turning towards creating jobs rather than only working,” he added.

“Let me submit to you that lot of interesting investments are taking place,” further said Dr Mitra.

“We have done some amazing work in capital expenditure, six times more in four years, in the history of Bengal or any other state, I do not think this has happened,” he said.

“Taxes have doubled, those living in Kolkata already know that in exactly three years the tax receipt of the government have doubled from Rs 20,000 crore to Rs 40,000 crore,” he said. “The tax doubling is also an indicator towards the energy within the economy of growth.”

He also informed that for real estate project in Bata, $33 million came from GIC via HDFC and it was signed in Singapore.

“When GIC which is probably world’s largest sovereign fund, decides to come to Bengal, it means they have done their due-diligence and HDFC being very professional entity as their partner are obviously aware of what is going on the ground in Bengal,” said Dr Mitra.

In his address at the ASSOCHAM-IACC event, Sunil Kanoria, President, ASSOCHAM said, “Entrepreneurial ventures in the eastern India offer PE/VC players very attractive valuations as investing when multiples are lower and exiting when multiples are higher give them highest returns.”