Early stage venture investor Canaan Partners today hinted that it is time for the investor to exit a few businesses. The investor, which entered the Indian market in 2006, has made some big investments in companies such as BharatMatrimony.com, Cartrade.com, Naaptol, Iyogi amongst other nine startups.
Alok Mittal, Managing Director, Canaan Partners, said the venture capital firm will see at least one big ticket exit by end of this year most probably through an IPO. Mittal also said that the Iyogi and UnitedLex are two other companies in its portfolio that have matured. “We might look at all options such as IPO or a secondary sale. But we can give out any specific numbers at this point in time,” he added.
This, if materialises, will be the company’s second after it partially exited an enterprise and managed services startup called E4E.
Meanwhile, Bharatmatrimony.com, in which Canaan holds about 20 per cent stake, is believed to be the target company as the classified marriage portal had announced its IPO plans last year.
Consim Info, promoter of BharatMatrimony, is mulling to raise about $125 million this year. In 2006, Yahoo! and Canaan Partners together invested $8.65 million in matrimony service provider. However, in 2011, Yahoo sold its stake to Bessemer Venture Partners, Mayfield Fund and Canaan Partners for $20 million.
Mittal also said that the firm, which typically invests up to $10-15 million, is also actively looking for companies in the e-commerce and mobile app space for investment this year. The firm invests in about a couple of firms annually.