Venture capital and private equity funding offers enormous scope for small units and start-ups to scale up operations, said Krishna Meka, Senior Principal Investment Manager, Ventureast Life Fund.
Meka was speaking at a session on “How to scale up your enterprise”, organised jointly by the Confederation of Indian Industry and Business Line here on Saturday, as part of a road show to promote CII emerging entrepreneur awards in the southern region. The event was sponsored by the Indian Overseas Bank.
He said, according to some studies, in the next six years or so $75 billion will flow into the country through the venture capital/private equity route. “The start-ups and small units can make use of the opportunity to upgrade and upscale their operations. Venture capital funds such as Ventureast not only offer the funding but they would also provide the technical assistance and other forms of help. Funding is no problem, if you have the right idea,” he said.
Meka said his fund had so far financed 60 companies in South India to the extent of $300 million. Earlier, Rana Uppalapati, a local entrepreneur and business associate of Titan Industries Ltd, narrated the success story of how his company’s turnover went up from Rs 5 crore to more than Rs 50 crore in less than a decade.