Seven Indians with 'Midas touch' make it to Forbes

NEW YORK: At least seven Indians have made it to the Forbes magazine's coveted list of top 100 start-up investors across the world, for putting 

Formula for successful biz India Inc on crossroads Decade's hottest biz feuds Richest Indians  Old Horses of India Inc Modern Moguls Tycoons with a golden heart More Pictures

their "midas touch" to help grow adolescent companies into profit making ventures. 



The Midas List 2009 features at least seven India-born investors led by Ram Shriram, who was named third on the esteemed list. Shriram made a fortune as one of Google's original backers and board members. 



At present Shriram invests heavily in India and his bets include Mobile ad marketplace mKhoj and job-hunting site Naukri.com. 



He is followed by fellow venture capitalists like Navin Chaddha who was ranked 11th in the coveted list, Arjun Gupta at 32nd position, Deepak Kamra (70), Raman Khanna (72), Ravi Adusumalli (75) and Promod Haque (96). 



The year 2008 was however a bad year for the venture capitalists as they made very less money largely on account of the global financial meltdown. According to Forbes, VCs raised USD 28 billion and poured roughly the same into companies. 







"The contraction of the US economy, however, made it tough for new companies to reach the public market: Only six venture-backed companies had IPOs in 2008, down from 86 companies in 2007," Forbes said. 



Forbes further said, "The new watchword of this past year: growth equity, which means investing in adolescent companies where managers have already figured out how to turn a profit." 



The list that seeks to identify venture capitalists who generate profits for their investors and assist in building valuable, long-lived technology and life sciences companies was topped by John Doerr of Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers followed by Sequoia Capital's Michael Moritz in the second position. 



Meanwhile, the other Indian-origin people who were named by Forbes include Navin Chaddha with successes like India Infoline (financial services) and Provogue (fashion). 



In 2008 he invested in Gigya, which distributes widgets and content across the Web and attaches relevant advertisements. Dreams of big clean-tech play that makes energy distribution more efficient. 



Besides, Arjun Gupta (32 rank) has made a big jump from his 2008 ranking (51). He has made successful investment in Omnipoint and Bombay Cellular and on 1996 he started his own firm, TeleSoft Partners.