Reliance Venture

Reliance Venture (Reliance Venture Asset Management Ltd) is a corporate venture capital company based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. It has been promoted by the Reliance ADA Group. It has advised and invested in deals to the tune of over $4 billion in various companies. It has invested in companies such as India's largest online travel portal, Yatra.com, Suvidhaa Infoserve, Stoke Inc, Pelago Inc, Sequans Communications, E-Band Communications, Seedfund and two MIT-startups, Dhama Innovations and Scalable Display Technologies. It was recently ranked 30th in the Red Herring Top 100 Global Venture Capital Firms in 2009.
History
Reliance Venture Asset Management was founded by ex-IBMer, Harshal J. Shah, in 2006, as Reliance Technology Ventures Ltd. Harshal Shah was hand-picked by Anil Ambani, the Chairman of the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group, to start the corporate venture arm of the Group. On March 3, 2010, company changed its name from Reliance Technology Ventures Ltd to Reliance Venture Asset Management Ltd.
Recently, Reliance Venture sold its stake in Seattle-based, Pelago, Inc., to Groupon for pre-IPO shares in Groupon. Media reports state that this deal will provide Reliance Veture a 9X on its investment in 3 years. Pelago was co-invested into by Jeff Bezos, CEO and Founder of Amazon.com, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Reliance Venture is also the first Indian venture capital firm to take a portfolio company for an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange, though its listing of France-based Sequans Communications (NYSE ticker: SQNS). It reportedly made a 5X profit on its investment in 3 years. Earlier, it also sold its stake in MIT start-up, Dhama Innovations, to a group of private equity investors generating a triple-digit IRR.

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