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Indians with a Midas touch in Forbes list
si Team
Friday, February 1, 2008
When Ram Shriram invested money in Google he had envisioned the face of the Internet changing with Google. His vision proved right and his Midas touch made this vision a reality and today Google has crossed $10 billion in revenue. Ram Shriram is one among the 14 Indians who have made it to the Forbes list for making investments in startup companies and then selling off their stakes with handsome gains.

The list features 100 deal makers with ‘Midas-touch’ based on the value of the companies these people have taken public or sold in the past five years as well as the capital and involvement it took to get there. Shriram has been named at the third position in the renowned U.S. based business magazine’s Midas 100 List.

Shriram, who currently runs venture capital firm Sherpalo and made a fortune by making early investment in Google, has moved up one position from his fourth rank last year. He has also invested in travel portal Cleartrip and Internet-based photo service provider Xoom.in, in addition to online money management firm Mint.com.

Other persons of Indian origin on the list, include Navin Chaddha (rank 10), an IIT graduate who heads India investments of Mayfield Fund, and the well-known venture capitalist Vinod Khosla (rank 70), Aneel Bhusri of Greylock Partners (rank 16), Promod Haque of Norwest Venture Partners (rank 48), Ryan D. Limaye of Goldman Sachs (rank 52), Rob L. Soni of Matrix Partners (rank 58), Deepak Kamra of Canaan Partners (rank 69), Raman Khanna of ONSET Ventures (rank 74), Ravi Adusumalli of SAIF Partners (rank 77), Shirish Sathaye of Matrix Partners (rank 82), and Rob S. Chandra of Bessemer Venture Partners (rank 96).

Chaddha who ranked 58th in the previous year’s list, has successfully managed deals like IL&FS Investsmart and India Infoline in financial services space and Provogue in fashion.

Bhusri was formerly vice chairman at the business software firm PeopleSoft and sold off his stakes in startups like Data Domain, OutlookSoft, and Polyserve.

The software engineer Arjun Gupta worked as a consultant at global giant McKinsey and founded TeleSoft Partners in 1996. According to Forbes, his major deals include Salesforce.com and Sierra Design Automation.
Vedanta Capital’s Parag Saxena has invested in sectors ranging from wireless to biotech and has successfully raised $1.4 billion fund for New Silk Route.

The Delhi born technology investor Deepak Kamra of Canaan Partners has tapped into the telecom and software markets with successful IPOs Acme Packet and SuccessFactors. Having led Canaan Partner’s foray into India, Kamra also bought stakes in the matrimony Website BharatMatrimony.com in 2006.

Last year, companies that venture capitalists helped launch hauled in $34 billion from 86 public offerings and 304 acquisitions.
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