20 Indian start-ups participate at London Tech Week

LONDON: As many as 20 Indian start-ups, covering areas like travel and dairy tech, are participating in the ongoing 'London Tech Week' to explore plans of international expansion.

The companies, covering areas of stem cell technology to science for children, are part of the India Emerging Twenty (IE20) programme launched by London Mayor Sadiq Khan's business and promotional agency, London & Partners (L&P). The IE20 provides a global platform to the top 20 upcoming global Indian organisations, along with offering them worldwide visibility.

"The IE20 initiative is a wonderful way of highlighting the amazing entrepreneurial talent that exists in India, one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. India's young and dynamic entrepreneurial growth is the driving force behind India's growth as a country. IE20 are shining champions of India's growth story," said Cobra Beer founder Lord Karan Bilimoria, who welcomed the companies at the House of Lords this week.

The companies have come to the UK to attend the launch of 'London Tech Week', meet tech entrepreneurs and business leaders in London, and also take part in a skilling up session with Lord Bilimoria and entrepreneur's champion Shalini Khemka.

"The IE20 is proof that Lon- don's relationship with India continues to grow and it is fantastic to welcome so many of its fastest-growing companies to our great city. As someone who arrived from India 15 years ago with just 200 pounds in my pocket, before setting up my own successful companies, I know from first-hand experience that London is the best place in the world to do business," said Rajesh Agrawal, the Indian- origin Deputy Mayor of London for Business.

"This is an excellent opportunity for the winners, India's most innovative start-ups, to champion Indian entrepreneurship in the UK," Khemka said.

According to L&P, since 2005 there has been a 125 per cent increase in Indian companies across all business sectors investing in London, with a 117 per cent increase in tech companies investing in the city, which accounts for 45 per cent of all projects. Major tech investments in London from India in the recent years include software testing service Cigniti Technologies, customer support company Kayako and many others. NEW DELHI: Leading private equity firm Warburg Pincus will acquire a 43 per cent stake in Singapore- based Tata Technologies for $360 million (around Rs 2,320 crore).

An affiliate of Warburg Pincus will acquire around 30 per cent from Tata Motors and its subsidiary Sheba Properties as well as Tata Capital's entire 13 per cent stake, Tata Motors said in a regulatory filing.

Following the transaction, Tata Motors and its affiliates will continue to hold a minority interest of 43 per cent in Tata Technologies with the remaining ownership being held by management team and other shareholders. Tata Technologies is a global engineering services and product development IT company which employs more than 8,500 people in 23 countries. "The partial disinvestment is part of Tata Motors' plan to strategically monetise part of the value created while also inducting valuable partners, together with whom the company can excel in its next phase of growth," Tata Motors Group CFO C Ramakrishnan said.

Warburg Pincus India Managing Director and Co Head, Vishal Mahadevia said, the company is looking forward to back management team at Tata Technologies and leveraging Warburg Pincus' global network to help grow the business. NEW DELHI: Mutual fund houses added close to 19 lakh investor accounts in April-may of 2017-18, taking the total tally to a record 5.72 crore, driven by growing interest from retail and HNI investors alike.

This is on top of 77 lakh folios added in the entire past fiscal and 59 lakh in the preceding financial year.

In the two years, investor accounts went up following robust contribution from smaller towns. Folios are numbers designated to individual investor accounts though an investor can have multiple ones. According to data from the Association of Mutual Funds in India (Amfi) on total investor accounts with 42 active fund houses, the number of folios rose to a record 5,71,90,112 at the end of May from 5,53,99,631 at March-end, a gain of 17.90 lakh.

Growing participation from retail as well as HNI (high net worth individuals) categories have contributed to higher overall investor accounts, Fundsindia.com Head of Mutual Fund Research Vidya Bala said.

The number of retail investor accounts, which comprise equity, equity-linked saving schemes and balanced categories, surged to 4.60 crore in May-end from 4.4 crore at the end of March.

"A good percentage of investors stay invested in equity oriented schemes for at least 24 months or more than that.

This increase in equity-oriented schemes holding period is for applicability of long-term capital gain," Bajaj Capital CEO Rahul Parikh said.

"Even the Investors' confidence in MF has increased. Now they are holding their investments in equity-oriented schemes for a longer period of time for both lumpsum as well as SIP (systematic investment plan) investments," he added.

Overall, the country's mutual fund industry managed an asset base of over Rs 19 lakh crore, which is likely to cross the Rs 20 lakh crore mark this fiscal.

Mutual funds are investment vehicles made up of a pool of funds collected from a large number of investors. The funds are invested in stocks, bonds and money market instruments, among others.