VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Of all the capital raised for private equity buyout funds last year, half of it went to the biggest funds, according to data published on Friday by London-based research firm Preqin.

Brazil and China like Russia are large population countries with a growing middle class that is ripe for more consumer-facing clones, clonentrepreneurs and Clonentrepreneurship.

Clones look the same on the surface, one country to the next, but there are multiple differences in execution. Many clones require supply chain partners for them to work, yet many of these companies do not exist in emerging countries

This part discusses the culture of risk in the developing countries and how it impacts the behavior of local investors and their willingness to finance seed and early stage tech business models.

Private equity firm CVC Capital Partners will invest over $200 million for a stake in Chinese education company EIC Group. CVC will buy the stake from rival investment firm Actis Capital.

New York, US-based firm Apollo Global Management LLC announced on Thursday that it had raised $17.5 billion for the Apollo Investment Fund VIII, the largest private equity fund raised since the financial crisis.

Tech giant IBM Corp. said it will invest more than $1 billion to create the IBM Watson Group. The new business unit will enable IBM to get more revenue from the supercomputer system Watson.

New York-based private equity firm KKR & Co was able to gather $2 billion for a fund called the KKR Special Situations Fund that will provide financing to distressed firms in North America, Europe and Asia.

American rapper and producer Sean "Diddy" Combs struck a partnership with UK-based consumer goods firm Diageo Spirits to acquire the luxury tequila brand DeLeon in their second 50-50 joint venture.

Private equity firm Symphony Technology Group or STG and its portfolio firm Evidera said they had purchased healthcare modeling company Archimedes for an undisclosed amount.

Singapore's Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. Ltd. recently launched a $100 million private equity fund to invest in onshore Chinese companies over the next five years. The said fund will managed by OCBC Capital Equity Investment Management Co. based in Shanghai.

Citing sources, a PEHUB report said private equity firm Z Capital Partners is eyeing a hard cap of $750 million for Fund II after exceeding its target.

US-based private equity group Blackstone bought a further 2.79% stake in Mumbai, India-based commodity bourse Multi Commodity Exchange (MCX) from foreign fund house Merrill Lynch, bringing its total holding to 4.99%.

Canada-based firm Enbridge Inc has announced an agreement to pour in $200 million in the Keechi Wind Project in Colorado, Texas, which is expected to be completed in early 2015.

Launch Angels, a Boston-based investment platform focused on equity crowdfunding, closed its first venture fund called Where Angels Fund with nearly $1 million. Associates from Where Inc were the investors in the fund.