VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Venture capital firms have supported niche e-commerce firms in India like CarDekho.com and Lenskart because they are profitable but require less capital, The Financial Express reported.

As the hype about the Bitcoin dies, a PCWorld report asks if the well for venture funding for the digital currency has come to an end.

Venture capital investors and startup CEOs are feeling optimistic and confident about the venture ecosystem next year, according to a survey from National Venture Capital Association and Dow Jone VentureSource.

Food-related companies like Hampton Creek Foods are seeing a rise in financial support from private equity firms and angel investors in the past few months to develop plant-based alternatives to food like eggs.

A study featured on Forbes revealed that the US still leads around the world in providing entrepreneurs with access to venture capital funding.

Valuation results in 3Q13 showed a noticeable increase over 2Q13, including the greatest difference between up and down rounds in over six years. The software industry was especially strong, not only valuation-wise, but also in the number of deals.

The growing attraction of UK investors in the Cambridge region saw the decline of interest in startups in Shoreditch, a district which is the breeding ground of social media and e-commerce ideas.

Hunter Walk and Satya Patel's creation of venture capital firm Homebrew was spawned out of the need to provide private equity investors accountability in their investments.

Yuan Zhide, a Shanghai Venture Capital Senior Executive, said the Chinese central government's ban on initial public offerings needed to be removed if the country's venture capital industry is to be revived.

New Silicon Valley venture capital firm Luminari Capital obtained a USD8 million funding from pay-TV giant British Sky Broadcasting Group. Sky said that it wants to increase is exposure to US tech startups.

Clean-technology company Therma-Flite recently closed a major funding round with Canadian private equity and venture capital firm XPV Capital. Therma-Flite said it raised USD7.5 million in financing.

Software company SAP AG said it would be pouring over USD650 million to its new SAP Ventures Fund II.

A PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association news report said that venture capital in life sciences companies rose to 26% compared to last year.

Technology and startup blog e27 backtracked on its earlier report that the formation of Alliance for Venture Capitals (AVCII) in Indonesia last week was merely a casual lunch date to discuss topics and future policies for the internet startup community.

For a Round-A venture capital investment, Vodafone Ventures Egypt would be taking a 22.22% stake in online pharmacy Agzakhana.com.