iSprit ties up with US investment bank to promote M&As

The Indian Software Products Industry Round Table (iSpirt), a think tank, on Thursday said it had tied up with the US-based Signal Hill, an investment bank, to facilitate mergers and acquisitions of Indian product start-ups by multinationals.

Signal Hill, which has done deals in the past year involving Google, Microsoft, Cisco and Dell among others, will help multinational product giants discover Indian start-ups, broker business partnerships and of course, aid acquisitions.

iSpirt said Signal Hill, which specialises is doing deals for technology growth companies, will offer its services at an "attractive rate" for Indian start-ups. The think tank has identified 10 companies thus far which it says are ready for a merger.

The announcement is significant for many reasons.

India now has 3,700 active start-ups but they all face huge challenges because of a fragmented ecosystem. Funding, mentoring, scaling, merger and acquisition as well as customer connects are issues most start-ups are grappling with. Few start-ups know how to pitch to a potential suitor, let alone prepare for a merger by sorting out legal and taxation issues.

Investment banks such as Signal Hill, with their experience of technology deals in the US, can help bridge a gap in this ecosystem. Going ahead, promising Indian start-ups can be on the radar of multinationals.