IDFC Private Equity, Seedfund win APEX awards

IDFC Private Equity and Seedfund were adjudged the country's leading private equity / venture capital firms for 2010 at the latest Venture Intelligence APEX Awards.

Among corporate law firms, AZB & Partners topped the Venture Intelligence league tables, based on the volume of transactions, as the most active legal advisors (for both private equity and M&A transactions) in 2010.

Ernst & Young topped the league tables as the most active transaction advisor (PE and M&A) for the year.

The awards were given away as part of Venture Intelligence APEX 2011, the annual conclave of the Indian private equity and venture capital industry, by Gurcharan Das, former CEO of P&G India.

''The award, which is in the general PE category, is very satisfying in that it not only recognises our positioning of being a PE player in the infra sector but also validates that returns in this sector can compare quite favorably across the PE asset class,'' said Satish Mandhana, managing partner, IDFC PE.

IDFC PE had earlier won the APEX award in 2006 and 2007.

Pravin Gandhi, partner, Seedfund, said on receiving the Best Early Stage Investor-2010 award, ''The performance of our portfolio companies has amply validated our belief that small is not only beautiful, but also sustainable and scalable. With Seedfund1 having now grown into Seedfund2, we look forward to continue backing passionate entrepreneurs pursuing innovative business models.''

Venture Intelligence, a division of Chennai-based TSJ Media, is the leading provider of data and analysis on private equity / venture capital and M&A deals in India.