| By
some estimates, venture capital (VC) firms will invest nearly a
billion dollars in India this calendar year. That's almost double
of what they did last year. Predictably, that has got venture ideas
to come crawling out of homes, offices, educational institutions,
and laboratories. Here's the thing, though. While ideas are dime
a dozen, only a select few are getting funded. Typically, these
are start-ups focussed on internet, wireless (read: mobile phones),
or domestic consumer services. Worse, there's almost no money available
for seed funding; most of the VCs only want to fund firms that have
demonstrated that a market exists for their offerings and are looking
for growth capital. Yet, there's no dearth of start-ups that have
not just survived crushing odds, but gone on to differentiate themselves
either with a unique business proposition or rapid growth. Starting
this year, Business Today will list 10 such ventures every year,
based on the assessment of top VCs, industry specialists, and BT's
own team of writers and editors. Turn the page for this year's 10.
24X7 LEARNING SOLUTIONS
Virtual University
NAME OF COMPANY: 24x7 Learning Solutions
YEAR OF FOUNDING: 2001
FOUNDERS: Karthik K.S. & Anil Chikkara
AREA OF OPERATION: E-learning
FUNDING: KITVEN and Anil Garg; to raise $10 million over
two years
REVENUE: $3 million
SIZE OF TARGET MARKET: Globally $28 billion; In India,
Rs 350 crore
KEY COMPETITORS: IBM, Sum Total, Gurukul Online, NIIT,
Aptech and Blue Apple
 |
| Sitting pretty:
Karthik's firm claims to have trained 5 lakh executives |
There are dozens of players in the
global e-learning market. But if you want to meet the biggest
Indian player in | 
