M Damodaran named to lead a panel to boost VC, PE investments; Thoughspot to invest $150 mln in India

India’s finance ministry has formed an expert panel, led by former SEBI boss M Damodaran, to suggest ways to increase the inflow of venture capital and private equity investments into the country. Apple plans to sell more ads. And data analytics cloud company Thoughtspot plans to invest $150 million in expanding its Indian operations over the next five years. Notes: India’s finance ministry has formed an expert panel to suggest ways to increase the inflow of venture capital and private equity investments into the country, Inc42 reports. The six-member committee – first announced by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech in February -- will be headed by Meleveetil Damadoran, former chairman of India’s capital markets regulator, the Securities and Exchange Board, according to an order by the ministry dated September 9, Inc42 reports. The expert committee will also suggest “forward-looking measures and future-ready regulatory practices” to the government, studying global best practices in the investment space, to boost investments into startups and sunrise sectors, according to Inc42. Apple – which has been stepping up its own ad business in recent times – plans to release new ad placements as soon as the holiday season, according to a message sent to developers on Tuesday inviting them to an online session to encourage them to buy ads, CNBC reports. The new spots represent a significant expansion in Apple’s advertising inventory, which is focused on its App Store. In recent years, Apple’s advertising inventory has been limited to one unit in the Search tab on the App Store and one on the search results page, according to CNBC. Bank of America analyst Wamsi Mohan estimated in July that Apple could generate $5 billion of advertising revenue from Apple Search Ads alone in 2022, according to CNBC. ThoughtSpot, an analytics cloud provider, plans to invest $150 million in its operations in India over the next five years, the US company said in a press release yesterday. ThoughtSpot, founded by Indian American entrepreneurs Ajeet Singh and Amit Prakash, also opened a new office in Trivandrum, the company’s third R&D centre in India. The new investment will go towards continued product innovation to support customers to take greater advantage of data. NeuroPixel.AI has raised $825,000 in a seed round led by Inflection Point Ventures, one of India’s largest angel investment platforms. Other investors in the round include Entrepreneur First, Huddle, Dexter Angels, and Rishaad Currimjee. Flipkart, Walmart’s Indian ecommerce business, has invested about $300,000 in the venture’s pre-series-A round, Inc42 reported yesterday. Two weeks ago, Flipkart had said it had picked six startups – including NeuroPixel – among the first set of investments from its new $100 million venture arm. NeuroPixel was founded in late 2020 by Arvind Nair and Amritendu Mukherjee, originating at Entrepreneur First. The vision for the company is to solve challenging problems at the intersection of AI and E-Commerce which promises to be an action-packed space over the next few years. Theme music courtesy Free Music & Sounds: https://soundcloud.com/freemusicandsounds