The Tech Panda takes a look at 12 Venture Capital companies who are pouring finances into the Indian startups ecosystem.
The world is taking notice of Indian startups, the ecosystem becoming an attractive zone for investments.
ShipBob, an Illinois based global logistics company launched a Technology Innovation Hub in New Delhi, the first of its kind outside the US. Over the next few years, the company plans to recruit over 150 tech professionals in India, in engineering, product management, platforms, data sciences, and analytics.
Read more: Challenges Indian FinTech startups face & what they expect from incubators
It wants to continue to bring its remote-first philosophy to the market in India, as the company believes that flexibility in where you work enables their people to perform their best both at work and at home.
“Some of the world’s finest technology and entrepreneurial talent is based out of India, and we are very excited to launch our first Technology Innovation Hub outside the US to tap into this talent pool,” said Harshal Wanjari, CTO at ShipBob.
Sydney based Atlassian revealed in a press release that globally, it considers India a key market for innovation, having grown its office in Bengaluru into a world-class R&D centre, employing over 1,000 in India across engineering, design, product management and more.
Investors have been doubling down on their VC funds to propel India’s growing SaaS startup ecosystem and the country’s rich talent pool. In March, Atlassian Corporation announced its intention to tap into Indian SaaS.
Internally, in March, IIT Kanpur and T-Hub (an innovation hub), along with Citi, selected 29 early- and growth-stage startups across agtech, FinTech, and healthtech to receive grants and mentoring for their cutting-edge solutions.
India is witnessing a massive technological transformation led by startups specially in the agtech, healthtech, and fintech sectors. To continue building this transformation, startups need access to funds and the right mentorship
“India is witnessing a massive technological transformation led by startups specially in the agtech, healthtech, and fintech sectors. To continue building this transformation, startups need access to funds and the right mentorship,” said MSR, CEO of T-Hub.
Also in March, Inflection Point Ventures (IPV) launched its CAT II fund Physis Capital. With a corpus of US$50 million and a green shoe option of another US$25 million, it aims for its first close at US$20 million.
The sectors it’s looking at are vertical commerce, consumer tech, social/content creator, B2B SaaS and Enterprise tech. It will also identify multi-baggers from its IPV portfolio and back them from Physis Capital.
It’s a grand feeling when someone believes in your dream. The Tech Panda takes a look at 12 VCs who truly believe in the Indian startups ecosystem.
Atlassian Ventures
Atlassian Corporation Plc (NASDAQ: TEAM), a leading provider of team collaboration and productivity software and the maker of Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket and Trello products, has deployed over US$110 million in VC funding and now supports over 30 organisations, just shy of 18 months since launching Atlassian Ventures.
The global funding provides an opportunity for SaaS startups looking to work with Atlassian’s cloud products and platform. Established in late 2020 with an initial investment of US$50 million, the team invests in companies across three focus areas where it can uniquely accelerate growth.
Atlassian Ventures’ three core focus areas are agile development, work management and IT service management. Outside of these fields, the corporate VC would also consider investing in start-ups playing in spaces such as product-led growth, and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
Investments
Slack, JumpCloud, Rewind, Productiv, Adam.ai
Unicorn India Ventures
Unicorn India Ventures is a Mumbai based early stage fund house started in 2015 by Anil Joshi and Bhaskar Majumdar. It invests in seed and early stages of technology focussed businesses across industry verticals and support these ventures throughout their early life cycle with initial and follow-on investments in the range of INR 50 lacs to INR 10 crores.
The Fund has also launched a UK India cross border fund for funding UK startups looking to enter India. Unicorn India has also announced Fund II, which is an INR 300 crore fund launched in 2019 which has invested in 16 companies so far.
Investments
Inc42, Sequretek, Pharmarack, Genrobotics, NeuroEquilibrium, SmartCoin, Open Bank, Open app
Inflection Point Ventures
Gurgaon based Inflection Point Ventures is an angel investing platform with over 6200 CXOs, HNIs and professionals to together investing in startups. The firm supports new-age entrepreneurs by providing them monetary and experiential capital and connecting them with a diverse group of investors.
Started in 2018, IPV believes that ‘everyone can grow with startups.’ According to a latest report by Nasscom, IPV was announced as one of the most active angel platforms in India in 2021.
It is a 6000+ strong members angel investing firm supporting new-age entrepreneurs with monetary and experiential capital by connecting them with a diverse group of investors. A new investor can start with a small investment and still make a meaningful value proposition for the startup with combined funding from various members.
Investments
Boingg!, Courseplay, BharatPe, Orai, EWar, HobSpace, Bolo
Accel India
Accel India is the Bangalore arm of the global venture capital firm, Accel, which has a large portfolio of unicorn startups in India, where it has been operating since 2008. In March, Accel announced its seventh India fund, with US$650 million.
It has nine partners and more than 50 members in total in India.
Investments
BookMyShow, Browserstack, Flipkart, Freshworks, Clevertap, Cure Fit, Moneyview, Mensa Brands, Myntra, Moglix, Ninjacart, Swiggy, Zenoti
A91 Partners
Founded in 2018, A91 Partners is an investment firm investing across consumer, technology, financial services and healthcare sectors in India. A91 partners with entrepreneurs building enduring businesses for tomorrow’s India.
Investments
Digit General Insurance, Aye Finance, Sugar Cosmetics, Atomberg Technologies, Hector Beverages, PushpMasala, Exotel, Happilo, Inshorts, La Renon, Soothe Healthcare, Alphavector and GIVA.
Matrix Partners India
Matrix Partners India is an investment firm with approximately US$1 billion under management. Founded in 2006, the firm invests in companies targeting the Indian consumer and enterprise market at the seed, early and early growth stages. It has advisory offices in Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai and a global network of funds investing in the US, China and India, with approximately US$5 billion under management.
Investments
Country Delight, W For Woman, Chumbak, Ola, Dailyhunt, Razorpay, Ola Electric, DealShare, GoKwik
Stellaris Venture Partners
Stellaris is an early-stage tech-focused VC firm that partners with fearless founders who dream big, think differently and have an unstoppable desire to challenge the status quo. The fund works with these teams at nascent stages to help transform their ideas into resilient businesses.
Stellaris does so with a team of seasoned, diverse operators and entrepreneurs who bring significant experience in building businesses, and by providing access to some of the most successful founders and professionals in India and the US.
Investments
Mamaearth, Whatfix, mFine, Propelld
Chiratae Ventures
Launched in 2006, Chiratae Ventures India Advisors (formerly IDG Ventures India) is India’s leading technology Venture Capital funds advisor. The funds advised by it has collectively US$950 million under management and 100+ investee companies across consumer media and tech, cloud/software, healthtech, and FinTech. To date, the fund has recorded two IPOs, 38 exits, and four Unicorns.
Investments
Bounce, Cure.fit, FirstCry, Flipkart, GoMechanic, Lenskart, Manthan, Myntra (acquired by Flipkart), Newgen (NSE: NEWGEN), PlaySimple, PolicyBazaar, and Uniphore
Neev Fund II
SVL-SME Fund (Neev II Fund), the successor fund of Neev I, was launched in May 2021 and seeks to provide growth and capital expansion to SMEs offering solutions for clean energy, electric vehicles, efficient use of raw materials, and water and circular economy projects in the country.
Neev Fund II aims to provide growth capital to emerging and innovative SMEs that focus on mitigating climate risks, promoting social development, job creation, and gender equality.
Investments
United Sustainable Energy India, Milk Mantra Dairy, Crystal Logistics, SunSource Energy, Mahendra Educational, Lakshmi Agri, Rahi Care Dialysis, Blue Planet Environmental Solutions, Indian Angel Network and PRESPL
Alpha Wave Incubation
Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI) is a US$300 million venture fund backed by DisruptAD, ADQ’s venture platform, and managed by Alpha Wave Global. AWI has a dedicated team across London, Bangalore, and Abu Dhabi.
The fund invests in early-stage tech-enabled, disruptive startups in India and Southeast Asia. In addition to providing outstanding founders with early-stage capital, AWI offers access to an unrivaled set of support mechanisms for business building, while also helping companies expand globally and open up new markets in the GCC/MENA region and beyond.
Investments
100ms, Wealthy, CoLearn, Smiles.ai, Raena, Groyyo, Fi.Money, Sourcewiz, OfBusiness, CARS24
Strive.vc
Strive is a B2B/SaaS-focused fund with over 80 investments across India, Southeast Asia, and Japan, and managing over US$200 million in AUM. The firm has invested in several dev infra and SaaS companies in India.
Founded in 2011, it is the venture capital arm of GREE International based in Tokyo, Japan. The firm invests in seed, series A, and series B startups based in Japan, Southeast Asia, and the Indian region.
Investments
Hasura, Testsigma, Classplus
Lightrock India
Lightrock India is the India-focused effort of the global Lightrock impact investing platform. It was formed in September 2019 when the LGT group acquired Aspada – an early-stage impact investor formed in 2012.
It invests across transformational business models that create positive societal and environmental impact across themes of people, planet and business with about 40 companies and about US$700 million in assets.
Globally, it has operations across four continents with over 60 investments managing about US$2 billion in assets and is backed by the Princely house of Liechtenstein and LGT, the international private banking and asset management group.
Investments
Chalo, Vivriti Capital, EdgeGrid, 4G Capital, CredAvenue, NiYO Solutions, MediBuddy, Smartcoin, BUGWORKS Research, Selina Finance
