Norwest Venture Partners, which is one of the biggest VC firms globally, and also the one which closed a $1.2Bn fund days ago, is reported to step up its investment in India in this year. The firm has already invested close to $700 million in the country so far.
The VC firm is bullish on food tech contrary to other funds, as well as vertically integrated e-commerce and financial technology firms. According to Niren Shah, MD of the VC firm, one of the biggest challenges in India is competition, and that several companies in the country are “trying to replicate the success of an Alibaba in China.”
Norwest have been actively investing in the Indian startups since last 15 to 18 months. The firm had invested close to $60 million in startups last year. It now aims to triple the overall investment amount in 2016 and will at least double the amount invested. More recently, Norwest led a massive $35 Million round in food delivery startup Swiggy, thus further outlining firm’s bullishness for this particular sector.
Norwest Venture Partners, which is a Silicon Valley based VC firm, has recently closed its $1.2 billion global fund and will now invest that amount in the startups of US, India, China and Israel.
Commenting on the valuation concerns, Niren Shah, Managing Director of Norwest, said,
We had not met internal numbers on new deployment, but we’re getting there. They were at least six times of what’s ‘fair’. It’s now more reasonable. Companies have started focussing on unit economics rather than growing fast.
In India, Norwest’s portfolio includes Yatra.com, Quickr, Pepperfry, and Swiggy.
Recently, Unicorn India Ventures closed Rs. 40 crore of its Rs. 100 crore fund. A couple of months ago, Nexus Venture Partners also raised $450 million in its fourth fund. Chinese firms are also betting on Indian startups and thus, China’s APUS set aside Rs. 300 crore for Indian mobile internet firms.
