Recently, it was found that the investment in the Indian tech startups is increasing and a report states that in the financial year 2013-2014, it accounted to 266 deals. This means that almost a deal in a day was happening in the financial year.
Even in the first quarter of the financial year 2014-15, there was an increase in this investment. Even though, the greater part was taken by ecommerce field, educational tech and online travel also attracted an upsurge interest among investors.
Reports state that this is a continuing trend over the past 5 years and in between 2010 and 2013, more than US$3 billion got into India, which can be compared well with that of US$1.5 billion invested in the startup nation Israel in the same period.
Even though, it is believed that the ecosystem of Indian startups is still not mature enough for big tickets, more than 4/5th of the investment deals are in early-stage.
So, who are making such early investments, thereby making big bets on Indian innovation? Who are the optimistic ones one should probably look for, if he/she is a startup looking for funding in India?
The Silicon Valley-based 500 startups lead the list. It was the most active institutions investor in the Indian tech startup scene in the financial year 2013-2014, who made more than 20 investments during the year.
The second position is held by the Mumbai-based Blume ventures, while Accel Partners based in US holds the third position.
When top 10 venture capital companies are considered, four out of them are Indian-based companies, while others also have their presence in India, even though, they have headquarters in foreign countries.
Here are some details about the top 10 institutional investors, who have been dynamically functioning in the Indian tech startup niche recently:
1. 500 Startups: The specific fund of this company is called as 500 wallah and the company made as many as 20 investment in the year 2013-14. This investment was made into companies like cost-comparison sites, language learning innovator, etc. In the 9th batch of the company’s accelerator program, they currently have three startups from India.
2. Blume Ventures: This Mumbai-based firm takes the collaborative approach for investing, for roping in other investors. This company has a lot of success stories in their belt, even though, they call themselves to the Blumers. Some of the companies in the basket of Blumers include Grey Orange and TaxiForSure.
3. Accel partners: With their investment in online big shots Myntra series E and Flipkart among many others made this company as one of the shakers and movers in this field in India. This California-based company has backed some of the big shots like BookMyShow and Freshdesk.
4. Kalaari Capital: This company, which gets its name from the traditional martial arts in South India was started by Vani Kola, after a billion-dollar exit from the Silicon Valley. This Bangalore-based venture capital firm continues to pick winners like Zivame and Urban Ladder.
5. Tiger Global Management: This company who was operating well in the Indian tech startup scene was actually shut down in the year 2009 as they were not able to find the scale that they were looking for. But, they again begin with big bang from the year 2011 and they hold the pride of having funded some of the tech pioneers in India like JustDial, MakeMyTrip and Flipkart.
6. Nexus Venture Partners: With their offices in Silicon Valley and Bangalore, this company started by a group of Indian businessmen are well-placed in top spot innovation and emerging talent. Their big play was in the popular ecommerce site Snapdeal.
7. IDG Ventures India: This company is based in San Francisco and they hold the pride of being one among the biggest investors in Asia and their funds are present in Vietnam, Korea and China apart from India. Their major investments include FirstCry, Forus, iProf and Newgen.
8. Helion Venture Partners: This Company is based in Mauritious and they have US$600 million focused fund in India. There are big beneficiaries like housing.com, Denty’s and Eye-Q from this company.
9. Kae Capital: This firm was founded by Sasha Mirchandani, who was working as the Managing director in India for the US-based BlueRun Ventures. This company is actively making investments in Indian tech startups and one of the best investments made by this company is on the Little Eye Labs, which was the first company purchased by Facebook.
10. Intel Capital: This venture capital arm of the global chip-maker has a growing appetite for tech plays out of India.
This is the list of top venture capital firms, who were most active in the last few financial years. There are also other big companies like VentureEast, SAIF Partners, Inventus Capital Partners and Sequoia Capital.