糖心视频

With India鈥檚 rapid adoption of digital products and the growth of startup hubs like Bengaluru, it seems like investors around the world are taking notice. The stories of successful companies like Oyo and are certainly playing a role in grabbing the international attention of investors, but if we look at the biggest investors in India (and we did) — they have been there for a while.

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So in reality, investor interest in India is not a recent phenomenon. Data from Crunchbase shows that there鈥檚 still a continuing clip of India-focused private investment funds being established, both by new contenders or decades old firms.

In 2018, there were 85 funds that focused on India (this includes both funds raised by firms headquartered in India, as well as funds raised by firms outside of India, but that have a focus within the region). This year, up to early December, there are 63 new funds.

That鈥檚 a large uptick from a decade ago: in 2009, there were only two new India-focused private investment funds announced, according to Crunchbase data.

Now that we have the numbers, let鈥檚 get context.

The Firms

Earlier this month, Accel , its sixth in the region, to invest in more early stage upstarts in the country. With the new money, Accel has about $1.6 billion assets under management in India.

It鈥檚 also worth noting that Silicon Valley鈥檚 Accel has been . An early bet that proved lucrative with investments like Swiggy and Flipkart (which was acquired by Walmart). Pivoting to , another high profile investment firm based in Menlo Park, we can see that it has over . It is currently raising money just for India startups. Forbes India claims Sequoia is India鈥檚 largest venture capital firm.

In a blog post, Accel said when it started in India, 鈥渏ust 1 in 50 Indians had access to the internet and mobile phone ownership was nascent. Yet we firmly believed that India was on the cusp of a big change.鈥� Fast forward, India has 600 million users on the internet. The Accel team claims its India investments have created around $100 billion of enterprise value in the past decade.

While U.S.-based firms have a large presence in terms of cash, within India, there are some large contenders as well. Helion Venture Partners, a firm founded in 2006, was one of the biggest domestic venture capital firms in the country. , and has invested in . However, , the firm has since slowed down its investment pace due to internal tensions and departures of key founding partners.

There鈥檚 another homegrown firm, Nexus Venture Partners, which manages $1.5 billion across its United States and India funds. Most recently, it closed its fifth fund at .

Bottom line: all this activity tells us that gigantic firms like Accel and Sequoia aren鈥檛 only interested in one-offs. Rather, they鈥檙e doubling, or better, quadrupling down on India after years in the region. And newer firms are following: launched a second fund, announced a third investment vehicle, and closed its fourth fund.

It shows that despite a flurry of coverage of India鈥檚 startup scene, there鈥檚 been good news for older and newer players alike.

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