SUMMARY
The sixth fund of Ribbit Capital is equivalent in size to its fifth fund
Ribbit Capital was founded by Meyer Malka in 2012
Ribbit Capital has backed numerous Indian fintech startups
US-based investment firm Ribbit Capital is looking to raise $420 Mn for its sixth venture capital fund to continue its investment spree in startups, especially those working in the fintech segment.
As of now, Ribbit Capital has not raised any investment for this fund, according to the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) filing. Notably, the sixth fund of Ribbit Capital is equivalent in size to its fifth fund, which was initially announced in September 2018.
In India, Ribbit has moved towards new fintech models and ventures. Recently, the VC fund led a $13.2 Mn seed round of the Bengaluru-based neobanking startup Epifi. Sequoia Capital and Hillhouse Capital also participated in the funding round, which helped Epifi’s valuation to stand at $50 Mn within eight months of launch.
In August 2019, Ribbit Capital also invested in Kunal Shah’s credit card loyalty and rewards programme Cred alongside Sequoia Capital, Hillhouse Capital, Apoletto Asia, among others. Besides this, the US-based VC fund also invested in B2B fintech startup Razorpay, UPI-based payments platform BharatPe, and Bengaluru-based wealth management platform Groww. So it has been more than a busy 2019 for Ribbit in India.
In past, the Ribbit Capital funds have invested in numerous Indian startups. Ribbit Capital has even backed Gurugram-based online insurance startup PolicyBazaar, which now stands in the niche unicorn club.
Besides these startups, Ribbit Capital has also invested in personal finance management app MoneyView, Bengaluru-based digital lending startup ZestMoney, and non-banking financial company (NBFC) Capital Float, among others.
The latest filing indicates that Ribbit is expected to invite institutional funds and individuals to invest. The only bar for investors is that they should have at least $5 Mn in deployed investment capital to participate in the fund.
Founded by Meyer Malka, Ribbit Capital began its first fund in 2012 which was closed $100 Mn. While Ribbit is mostly sector-agnostic, the company has shown a penchant for fintech startups as indicated by its investments in India.
In past, Ribbit Capital had received investments from institutional investors such as Spain’s Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA) and US-based Silicon Valley Bank.
Besides Ribbit Capital, Omidyar Network’s Flourish Ventures is also one of the venture capital which has remained bullish on India’s burgeoning fintech space. Recently, Tilman Ehrbeck, managing partner at Flourish Ventures, said that the venture capital firm is looking to ramp up investments in sectors such as neo-banking, gig economy, embedded finance and insurtech.
