Steadview May Invest $500 Mn In Indian Startups Over The Next Two Years

Hong Kong-based hedge fund Steadview Capital is reportedly looking to invest $500 Mn in growth-stage companies in India over the next two years. The fund is reportedly looking to invest $20 Mn – $40 Mn per deal.

The report further added that Steadview could invest up to $100 Mn in a single firm if the company’s financial metrics justify heavy capital. The fund is also reportedly planning to increase focus on India by increasing its headcount here and is looking to hire one more person in India.

Steadview Capital was founded in 2009 and is currently led by Ravi Mehta. It has nearly $2.5 Bn assets under management. The firm was on a silence period for the last few years in India after its entry in 2014. The firm’s first investment was furniture rental Urban Ladder. Steadview participated in its $21 Mn funding round then.

Till November 2015, Steadview Capital invested millions across companies such as ecommerce player Flipkart (now acquired by Walmart), cab hailing player Ola, online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar, music streaming platform Saavn (now merged with Jio music as JioSaavn) and classified platform Quikr among others.

Since then a lull between November 2015 to August 2018, came to an end with a secondary investment in Lenskart along with TR Capital. In the secondary transaction, TPG Growth, Ronnie Screwvala-led Unilazer Ventures, and IDG Ventures India were the sellers.

Since then the firm has invested in:

• Edtech startup Unacademy which secured a mammoth $50 Mn from Steadview Capital, Sequoia India, Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures
• Ola raised $74 Mn (INR 520 Cr) from its existing investor, a Hong Kong-and London-based hedge fund, Steadview Capital, through preference shares at a valuation of $5.5- $6 Bn
• Mumbai-based fantasy gaming startup Dream11 joined the Indian unicorn club with an investment from Steadview Capital
• Ashish Kashyap-founded wealth management startup INDWealth raised $30 Mn in seed capital from Steadview Capital

DataLabs by Inc42 in Indian Tech Startup Funding Q1 2019 noted that with a total investment inflow of $1.4 Bn at growth stage recorded a historical high in its quarterly funding amount, based on data recorded since 2014. In the case of the growth stage startups, the funding amount of $1.4 Bn recorded in the first quarter of 2019 is 68% higher than the $821 Mn recorded in Q4 2018. From a Y-o-Y perspective, that figure is a massive 141% increase from the $574 Mn recorded in Q1 2018.

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