Bessemer Venture Partners is setting up a $220 million fund for India and sees "massive growth opportunities" in the country, said the company.
The fund will focus primarily on early-stage investments, consistent with Bessemer’s practice of starting with early funding and sticking with companies throughout their growth lifecycle. Bessemer plans to use the new capital in consumer internet and cloud software, including marketplaces, digital health, social commerce, vertical and global SaaS (software-as-a-service).
“We’ve always had a global investment approach and India has long been a focus for us. This new capital allows us to go deeper into the market while continuing to support our portfolio with Bessemer’s global network and resources. The dedicated fund exemplifies our confidence in the massive growth opportunities within India,” said Vishal Gupta, partner and managing director of the firm’s Bengaluru office.
Bessemer’s global portfolio includes Pinterest, Shopify, Twilio, Yelp, LinkedIn, PagerDuty, DocuSign, Wix, Fiverr and Toast and has $9 billion of capital under management.
“We see a sizable market of India-based companies that will disrupt global markets,” said Bob Goodman, partner in Bessemer’s New York office.
Bessemer first invested in India 15 years ago and has had a dedicated team of investors ever since. The firm has multi-stage investments in Indian leading companies. These include PharmEasy (pharmacy benefits), BigBasket (online grocery), Swiggy (food delivery), Urban Company (home services) and Perfios (credit underwriting platform).
The partnership has realized seven IPOs within India including Home First Finance, IEX and Matrimony.com. In India it today has five companies within its portfolio valued at more than $1 billion, including Livspace (home interior platform) and MyGlamm (direct-to-consumer beauty).
“India represents a trillion-dollar digital opportunity across consumer internet and SaaS as we predict 500 million more people will engage and transact online in the next ten years,” said Bessemer partner Anant Vidur Puri.