Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), the venture capital arm of the German media firm Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA, has raised $500 million to invest in India over the next few years.
Since its launch in 2013, BII has invested in more than 17 companies in the country, some of which are already unicorns. Its investments include Eruditus, Licious, Shiprocket, Pepperfry, AgroStar, and Lendingkart.
The firm said it will make 6-8 deals a year including Series A and mid-stage investments. For the core mid-stage investing programme, BII will lead the funding rounds with a ticket size of $5-20 million as an initial investment. This may go up to as much as $40 million during the startup’s life, the firm said in a statement.
“Today, mid-stage funding in India and the region has transitioned into the early growth stage with multiple disruptive startups building such an ecosystem. With a decade of experience, we have witnessed that founders and companies are exhibiting maturity at an early stage,” Pankaj Makkar, Managing Director of BII, said.
In 2022 and 2023, BII plans to focus on investments in the health-tech, enterprise-tech, future of work, fintech, agritech, and other sectors. The fund will also be keeping an eye on technologies like Web3 and Deeptech, and plans to open more offices in India and the region.
BII’s fundraising comes at a time when global funds including Sequoia, Accel, LightSpeed and Matrix Partners have either raised or are in talks to raise capital. Last week, early-stage venture capital firm Fundamental VC, founded by startup executives, launched its debut fund of $130 million, while Mumbai-based portfolio management service Piper Serica Advisors launched a Rs 100-crore fund to invest in 30-40 early-stage tech companies in three years.
Bertelsmann joins a list of VC funds such as Sequoia, Chiratae, Accel, Tiger Global, and Sequoia’s Surge that are now coming in early to back startups.