As per recent reports, investment firm WestBridge Capital has managed to reportedly raise 1.5 billion dollars in order to invest in Indian start-ups with a focus on consumer technology, fintech as well as SaaS (software as a service) among various others, thus signifying optimism in the region as investors duly turn cautious seeing the current market scenario. Moreover, the fund raised will surely be a part of its crossover fund.
In addition to this, WestBridge, which started out with a public market focus over a decade ago, follows an evergreen fund stricture, which refers to a fund that typically invests for a longer duration or as many 20 years or so. It also managed to raise a fresh corpus over the past two months, a source added.
As a matter of fact, this news surely comes as a silver lining of sorts when investors have become warier and warier about investing in the ongoing winter phase that the industry is currently experiencing.
Also, know that the investments in Indian tech start-ups have dopped significantly by nearly 17 percent to 6 billion dollars from April to June 2022 owing to macroeconomic slowdown, as per a Nasscom report.
The latest funding, WestBridge Capital’s largest ever for Indian-focused companies, is being introduced when its asset under management (AUM) in the country reportedly crossed about 10 billion dollars, sources said.
When contacted, WestBridge Capital’s co-founder and MD Sandeep Singhal declined to comment. Moving further, WestBridge Capital, originally founded all the way back in 2000, had come up with Sequoia Capital in 2006 to form a joint venture of sorts.
Furthermore, WestBridge had raised about two funds just before the merger. Now, after the merger with Sequoia Capital, the private equity firm raised about three funds and had assets under management worth somewhere around 1.8 billion dollars till 2011.
Not just that, WestBridge has backed as many as eight unicorns to date and counts 19 unicorns or start-ups valued between $500 million and $900 million on its portfolio, noted in a report by moneycontrol.
Typical investments range from around 25 million dollars to about 200 million dollars, often resulting in a substantial minority equity ownership, second only to the founder in many cases. As per the company itself, it has invested nearly 5.6 billion dollars in over 120 companies along with other investors.
Reading so far, I hope you must have gotten a fair insight into WestBridge Capital and its fundraiser for 1.5 billion dollars to be invested in Indian companies, and by now I believe you will be able to decide on your own whether or not you think it was the right thing to do and whether or not you think this will be beneficial for the company.
In conclusion, what are your thoughts on WestBridge Capital’s fundraiser and its investment plans? Do let us know in the comments area below. To know more about such reports, do check out other articles we have on our website. Thank you for your time & if you found our content informative, do share it with your investor friends!
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