Norwest Venture Partners, a US-based venture capital and growth equity investment firm, which has invested in Indian startups such as Swiggy and Mensa Brands, has closed a $3 billion global fund and thus will continue to focus on early-to-late-stage investments, now at a bigger ticket size, especially in India. The new fund also brings the venture capital firm’s total funds under management to $12.5 billion.
Besides Swiggy and Mensa Brands, Norwest’s key investments in India include Cholamandalam Finance, Duroflex, IndusInd Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, NSE, Pepperfry, Quikr, RBL Bank, SK Finance, Thyrocare, XpressBee, among others. Norwest has been a part of over 37 Indian startups (publicly disclosed) funding rounds since 2014.
Norwest in a statement said it will continue to use a multi-stage, multi-sector investment strategy in leadership teams capable of fostering paradigm-shifting firms across the consumer, enterprise, and healthcare industries.
Niren Shah, Managing Director and India head of Norwest Venture Partners stated, “This new [XVI] fund will look to invest in great founders, innovative ideas, and transformational businesses. We will continue to focus on early to late venture and growth equity.”
Norwest also stated that the investment will enable the VC to enforce an ESG Policy, as well as focus on startups that are environmentally and socially sustainable. Some of its recent investments in environmental or social focus companies include Classy, Imperfect Foods, ICON, Grove Collaborative, supplier.io, and UPSIDE Foods.
The 16th fund comes after Norwest Venture Partners XV, a $2 billion fund that concluded in November 2019. Norwest has made fresh investments in over 60 businesses from the 15th fund, which include Dave, Devoro Medical, Fabric, Faire, Qualified, and VanMoof. During the same time period, the Norwest team teamed up with 29 portfolio businesses to accomplish significant liquidity events across a variety of industries, including consumer, enterprise, and healthcare.
The US-based VC also announced big appointments and promotions in accordance with the fund, which include the appointment of Comcast Ventures’ Dave Zilberman as general partner for the enterprise team and Novo Holding’s Tiba Aynechi as general partner for the healthcare team. Parker Barrile and Dror Nahumi were elevated to co-sector heads of the consumer and enterprise divisions, respectively, while Stew Campbell and Ran Ding to partners on the growth equity team, and Ryan McDonald to the principal on the healthcare team.
Norwest Ventures, which was founded in 1961, has invested in over 650 firms since its inception. Its venture and growth equity portfolio now include more than 200 firms. The firm focuses on early to late-stage startups across a vast selection of sectors, with a particular focus on consumer, enterprise, and healthcare. The VC is headquartered in Palo Alto, California, and has subsidiaries in India and Israel.
