Venture capital firm IDG Ventures India is raising its second India-focused fund worth $175 million. IDG Ventures India is part of IDG Ventures, a global network of technology funds with more than $6 billion under management.
The firm has registered IDG Ventures India II fund with the US Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) to raise the money.
IDG Ventures Fund II is the successor of IDG Ventures Fund I, which raised $150 million in 2007. The VC firm has been investing between $0.5 million and $5 million in early-stage companies and up to $10 million in growth-stage companies from the first fund.
Although the firm invests in technology and technology-enabled businesses in India through its first fund, it is not immediately clear whether it will continue with the same investment strategy as far as the new fund goes.
An e-mail query sent by VCCircle to the IDG spokesperson did not elicit any response till the time of posting this article.
The new fund comes almost a year after IDG Ventures exited Bangalore-based software solutions company Manthan Software Services Pvt Ltd, when the latter raised $15 million from Norwest Venture Partners.
IDG Ventures’ portfolio companies include iCreate Software, Perfint Healthcare, Forus Health, Valyoo Technologies, eShakti.com, Vserv Digital Services and Myntra Designs, among others.
The global VC firm has over $3 billion under management and it has invested in around 20 companies during the past five years.
Other large venture capital firms in the country include Helion Venture Partners (recently raised $255 million for its third VC fund), Matrix Partners India ($600 million across two funds), Nexus Venture Partners ($590 million across three funds) and Accel ($225 million across three funds), among others. Inventus is also on the road for its second India-focused VC fund.
The past 12 months have been the best for India in terms of early-stage fundraising. Seven venture capital firms have already raised $943 million for India-dedicated funds in the past one year (since November 2011) with several others still on the road and expecting fund closures in the coming months.
The previous fundraising cycles of existing VC firms had been in 2007-08 when they raised around $900 million (2007) and $522 million (2008), according to VCCEdge, the data research platform of VCCircle.
(Edited by Sanghamitra Mandal)