Singapore-based venture capital firm Vickers Venture Partners is set to enter India to invest in technology-driven startups, according to a media report.
The VC firm, which raised its fifth and largest $220-million fund recently, will allocate a third of its fund to Southeast Asia and India, Mint reported citing co-founder Finian Tan, who is famed for its early bet on Chinese tech giant Baidu.
The entire one-third of the fund may also go to India depending on the quality of the deals, he added. Investments in India will be managed out of Singapore.
An email sent to Vickers Venture did not elicit any response till the time of filing this article.
The VC firm, which was founded in 2005, will look at early-stage investment in the country with deal sizes of $1-5 million, the report said.
“In the global leadership, we invest in deep-tech—AR, VR, robotics and AI,†said Tan, referring to augmented reality, virtual reality and artificial intelligence. “In the more developing countries, we invest in problem solving. You need to leapfrog using technology.â€
He, however, said that the VC firm will stay away from sectors such as cab hailing.
The VC firm stayed away from investing in India while it entered China because the time was not right.
“China was at India’s per capita income decades ago. In India, the rush was too early. So, I had to wait till the bubble kind of burst, which I think already has,†said Tan.
The VC firm will be competing with the likes of Sequoia Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, SAIF Partners and Accel Partners that have already entrenched their presence in the country.
Japanese technology major SoftBank Group Corp has also been active in the Indian venture capital space among foreign investors in recent years. It has invested around $2.4 billion in e-commerce company Flipkart, $1.4 billion in Paytm and $250 million in cab aggregator Ola in recent months. It also led a $250-million investment round in budget hotels marketplace OYO earlier this month.
Besides, a bunch of homegrown new early-stage VC funds including Fireside Venture, Stellaris Venture Partners and Endiya Partners have marked either the first or the final closing of their funds this year.