IDG Ventures India, one of the country’s leading venture capital firms which has backed companies like Flipkart and Myntra announced re-branding of the firm as Chiratae Ventures.
Founded in 2006 by industry veterans Sudhir Sethi and T.C. Meenakshisundaram, Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures India) has over $470 million assets under advisory. It has so far backed 76 companies across multiple funds including companies like Newgen, that went public in January 2018, Lenskart, Manthan, PolicyBazaar and Yatra. ‘Chiratae’ means leopard in Kannada.
“Our entrepreneurs embrace the unpredictable and exploratory terrains of the Startup ecosystem, just the way a wildcat like a leopard does in a jungle,” said Sudhir Sethi, founder and chairman, Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures India Advisors).
Mr. Sethi said that as India becomes the third largest economy with over $10 trillion GDP in the coming years, the country presents “immense opportunities to investors.” He said that young ventures are growing at double the pace in half the time. “We as investors need to reinvent for the new India...The coming years will need us to be more agile, more innovative [and] give long-term support for Startups,” he said.
T.C. Meenakshisundaram, founder and managing director, Chiratae Ventures (formerly IDG Ventures India Advisors) said that the venture capital firm’s rupee capital from domestic investors today constitutes to over 40% of the funds raised.
“While we become more and more deeply rooted as Indian, our footprint stays global,” he said. “Many of our companies are based outside India, [and] are expanding to multiple new geographies.”
The venture capital and private equity investments stayed at $15.2 billion in the first half of this year, according to a report by accounting firm EY. The investments surpassed funding of $10.2 billion seen in the first half of 2017 by 49%.
