By Ashwin Manikandan and Haripriya Suresh
March 12 (Reuters) - Bessemer Venture Partners, an early backer of Swiggy SWIG.NS, has raised $350 million for an India-focused fund to invest in AI-enabled businesses, fintechs and direct-to-consumer brands among others, the company said in a statement on Wednesday.
The United States-based venture capital firm said it will allocate this fund from mid-2025 to continue making fresh bets in young Indian businesses. The firm's 80% of investments in the country over the last five years have been in early-stage startups.
Bessemer Venture had raised $220 million in 2021 for its first India fund, which invested in startups such as Boldfit, Pepper Content, Shopdeck, and Zopper.
Vishal Gupta, a partner at Bessemer Venture, said that the focus is on “identifying and investing in founders who are driving innovation, solving complex challenges, and building market-defining companies.”
Bessemer Venture, which set up its India office in Bengaluru nearly two decades ago, has a portfolio of over 80 companies in the country including Swiggy, Ola, BigBasket and Perfios.
Globally it manages assets worth $18 billion which includes stakes in companies such as Pinterest, Shopify and LinkedIn.
The announcement comes on the heels of Accel announcing its eighth India fund of $650 million earlier this year, and Stellaris Venture Partners closing a $300 million fund late last year.
The overall fund-raising activity by startups in India was subdued in 2024, reflecting limited availability of capital and risk averse approach among investors.
Total fund-raising fell to $2.7 billion last year from $4 billion in 2023, and cases where firms raised more than $100 million have also dropped, squeezing the average ticket size of venture capital bets as well, according to a report by Bain and IVCA.
(Reporting by Ashwin Manikandan in New Delhi and Haripriya Suresh in Bengaluru; Editing by Eileen Soreng)
((Ashwin.Manikandan@thomsonreuters.com;))
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