Bessemer Venture Partners raises Rs 1,653 crore to back next-gen innovators in India

Bessemer Venture Partners (BVP) on Tuesday announced the closure of a USD 220 million fund (about Rs 1,653 crore) in India to back the next generation of innovators in India.

The fund will focus primarily on early-stage investments, consistent with Bessemer's approach of starting with seed and Series-A investments and sticking with companies throughout their growth lifecycle with later-stage investments, a statement said.

Bessemer plans to apply its roadmap-driven investment approach to deploy the new capital over five roadmaps across consumer internet and cloud software, including marketplaces, digital health, social commerce, vertical and global SaaS (software as a service), it added.

"We've always had a global investment approach and India has long been a focus for us. This new capital allows us to go deeper into the market while continuing to support our portfolio with Bessemer's global network and resources. The dedicated fund exemplifies our confidence in the massive growth opportunities within India," Vishal Gupta, Partner and Managing Director of BVP's Bengaluru office, said.

Bob Goodman, Partner in Bessemer's New York office, said the India startup ecosystem is more vibrant than ever.

"We see a sizable market of India-based companies that will disrupt global markets and look forward to leveraging Bessemer's global platform, deep domain expertise and the insights our team has amassed over the past 50 years to help these founders navigate areas that are critical to building and scaling their business,” Goodman added.

In tandem with its India fund, the firm welcomed Nithin Kaimal as Chief Operating Officer of Bessemer's Bengaluru office, where he will oversee operations, portfolio services, and fund governance, the statement said.

He brings nearly 20 years of expertise across private equity, management consulting and startups, and joins Bessemer from VixCap, an investment management firm he founded and led.

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Before VixCap, Kaimal was a senior director at India Resurgence Fund (IndiaRF), an India-focused investment platform, and began his career at McKinsey & Company.

Kaimal joins at a time of incredible growth in the market and brings deep operational expertise that will be invaluable as the firm's focus within India grows even stronger, BVP Partner Anant Vidur Puri said.

"India represents a trillion-dollar digital opportunity across consumer internet and SaaS, as we predict 500 million more people will engage and transact online in the next 10 years. Through this new fund, we will continue to partner with the best entrepreneurs who are looking to build for this opportunity within India and beyond,” Puri added.

Bessemer first invested in India 15 years ago and has had a dedicated team of investors on the ground ever since.

The firm's track record in India includes multi-stage investments -- ranging from seed to Series-D -- in companies across industries, including PharmEasy (pharmacy benefits), BigBasket (online grocery), Swiggy (food delivery), Urban Company (home services) and Perfios (credit underwriting platform).

The partnership has realised seven IPOs within India, including Home First Finance, IEX and Matrimony.Com and has five companies within its portfolio valued at more than USD 1 billion, including Livspace (home interior platform) and MyGlamm (direct-to-consumer beauty).

Bessemer's global portfolio includes Pinterest, Shopify, Twilio, Yelp, LinkedIn, PagerDuty, DocuSign, Wix, Fiverr and Toast and has USD 9 billion of capital under management. Bessemer has teams of investors and partners located in Tel Aviv, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, New York, London, Boston, Beijing and Bengaluru.