If there is a market to invest in the world, it is India: Lightspeed exec
At a time when foreign investments in Indian startups have slowed significantly, global venture capital (VC) firm Lightspeed Venture Partners is bullish on sectors like consumer tech, fintech, enterprise tech, artificial intelligence (AI), climate tech and electric mobility, a senior executive at the firm said.
“Between 2022 and 2023, venture capital funding in India dropped by over 65 per cent. We, however, continue to remain balanced in our pace of investing in India. The number of investments remained roughly the same in the two years. We made between 20 and 25 investments over the last year, remained consistent and will maintain the pace,” said
Rahul Taneja (pictured), partner, Lightspeed India. The firm has invested in Oyo, Sharechat, Udaan, Pocket FM, and Byju’s, among others.
According to data from market intelligence platform Tracxn, overall foreign investments in the country declined 66 per cent year-onyear (Y-O-Y) to
$7.7 billion in
2023. It is down from $23 billion in the previous year. Despite this, Lightspeed’s investments have remained relatively consistent. According to data from market intelligence platform Tracxn, overall foreign investments in the country declined a substantial 66 per cent yearon-year (YOY) to $7.7 billion in 2023, down from $23 billion the previous year. Regardless, Lightspeed’s investments have remained relatively consistent. Lightspeed made as many as 13 equity investments worth $698.4 million in 2023, up from nine totalling $251.1 million in the previous year. It has made two equity investments worth $55.3 million, as of the first quarter of 2024.
At the same time, investments by other large global VCS like Accel, Peak XV Partners, Softbank, and Tiger Global, fell by as much as 85 per cent, Business Standard had reported earlier.
“If there is a market to invest in the world right now, it is India. There is some rebalancing of capital allocation across the world. A number of limited partners (LPS) are reassessing their exposure to China and increasing weight to India,” Taneja said.
He added that Lightspeed’s consistent pace of investments is a product of taking a longterm view with its bets.
“We believe in investing, not deploying. Investing is about backing the right founders in the right markets, in order to deliver superior returns for our LPS,” Taneja added.