Delhi-based early-stage venture firm Venture Highway has raised ₹550 crores ($76.2 million) for its second fund from iconic investors from Silicon Valley. However, the exact details of the investors are not available.
The venture firm will use the funds to invest in nearly thirty early-stage companies. The venture firm writes an average cheque of ₹7 crores ($1 million). Venture Highway Fund is a founder-focused seed fund that invests in Indian technology startups in early rounds of institutional capital.
It seeks to partner with several technology businesses to add value through their global network. The investors have already put money in startups like Meesho, Cars24, Moglix, Tracxn, OkCredit, Wishfin and Sharechat.
“We are extremely passionate about helping advise technology entrepreneurs build their businesses with our local and global networks. Our goal is to give back to our country’s early-stage ecosystem and we continue to be extremely excited about the quality of the current generation of entrepreneurs building large businesses out of India,” founder Samir Sood said.
Other venture firms that invest in early-stage startups include Accel Partners India, Blume Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital India, Tiger Global Management and Kalaari Capital.
There is an influx in the venture capital investments in India with an average ticket size in terms of the value of ₹147 crores ($21 million) in 2019. It is likely to grow in the upcoming years. However, the seed-stage funding fell 44% in 2019 as compared to 208. Only 306 seed funding deals worth ₹1,764 crores ($252 million) were recorded last year.
The Indian startup ecosystem is witnessing a slowdown in early-stage fundings. The BJP-led government has planned to set up a ₹20,000 crores seed fund by 2024, but the situation looks different on the ground with early-stage seed and angel investments drying up. One of the factors for the decline may the economic crisis in various sectors.
