Over the last decade, several international investors have thronged India to repose their faith in the Indian startup industry. Seoul headquartered financial services group Mirae Asset has also been one of the most active international investors in India’s startup ecosystem. over several years, it has backed many unicorn startups including Zomato, BigBasket, ShadowFax and Ola.
Now Mirae Asset has announced a new $35 Mn funding corpus for investing in early-stage Indian startups – seed to series A round. Economic Times first reported this news. If things pan out according to the plan then Mirae Asset may increase the funding size to $75 Mn.
Mirae Asset was founded in 1997 after the company launched its first mutual funds to Korean retail investors in 1998. Over the years, it has emerged as one of the biggest financial services groups in the world. in 2010, Harvard Business School selected Mirae Asset as its first Asian Financial company case study.
It must be noted that Mirae Asset has reportedly invested $200 Mn across Indian companies. This includes companies that don’t fall in the Indian startup industry. Additionally, the South Korean financial group operates four dedicated funds for venture investment in South Korea, India and China.
The names of these funds are as follows:
- Mirae Asset Naver Asia Growth Fund
- Mirae Asset Naver I
- Mirae Asset GS Retail
- Mirae Asset Celltrion
Despite COVID-19’s adverse impact on the Indian economy, VC community has continued to remain buoyant on the Indian startup industry. According to Tracxn, investors poured approximately $11.4 Bn in the Indian startup industry in 2020.
Zomato and Byju’s were among the startups that received the largest funding tranche, with Zomato receiving $660 Mn and Byju’s getting approximately $800 Mn.
To read the complete annual factsheet of Indian startups 2020, please click here.
Notably, other VC firms like BeeNext, LightSpeed, Saif Partners (now known as Elevation Capital) and Lightspeed have also closed their funds.