In what can be termed as immensely good news, the venture capital major Tiger Global Management has reportedly raised $3.75 billion for latest venture funds. This is New York-based hedge fund’s 11th venture capital fund and the fund has been labeled as Tiger Global Private Investment Partners XI.
According to reports, the funds will primarily focus on startup businesses spread across India, China and the U.S. These funds will be diverted to companies engaged in consumer internet, cloud computing, industry software and direct-to-consumer businesses, reports added.
In India, if grapevines are to be believed, Tiger Global will look to invest in e-commerce startups, logistic startups, B2B startups and SaaS companies.
I couldn’t help but associate Tiger Global’s latest fundraising with ray of ‘hope.’ After all, the Indian startup ecosystem has been enduring funding drought for nearly one and half years. Although the drought has helped the Indian startups to come out of the bubble, there is no denying that robust fundraising activities is need of the hour to nurture more and more startups in the country.
Tiger Global was also one of the early architects of Indian startup ecosystem, since it was one of the first VC majors to invest in startups like Flipkart and Ola, which today have become big names.
However, we would be over-optimistic if we believe that Tiger Global alone can lead the funding revival. More prominent VC firms will also have to come forward, with few of them having already raised funds. This year so far the Indian startup ecosystem has witnessed decent funding, showing significant rise compared to the previous year.
India startups, on their part, will have to work hard to maintain their balance sheets and be more innovative to maintain the funding momentum. Indian startups can certainly take much needed inspiration from its Chinese counterparts, since over the years Chinese startup ecosystem has evolved more rapidly and is far more successful.