B Capital Group, the venture capital firm started by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin and Silicon Valley investor Raj Ganguly, has raised $143.6 million that it plans to invest in India and Southeast Asia. The firm, which has offices in San Francisco, Los Angeles and Singapore, backs “brash entrepreneurs building the next generation of groundbreaking technology companies,” according to the firm’s Website.
This is the first close of the VC fund, according to B Capital’s filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and accounts for 60 percent of its target money. The move to focus on India comes at a time when the Indian startup ecosystem is in the midst of a constrained funding scenario.
India represents a vast market potential and the Indian economy is projected to grow faster than the U.S. economy, highlighting the opportunities in the South Asian nation, reports VC Circle.
Saverin and Ganguly said that business models including the consumer to consumer, flash sales and online retail had entered a more advanced phase. Higher valuations of e-commerce firms, multiple funding rounds and emergence of Unicorns–or firms with a valuation of $1 billion and higher–such as Flipkart, Ola, Snapdeal and Shopclues were part of a larger trend emerging in Asian markets.
“The rapid rise and adoption of e-commerce means existing infrastructure and processes will require an upgrade,” the post said.
It also said technologies that power business processes such as Big Data, artificial intelligence, robotics, blockchain, and augmented reality or virtual reality will also undergo an innovation across the value chain in India and will not just be concentrated around e-commerce.
