Google Capital, which is a late stage growth capital fund financed by Google, is now determined to tap World’s 3rd largest and fastest growing startup ecosystem: India. As per reports coming in, it has been revealed that Google Capital will be opening their first office outside USA in India, and the process of recruiting has already begun.
Google Capital partner David Lawee told WSJ, “It makes a lot of sense to focus on India right now,” , adding that Indian internet users have already surpassed USA in number of volume, and Indian entrepreneurs are ‘responding’ to this new economy with ‘innovative’ solutions.
Although it is not yet clear that which city would be chosen for their first office, but speculations are rife that it can be either Bangalore or Delhi, which are the startup epicenters in India.
Last year, Google Capital made their debut in India with their investment of $31 million in FreshDesk, which is a cloud based customer care platform located in Chennai.
Last month, Google Capital made their second investment in India and third in Asia when it invested an undisclosed amount in CommonFloor.com, which is India’s upcoming real estate portal with more than 200,000 properties listed. Earlier, they invested in Innolight, a startup from China concentrating on high speed optical components.
Overall, Google Capital, which was founded last year, has invested in 11 companies, out of which 2 are from India. Reportedly, Google Fund has a war chest of $300 million.
Google Ventures, which is another venture capital fund created by Google only focuses only on growth stage companies, and its investments include Uber, the mega successful taxi app. However, Google Capital’s business model is different, as it focuses only growth stage startups, and this actually speaks volumes about the maturity which Indian start-up ecosystem has attained.
Last year, in a research conducted by NASSCOM, it was found that India is currently world’s 3rd largest and fastest growing startup ecosystem. 800 startups are being opened in India every year (which are associated with NASSCOM), and by 2020, more than 250,000 people would be directly employed by these startups. In the last 6 years, this ecosystem has grown 270%.
Here is a chart of Indian startups investment and funding for 2015.
World’s biggest startups, which have now turned into multi-billion dollar enterprises have already made acquisitions in India. Facebook has acquired Little Eye Labs, their first in India; Twitter has acquired Zipdial, their first in India & Yahoo has acquired Startup Bookpad. Even Media czar Rupert Murdoch has debuted their Indian operations with acquisition of BigDecisions.com. Besides investing via Google Capital and Google Ventures, Google have acquired another Indian startup: Impermium, and via Google X prize, have awarded $1 million to Indian space startup. Additionally, they also organize special launch pad sessions for the most promising startups by providing them mentorship and guidance.
There is no denying the fact that India is right now at an interesting phase of startup growth and the new Internet economy; and Google Capital’s first Indian office is just the start.
