IDG Ventures raising $200M in new India-focused tech fund

IDG Ventures India has launched its third India-focused fund with a target corpus of $200 million, joining a clutch of venture capital firms that have raised or are raising money to invest in startups.

The firm has registered IDG Ventures India Fund III LLC with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to mobilise the money, according to an SEC filing.

The new fund is the successor to IDG Ventures Fund II, which was floated in 2013 to raise$175 million. In 2007, IDG Ventures Fund I had raised $150 million.

The second fund, however, didn't manage to raise the targeted amount and ended with Rs 600 crore (around $100 million then) in November 2014, according to a report by The Economic Times. The firm never officially talked about the second fund.

An e-mail query to a spokesperson for IDG seeking details about the third fund didn't elicit any response till the time of posting this article.

IDG Ventures India typically invests between $0.5 million and $10 million in startups. Its portfolio includes companies such as Lenskart, Zivame, Aasaanjobs, Firstcry.com, Forus Health, Perfint Healthcare, SilverPush, SuperProfs, Uniphore, Vserv and Xpressbees.

IDG Ventures India is part of IDG Ventures, a global network of technology funds with about $4 billion under management. The Indian VC firm was floated by Manik Arora, Sudhir Sethi and TC Meenakshisundaram nine years ago. Arora quit the firm last year.

IDG's fundraising comes at a time when several other venture capital firms in the country have also mobilised funds or are in the process of doing so.

In March last year, SAIF Partners raised $350 million to make a final close for its India-dedicated fund. The same month, Accel Partners garnered $305 million for its fourth India fund.

In May, Kalaari Capital filed regulatory documents to raise $275 million through two new fund vehicles. In August last year, US-based Lightspeed Venture Partners mobilised $135 million through its maiden India-dedicated fund.

More recently, Sequoia Capital, one of the most active VC firms in India, registered a new investment vehicle--Sequoia Capital India V—with the US SEC to raise money. And in December, Mumbai-based Blume Ventures said it had raised over $30 million for its second fund to mark the first fundraising milestone.