Falcon Edge raises $45.7 mn for India fund focused on lending and fintech

New York-headquartered hedge fund Falcon Edge Capital is raising a new India-focused fund, Falcon Edge India I LP, according to documents filed with the US SEC (United States Securities and Exchange Commission). 

The India fund, which will be registered in the Cayman Islands, has so far received a commitment of $45.7 million from nine investors. 

In addition to this, the firm’s financial technology focused fund, Falcon Edge India NBFC Fund LP, will also act as a fund of funds in India, according to filings with the SEC. 

The fund will focus on lending space and financial services companies, with a total corpus of $150 million, said a report from a year ago, quoting the firm’s institutional investor offer document. 

Founded in 2012 by Richard Gerson, Ryan Khoury and Navroz D Udwadia, the fund has backed the likes of ride-hailing app Ola and real-estate platform Housing that was later merged with real-estate platform PropTiger.   

From its Falcon Edge India I LP, the firm has invested in student accommodation startup Stanza Living, micro enterprise-focused NBFC Aye Finance, social commerce platform DealShare, data analytics platform vPhrase and dockless scooter and bicycle sharing platform Bounce. The investments were made in 2019, according to data sourced from VCCEdge.

The news comes at a time when Palo Alto, California-headquartered early stage fund Accel announced its sixth India-focused fund at $550 million. Sequoia Capital India also raised a corpus of $695 million in August 2018, as did Lightspeed India Partners with a $175 million fund in July 2018, renewing the commitment of the global venture capital firms for the India market.