Tiger Global rolls out new global fund

New York-based Tiger Global Management is raising its thirteenth global private investment vehicle of corpus $3.75 billion (Rs 27,442 crore), which is the same size as the previous fund that closed a year ago.

The new fund is expected to close in March, Techcrunch reported citing a recent letter sent by Tiger Global to its investors.

The development is significant for the Indian startup ecosystem as Tiger Global has been active for quite some time now after lying low in the country for three years till 2018-end.

In 2020, Tiger Global was one of the most active venture investors having made 17 deals, according to VCCEdge. It was also one of the few investors to strike more new bets than follow-on ones.

Tiger Global added some prominent names last year to its kitty such as edtech startup Unacademy, which turned into a unicorn in 2020, and fantasy sports platform Dream11.

The investment firm's other new bets in India last year included video editing startup InVideo, edtech startup InterviewBit and logistics firm LogiNext. 

It also made follow-on investments in fintech firm Razorpay, which turned into a unicorn last year; and Kunal Shah-led credit card payment platform Cred.

Earlier this week, Tiger Global, Dragoneer Investment Group, Steadview Capital and General Atlantic purchased shares worth $50 million in Unacademy from other existing investors.

Tiger Global entered India in 2005. It made calculated moves in the first five years making two to five investments annually. From 2011 onwards, there was no stopping the firm.

In 2015, for instance, Tiger Global struck 38 deals that included fresh bets on diverse startups such as Shopclues, Zostel, Grofers, Delhivery, Saavn, NewsInShorts, Vedantu and Little, and large follow-on investments in companies such as Flipkart, Ola, Quikr and Freshdesk. 

After 2015, Tiger Global went quiet in India.

The American firm's belief in the Indian startup ecosystem re-ignited around mid-2018 when Walmart agreed to acquire Flipkart for $16 billion, marking the biggest liquidity event for a startup in India and validating Tiger Global’s decision to pump billions into the e-commerce company.

As a result, it resumed investing in the country from the next year onwards.

In 2019, Tiger Global ’s India rainmaker Lee Fixel decided to leave the US investment firm after more than a decade of spearheading venture capital deals.