Norwest raises $2b for latest global VC fund
Norwest Venture Partners, a US-headquartered investor with a strong presence in India, has closed its latest global VC fund at $2 billion. It is the firm’s largest vehicle to date.
The fund, branded NVP XV, will invest from seed to later stages across the consumer, enterprise technology, and healthcare sectors. It follows the close of NVP XIV at $1.5 billion in February last year, which was also described at the time as the firm's largest fund to date. Funds XI, XII, and XIII each raised $1.2 billion in 2009, 2014, and 2016. Fund X closed at $650 million in 2006.
Norwest said the latest fundraise comes on the back of 50 investments and 23 portfolio IPOs in the past two years. In India, exits include enterprise software providers Appnomic Systems and Capillary Technologies, CRMNext, Manthan, and Zenoti, as well as logistics technology developer ElasticRun, which received a $40 million round last month led by the VC unit of Naspers.
Each of these companies was exited via a partial Indian portfolio spinout into a new fund to be managed by Avataar Venture Partners. Avataar was set up by Mohan Kumar, who spent nine years with Norwest.
The deal, backed by HarbourVest Partners as the sole LP, left Norwest with a seven-strong team in India, led by Niren Shah. Current investments in the country include e-commerce platform MindTickle, non-banking finance companies Veritas Finance, Ess Kay Fincorp, and Five Star Business Finance, food platform Swiggy, and furniture marketplace Pepperfry.
"Our founders and CEOs are at the heart of everything we do," Jeff Crowe, a Silicon Valley-based managing partner at Norwest, said in a statement. "To us, that means not only investing capital, but also time and resources to help our leaders and their organizations grow."
Norwest claims to have invested more than 600 companies since inception in 1961, about 150 of which are currently in the firm's venture and growth equity portfolios. The latest fundraise brings total capital commitments to around $9.5 billion. In addition to the US and India, the firm invests via an office in Israel.
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