India's Filter Capital names Sumit Sinha as co-founder

Sinha (pictured left, with Nayar) worked alongside Nayar for five years at Warburg Pincus, where they launched the firm’s India technology investment vertical. Together they evaluated more than 130 investment opportunities and closed three growth-stage transactions involving classifieds site Quikr, online auto trading platform CarTrade, and retail software provider Capillary Technologies.

Sinha went on to work for Multiples Alternative Asset Management for three years, leading technology investments and backing the likes of sports gaming platform Dream11 and human resources-focused software specialist PeopleStrong.

“Our shared professional experience has shaped our views on technology business models and investment risk/reward. We identified growth-stage investing in Indian technology-led businesses as an underserved market niche while evaluating opportunities at our prior firm. This formed the foundation of the investment strategy we pursue here at Filter Capital,” Nayar said in a blog post.

Filter Capital makes growth-stage investments in technology and technology-enabled businesses, targeting areas such as the internet, software, consumer services, and financial services. Companies will typically use technology to leverage consumer and enterprise growth opportunities in India, with a view to expanding overseas in the long term.

Outlining the firm’s strategy in an earlier blog post, Nayar noted that India is expected to become the world’s third-largest consumer market with over 100 million middle-class households over the next decade, while the number of internet users will increase from 300 million to more than 800 million. The country will also continue to be young, with the average age projected to rise from 27 to 30 over the same timeframe.

“India’s compelling macro story means that there is tremendous potential for technology business models that have already become popular the world over – such as consumer internet, software, e-commerce, hyperlocal, on-demand, social networking, and mobile payments to name a few. However, key to their success will be their ability to tailor products or services to address local requirements. This won’t be easy, given the fact that India is a diverse and heterogeneous market,” he said.

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