Billionaire Venture, DBS to invest $200m in India start-ups

Investment will initially target the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Maharashtra with a focus on financial and education technology among other areas. The plan is largely about stoking entrepreneurialism and accelerating growth of the start-up ecosystem overall.

“The JV will facilitate the knowledge sustenance within our country and additional contribution to GDP as more entrepreneurs including IIT graduates are eager to promote start-ups,” Charan Kumar, head of South India at DBS Bank, said in a statement.

“The encouragement given by both the central and state governments in the form of subsidy on investment will also encourage new entrants.”

The JV will waive dividends for the first two years but will monitor the functioning of start-ups during this period. If there are problems with the development of the business, it will assume control and transfer the operations to other successful start-ups, though it will offer profit sharing during the remaining period. This safeguard is hoped to attract more start-ups.

Billionaire Venture describes itself as a sector-agnostic investor with founder experience. It leverages networking partnerships with the likes of Venture Catalysts, a longstanding Indian incubator, and AIC Raise, which brands itself India’s first incubator focused on the UN’s sustainable development goals.

India’s seed and angel space has seen a significant influx of capital in recent months, with funds launched by Fundamental VC, Inflection Point Ventures, micro VC player Artha Venture Fund, Sequoia Capital India’s Surge accelerator, Indian Angel Network, and Antler.

Last month the team behind GrowX Ventures launched a separate fund targeting USD 100m under the name Merak Ventures.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Fundraising
• Venture
• Technology
• India
• seed
• Fintech
• Education