US-based venture capital firm capital of the tribe remains upbeat on the history of Indian capital markets. Over the next two years, the company plans to allocate nearly $2 billion to Indian startups, a senior official said Your story.
“We currently have $1.5 billion in assets under management (AUM), 20% of which is in India. You will see us doubling down on our (portfolio) companies as they continue to raise more capital,” said Arjun Sethi, CEO, co-founder and partner at Tribe Capital.
He added: “You will see that over the next two years we invest large amounts in 5-10 companies instead of supporting a large number of companies.”
Arjun said Tribe Capital in India will continue to support companies through all stages as long as the opportunity is compelling. The fund supported SME-focused SaaS startup in his Series A round in December.
Founded in 2018 by former partners of Chamath Palihapitiya backed Social Capital and former data scientists Relaxed, and Facebookthe company has three venture capital funds as well as two funds investing in crypto and token-based opportunities.
In India, Tribe Capital has invested in startups such as Logistics Enabler truck platformand financial services platform for small and medium-sized businesses . It continues to work on the Commerce Enabler SaaS companies in logistics, payments, digital ledger providers and others.
“India has capabilities to develop software not only for customers outside the country but also for India-specific problems,” Arjun said.
He added: “First and foremost, the know-how will flow into the trade. Then you’ve seen products and services that serve Flipkarts and Amazons. Then there are payments and credit, merchant products, building Shopify-like models for merchants in India, social shopping – things like that don’t happen by accident.”
While Shiprocket raised capital from the company’s first fund, BlackBuck and Khatabook are part of the Fund II portfolio.
A third $335 million fund, launched earlier this year, is currently operational but has not yet started investing in the Indian ecosystem.
Data-driven investments
The technology-focused fund describes itself as a qualitative fund because its investments are based on data-backed decisions. It has backed companies like Cryptocurrency Exchange and Capitalization table management and rating table softwareand the software platform Docker worldwide.
“Our team has [previously] worked on growth, data science, and building infrastructure for companies like Slack, Airbnb, Facebook, Snapchat, Square, etc. When we founded Tribe Capital, we took all that infrastructure and vertically integrated it into our way of thinking about investing. ‘ said Arjun.
He adds that the fund typically asks for access to a SaaS company’s backend system, rather than a traditional pitch deck and numbers.
“If you look at public companies in India, they go through a quarterly filing system where they share their findings. Private companies don’t have that — you have to rely on clearances, returns, tax returns, but those don’t tell you anything other than revenue,” he added.
With this approach, Tribe Capital wants to ensure that the science is ahead of the art of investing.
growth focus
Tribe Capital has no presence in India nor a dedicated fund and invests in Indian startups through special purpose vehicles. While the fund will continue to operate out of the US, Arjun is not ruling out the possibility of an India-specific fund.
“We’ve been good at deploying our core funds and creating dedicated vehicles for opportunities. We have had discussions with local people to work with us as well. We will not make hasty decisions as we have a very specific approach,” he said.
