India’s Nexus Venture Partners Announces New $450M Fund

Nexus Venture Partners — the top-tier Indian VC firm which counts Snapdeal, Etsy-like Craftsvilla and medtech startup Lybrate in its portfolio — has reloaded for more deals after it announced its newest $450 million fund.

The fund, which is the nine-year-old firm’s fourth to date, takes it to over $1 billion in capital under management — becoming the first Indian VC to reach that milestone. Nexus, which has invested in more than 60 companies to date, said the capital will be used for seed and early-stage deals once again. In particular, the firm is looking closely at retail, financial services, health and education in the consumer space, in addition to promising companies in the enterprise space.

Nexus’ previous fund — its third — closed at $270 million in 2012, but now it has ramped up in line with increased interest and activity in India’s startup space.

“We are thankful to our investors that continue to back us and believe in our investment philosophy,” Naren Gupta, co-founder and managing director of the firm said in a statement. “Most significantly, the Nexus team is fortunate to have exceptional entrepreneurs partner with us on their journey to build market leading companies.”

Other firms to raise new funds this year include Helion Ventures, Accel and Qualcomm. New York-based Tiger Global, the hedge fund that has been among the most active investors in India, closed $2.5 billion in new capital last week, while Japan’s SoftBank has pledged to spend more than $10 billion on deals with India-based startups.Sequoia, SAIF and Lightbox are among other well-funded and active VC firms in India.

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