Rocketship.vc raises $125 mn in first close of its third fund
- With the new fund, the VC firm remains bullish about investing in the Indian startup ecosystem, which has in the past received about one-third of its total allocation, almost on par with its home market
Rocketship.vc, a Silicon Valley-based venture capital firm, has raised $125 million, marking the first close of its third fund, and is currently in investment mode, said a top executive.
With the new fund, the VC firm remains bullish about investing in the Indian startup ecosystem, which has in the past received about one-third of its total allocation, almost on par with its home market.
The latest fund follows its $100 million second fund that was raised in 2019-20. That fund was backed by US investors, including Vulcan Capital, Adams Street Partners and the family office of Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon, co-founders of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Rocketship, which has made 20 investments in India so far, has backed startups such as NoBroker, Khatabook, Moglix, Apna, Teachmint, Quizizz, Jar and Animall. Its $40 million first fund was raised in 2015.
Rocketship began with seed and early-stage investments, before moving to Series A and B investments. “One-third of our investments have been in India, one-third in US, and the remaining in other countries. Fund II is almost fully deployed and we are currently investing out of Fund III,” Venky Harinarayan, partner at Rocketship said in an interview. “We are excited about India and want to invest in companies which we call ‘growth outliers’ where the flywheel is spinning, and they are growing quickly.”
He said the third fund is likely to have a bigger corpus but declined to elaborate.
From the second fund, it has invested in a little over 20 companies while the remaining capital will be deployed for follow-on investments in its existing companies.
In India, Rocketship continues to see a big investment opportunity in the ‘Bharat’ wave, where startups are coming up with apps or services to help people who have been traditionally underserved.
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First Published:13 Jul 2022, 01:37 AM IST
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