Insight Partners news: Insight Partners eyeing deeper presence in India: MD Nikhil Sachdev

Global venture capital firm Insight Partners is likely to increase its pace of investments in India, a top executive told ET.

The firm has so far deployed nearly $1 billion in the country, with 78% of that flowing in during the last 18 months, said Nikhil Sachdev, managing director, Insight Partners in an exclusive interaction.

Insight has backed companies such as Cred, CredAvenue, Rattle, FanCraze and M2P. The VC firm, which has been investing in India since 2018, provides early- to growth-stage capital to startups.

“Most recently, we announced our investment in AppSmith,” Sachdev, who joined Insight in 2020 to help lead investments in software, fintech, and crypto companies, added.

Insight has mopped up $20 billion in a new global fund that it raised earlier this year.

Globally, it counts Slice, ezCater and Linktree among its portfolio firms.

It is one of the most active software and technology investors globally and has more than $90 billion in total assets under management.

“Insight doesn’t allocate specific funds for any domain or geography, so we can’t predict how much we will invest in India. However, we continue to be bullish on the Indian startup ecosystem. India has already emerged as a global fintech leader and is well positioned to also be a leader in Software as a Service (SaaS),” he said.

There are many second- or third-time founders in India, in addition to founders who have worked across the globe, bringing that perspective into the market.

“This is a completely different level of sophistication than we’ve previously seen in the industry in India and makes it a great market for SaaS companies,” he said.

“Additionally, the talent and innovation that has developed in India in recent years is only going to multiply with the growing economy and competitive startup ecosystem. We’ll continue to partner with our existing investments as they scale up and explore new investment opportunities with a focus on Global SaaS and fintech,” Sachdev added.

Its onsight team is the industry’s largest software-focused operations team, comprising more than 130 operators who work alongside its portfolio companies in the areas of talent, sales, marketing, product, engineering and strategy to help founders and executives identify and execute key strategic growth initiatives.

Insight and global peers such as Sequoia Capital,

and Matrix Partners have been deepening its India presence and have mopped up larger pools of capital to be deployed in the region.

Sequoia India said last month that it had
raised $2.85 billion across three funds to invest in the Indian and Southeast Asian markets. Sequoia will merge its seed-stage fund Surge into its venture vehicle allocation of $300 million,
ET reported earlier.

Accel India has mopped up $650 million, while Elevation Capital (formerly Saif Partners)
raised its largest ever fund at $670 million.

Lightspeed Venture Partners is also in the process of closing its $500 million fund to invest in India and SEA, while
Matrix Partners has filed to raise a $450 million India-focused fund.

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