US-based investment firm Falcon Edge Capital has raised $300mn India-focused venture capital fund Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI). The fund is anchored by investors from UAE and an undisclosed entity of the Government of Abu Dhabi.
According to a report by The Economic Times, AWI is in the final stages of closing the corpus and is expected to make 30 deals in the next 12-15 months.
“Through the fund’s lifecycle, it will invest in 60-80 early-stage technology focussed angel, seed, and Series A deals in India and Southeast Asia,” said a person quoted in the report.
It is being reported that the fund will mainly back startups with capabilities in artificial intelligence and machine learning and the investments from the latest fund will range from $50,000 to $5mn.
Once the deal gets sealed with its Limited Partners, it would be mandatory for the AWI-backed companies to have a core technology team presence in Abu Dhabi, said the report.
Falcon Edge, which has already invested $100mn via its India Disruption Partners entity, says it will continue to back growth and late-stage startups through its global fund. Falcon Edge has traditionally invested in growth and late-stage companies in India including Ola, Bounce, DailyHunt, and StanzaLiving. Currently, it has over $3bn in assets under management. Its global portfolio companies include SpaceX, Ant Financial, nb.ai, and DealShare. It has even backed a few older businesses such as National Stock Exchange and Domino’s Pizza.
Falcon Edge was launched in 2012 by Rick Gerson, Navroz Udwadia, and Ryan Khoury. It offers a variety of investment products including public equity, venture capital, distressed, private equity, and activist strategies.
India has become a key focus market for reputed investors. Sequoia Capital, another VC firm, is planning to raise an India and Southeast Asia fund pegged at over $1 billion for investments across seed, growth and late-stage companies, while Tiger Global plans to deploy a significant part of its newly raised $3.8 billion global private investment vehicle here. Chinese tech giant Tencent has also been aggressively snapping up stakes in Indian startups over the last six-eight months closing about ten deals across stages.
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