Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), the venture capital arm of German media company Bertelsmann, has launched a new fund exceeding $500 million to invest in new startups, and their onward journey. The company expects to make six to eight new investments a year, for the next five years, and plans to open offices in Mumbai and Bangalore
This new fund is part of Bertelsmann’s group-wide ‘Boost 25’ strategy where it plans to invest between €5-7 billion by 2025 to increase its revenue and profits.
“As part of our global venture capital activities, Bertelsmann India Investments will play an important role in this in the years ahead. The Indian economy is seeing very strong growth right now, from which the venture capital industry, in particular, is benefiting as well.” Carsten Coesfeld, CEO of Bertelsmann Investments, said.
BII has invested in more than 17 companies and the current portfolio includes the likes of Eruditus, Licious, Shiprocket, Pepperfry, Agrostar, and Lendingkart, among many others. It has invested a total of about $285 million in startups to date.
Bertelsmann India to double investment from its new boost programme
Pankaj Makkar, Managing Director of BII, said, “We are very pleased to be more than doubling our investment under the new Bertelsmann Boost programme. We aim to connect with founders early. With a decade of experience, we have witnessed that founders and companies are exhibiting maturity at an early stage. No doubt, the industry landscape is changing and we are ready to dive in.”
BII, plans to focus on investments in the healthtech, enterprisetech, future of work, fintech, agritech, and other sectors.
For the core mid-stage investing programmes, BII will continue to lead the rounds with a ticket size of $5-20 million as an initial investment. The investment may go up to $40 million during the life of the selected startup, the VC firm noted.
Established in 2012, BII is a sector-agnostic fund which largely focused on Series B stage investments but is now foraying into the early-stage segment. Further it plans to collaborate with others to make selective Series A and mid-stage investments in about six to eight deals in a year. Earlier, it used to do around three to four deals annually.
BII is part of the Bertelsmann Investments (BI) division. Bertelsmann has other strategic businesses in India such as Penguin Random House, Fremantle India, and Majorel. The group continues to look for growth opportunities in India and the surrounding region.
