Mumbai-based venture capital firm Lightbox Ventures has raised $178 million of its $200 million third fund. The firm expects to close the fund by the end of this year.
The latest fund further shows the confidence of venture capital firms in the growing growing Indian startup ecosystem.
Last month, Sequoia Capital closed its $695 million India-focused fund, to invest in early and growth stage startups in technology, consumer, and healthtech domains.
Talking about the latest fund, Sandeep Murthy, founding partner, Lightbox, said, “We’ve largely stuck with the same ideas and the approach that we used in our previous funds: the fact that less is more. We believe in getting deeper into a handful of strong businesses, rather than invest in a broad number of companies.”
He further added, “The reason why we’ve raised more capital this time is largely because we really want to help startups build big businesses and make it easier for them to scale up. We want to get deeper into a handful of deals and ensure that there is enough capital available to keep supporting them at different stages.”
Founded in 2014, Lightbox is focused on early-stage startups working in consumer goods, financial services, education, and healthcare domain. It typically invests between $2-8 million in the beginning and makes follow-on investments based on the capital requirements of the startups.
So far the firm has raised two funds and has invested in a number of successful Indian startups including foodtech startup Faasos, furniture rental startup Furlenco, edtech startup Embibe, mobile adtech startup InMobi, automobile marketplace Droom, and an online travel agency Cleartrip, among many others.
Other venture capital firms operating in India and reaping the benefits of the growing market include Sequoia Capital, Matrix Partners, Saama Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Accel Partners, Blume Ventures, among many others.