DFJ raising $400 Million for Startups in India

Draper Fisher Jurvetson, the venture capital firm which backed Skype, Feedburner, Overture, Baidu, and many such other startups which were later acquired by big Internet fishes is planning to raise $400 Million for start ups in India, US and China.

The economic growth rate indicates that India and China would surpass the total economy of rest of the world. So venture capitals are ready to re-invest after a long break due to the global economic crisis.

The firm may invest 15 percent of the funds in India said Mohanjit Jilly, executive director of DFJ’s India unit. DFJ expects to invest as much as $20 million a year in India, which has a history of investments in India and had already invested $75 million in 18 Indian companies since 2005.

The California based firm has invested in India-focused companies including travel Web site Cleartrip.com , the Indian travel site with tremendous market reach and Reva Electric Car Co., which has a tie-up with General Motors Corp. to sell electric cars.

Norwest Venture Partners, based in Palo Alto, California, raised a $1.2 billion venture-capital fund, the biggest to be completed this year, to expand in Israel and India. While DFJ is investing almost half the funds compared to previous year, on this Jolly says ‘Smaller pools of capital are easier to manage and can help investors recover their money faster’

Talking about investing particularly about Indian startups, Jolly says “India has been and will be a story of growth for decades to come, Just hold on and ride it.”