Draper means serious business

Oct. 4, 2007

One of Silicon Valley�s biggest early stage venture capital firms - Draper Fisher Jurvetson - may have taken its time over formally entering India. But having set up shop in Bangalore and Hyderabad recently, DFJ now intends to invest $75 m in over a dozen Indian companies over the next three years. The firm will invest in early stage startups - up through growth stage companies.

"We have been active in India for several years and have made numerous investments already and so are not concerned about first mover advantage. Our thesis in India is for the long term as India matures as a market and continues its torrid growth as one of the world�s most important economies. We believe that there are many more companies to be funded and many significant opportunities in India that will attract highly talented entrepreneurs for the foreseeable future," says Raj Atluru, managing director of DFJ.

Mr Atluru is one of the partners at Menlo Park, California, who will be actively involved in the firm�s activities in India. "Our investment size will depend on stage of company, but somewhere between $1m and $15m. We look to build standalone big companies and tend to be very patient investors. In general, we look to exit companies between years 5 and 10," he added. For him the excitement about India is that it will become a centre of innovation in the same way as the US.

Not surprisingly, many of the Indians on board DFJ at Menlo Park are now an important and intrinsic part of the Indian team and are spearheading India related policy. �I�m part of our India team, but based out of Silicon Valley - being at the nexus of geographies gives us a better perspective to evaluate trends. I currently have led DFJ's investment in two companies: LiveMedia and Komli.

"DFJ's most recent fund has invested in several others, including SeventyMM (online movie rental service), Reva (electric car), and mCheck (mobile payment platform). And of course, we have a whole host of companies where India is a critical part of their operations either with a core office in India or where India is a target end market," says Ravi Belani, an associate and Kauffman fellow at DFJ.

Mr Belani, who has visited India twice in the last nine months, feels that the real excitement now is the "glint in the eyes of entrepreneurs in India".

Meanwhile, Mr Atluru who leads investments in clean technologies at DFJ feels that this will be a big growth area for VCs. "We are just seeing the tip of the iceberg in terms of markets and technologies. This will be an investing theme for the future as entrepreneurs start companies to solve many of the problems that the world is facing in terms of energy, environment, clean water and air."