DFJ To Diversify Into Mid-to-Late Stage, Non-Tech Deals in India; Closes 17 Transactions In 2.5 Years
Jul. 30, 2008
Leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm Draper Fisher Jurvetson (DFJ) is shedding its pure early stage venture focus in India to be a stage and sector agnostic player. Globally, DFJ, which has backed companies like Skype and Baidu, has been making early stage technology investments. In India, it will follow a slightly different approach, following in the likes of many other Valley investors like Sequoia Capital and Matrix Partners in India.
"We will primarily be an early-to-mid stage investor with opportunistic late stage investments," Mohanjit Jolly, Executive Director, DFJ India, told VC Circle in an interview. DFJ is also looking at traditional non-tech investments in India as it sees huge opportunities there.
Jolly said: "We see tremendous opportunity in the non-traditional, high growth sectors in India, including offline healthcare, education, retail, entertainment, logistics and so on. We prefer technology investments, but India currently is more about leveraging existing technology than developing true intellectual property. Over time, as IP and product innovation takes hold in India, there may be a swing back in favor of more tech investments than non-tech."
Jolly was, however, quick to point out that they would continue doing early stage and tech deals. "We are still early-mid stage, and prefer technology, but (we) realise that in India one has to have a tech-agnostic approach (high tech, mid tech, low tech, no tech)," Jolly said.
