VCCircle Top Five: Increasing the tech dose

Trouble viewing this email? [View in web browser](#) [Vccircle] Sunday, 06 Feb 2022 [Unlock Premium]( Dear readers Hope you're having a lovely weekend. As always, we bring you the top five highlights, which is a little bit more tech-heavy than usual this week. For one, the national budget along with the board fight between BharatPe investors and its cofounder Ashneer Grover dominated headlines this week. But there is a lot more that has taken place. Partly, because of tech investors' relentless focus on the Indian ecosystem. But as we know, over the last year, others have jumped onto this bandwagon. Nowhere was the focus more pronounced than in the Indian budget, where the emphasis was on securing our collective tech future with a new digital rupee, a tax on crypto and sharper focus on digital banking. For now, let's dive right in. ANALYSIS [Tiger Global is marching fast]( [alt_text] After striking deals in a tearing hurry to become the second-most active VC firm in India last year, Tiger Global Management seems in no mood to slowdown. Just this week, the US based investment firm led funding rounds in three startups – logistics-tech firm Loadshare Networks, engagement investment platform Jar as well as in its existing software-as-a-service (SaaS) portfolio firm Chargeebee. These were not all, Tiger Global also participated in Series B funding round of edtech platform Scaler Academy. Above all, it has raised $11 billion for its latest fund that will invest in tech startups in US, China and India, according to reports this week. This may mean that Tiger Global will likely carry on investing this year in India even if there is some drying up of capital elsewhere... [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- FINANCE --------------------------------------------------------------- [NIIF's first tech bet]( [alt_text] In the same vein, the Indian sovereign fund National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) made its first tech investment this week when it picked up shares in FirstCry. NIIF’s interest in tech is likely to continue as long as there is some underlying social impact. Its previous direct investment include a minority stake in Manipal Hospitals... [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Advertisement --------------------------------------------------------------- ECONOMY --------------------------------------------------------------- [LightSpeed’s new bets]( [alt_text] We also did an interview with Lightspeed Venture Partners, which is known for its bets on Byju’s, Oyo and ShareChat. The firm expects to sharpen its focus on startups in the agritech and healthtech sectors even as it will continue to invest in “enduring” themes like software-as-a-service (SaaS), fintech and edtech, partner Dev Khare said. There is also huge opportunity for India to be an innovation hub in Web3, said Khare. “We are not starry-eyed thinking that it (Web3) will replace the internet but it is an important platform that have several use cases that are revolutionary. It’s going to be a fertile area,” he said... [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- Advertisement --------------------------------------------------------------- FINANCE --------------------------------------------------------------- [Boost for rupee capital]( [alt_text] The Indian budget captured most of the headlines this week and largely the overarching technology push was self-evident. However, there was a small proposal made with respect to capping the long-term capital gains (LTCG) surcharge for unlisted shares at 15%. This will also include high net-worth individuals, earning over Rs 2 crore, lawyers said. Now, the expectation is that this may boost rupee capital into AIF. “Most of the domestic money for AIFs (alternate investment funds) still comes from large family offices where the rate of surcharge was 37%, that now stands reduced to 15%--the same as the public markets. This will enhance the supply of investments into startups and the AIF industry,” Gopal Srinivasan, chairman of TVS Capital said... [Read more]( --------------------------------------------------------------- FINANCE --------------------------------------------------------------- [Eight Capital breaks up with JC Flowers over Yes Bank deal]( [alt_text] In the non-tech highlight of this week, it's worth remembering that Eight Capital has decided to exit its stake in the joint venture with JC Flowers, the Mint newspaper reported. “Due to differences of opinion between JC Flowers and Eight Capital last week over the proposed Yes Bank transaction and the valuation of the bank's NPAs, the latter has decided to quit the JV and withdraw from the race to acquire Yes Bank's NPAs,” the Mint said, citing anonymous sources... [Read more]( That's all from us this week. 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