New York-based Tiger Global Management top startup investor in January-April

BENGALURU: New York- based Tiger Global Management has emerged as the top investor in startups in India during the first four months of 2015. The private equity hedge fund, led by Lee Fixel, which manages $10 billion in assets, was placed fourth during the same period last year, according to data available with funding tracking firm Venture Intelligence. India has also emerged as the key market for Tiger with Indian startups featuring in 18 of the 26 funding rounds that the investor has participated globally in 2015 so far.

Tiger, founded in 2001, has made investment commitments of $269 million across 11 deals in January- April period, as against the $10 million for a single deal during the first four months of 2014. Tiger, one of the major investors in ecommerce firm Flipkart, has started to make early stage investments too, in India.

Venture Capital (VC) firm Sequoia Capital has made investment worth $208 million during the first four months of this year across 14 deals. During the same period last year, VC firm Nexus Venture Partners with $73 million in funding was the largest VC player in the country followed by Kalaari Capital with $45 million in in vestment across six deals.

“The India focus of Tiger has helped the ecosystem immensely as it has given confidence to other global private equity and hedge funds to come to India. With the establishment of Bengaluru office, the momentum is going to get accelerated.They understand the Indian realities better now,“ said Karan Mohla, executive director and head of digital consumer investment at VC firm IDG Ventures.
During this month, the fund has appointed Fixel as the head of its private investments after two senior executives left the company . Fixel was in India during mid- May to meet his portfolio companies which includes taxi hailing app Ola, online customer helpdesk firm Freshdesk, news app News in Shorts, online classifieds firm Quikr, ecommerce logistics firm Delhivery and online grocery delivery firm Grofers among others.