EVC announces $50m fund for Indian startups, plans to invest in IoT, ad-tech and e-commerce
Entrepreneurship & Venture Capital (EVC), a global venture capital firm has announced to invest a fund of $50 million in India. The organisation aims to build and support technology ventures in sectors such as the Internet of things (IoT), mobile space, ad-tech, e-commerce, gaming, wearables and education.
The venture capital fund also operates EVC Accelerators in the United States and India where it provides capital and mentorship to help entrepreneurs turn ideas into unicorns.
EVC is likely to invest between $100,000 to $5,000,000 from its fund EVC II in exchange for equity in growth-stage companies that fit its investment criteria.
Anjili Jain, Managing Partner, EVC said,
Today, India has emerged as one of the most assuring entrepreneurial landscapes. We have launched the fund looking at the opportunities that Indian ecosystem has to offer. We also aim to bridge the existing gap in the ecosystem by supporting new businesses that can put India on the global entrepreneurial map.
The VC firm says that it sees IoT, ad-tech, e-commerce, gaming and education are the main sectors where the business growth lie.
According to a report by IDC, the global IoT market is expected to grow to $1.7 trillion by 2020. Devices, connectivity, and IT services are expected to account for two-thirds of the IoT market by 2020. Google has also shown keen interest in this space. In 2014, the search engine acquired smart thermostat maker Nest Labs for $3.2 billion.
Gaming is another potential industry which is waiting to take a giant leap. According to a report, the gaming industry earned a total of $10.5 billion in revenue in 2009. In 2014, that figure quadrupled– the gaming industry had raked in over $46 billion.
The VC firm says that e-commerce is one of the sectors which holds the largest business potential; and it’s impossible to avoid this sector. Besides, various studies have also predicted the potential growth in the e-commerce sector. Recently, as per industry body Assocham, the e-commerce industry in the country is likely to be worth $38 billion by 2016, a 67 per cent jump over the USD 23 billion revenues for 2015.
Early investment
During February this year, EVC supported Telecom Centres of Excellence (TCOE) with $ 4 million for its Innovation in Mobile App Development Ecosystem (I-MADE) program.
Innovation in Mobile App Development Ecosystem (I-MADE) framework is a 5 year program in which one hundred (100) institutes will be selected to be a part in Phase I of the program. Phase II will include up to 3000 institutions. The goal of the program is to help Indian entrepreneurs build 1 million mobile app start-ups which can eventually become Indian unicorns.