Global VC firm Bessemer sharpens India focus with $350 million fund

The storied company expects to start deploying the second fund from mid-2025

By Harichandan Arakali Forbes India Staff

Published: Mar 12, 2025 12:42:44 PM IST

Updated: Mar 12, 2025 12:52:18 PM IST

Anant Vidur Puri, Partner; Vishal Gupta, Partner; and Nithin Kaimal, Chief Operating Officer, of Bessemer Venture Partners. Image: Hemant Mishra for Forbes India

Bessemer Venture Partners, one of the oldest global venture capital firms in the world, has announced the close of its second dedicated India fund at $350 million.

With the new fund, Bessemer will continue to focus on early-stage investments, in areas including AI-enabled services and software-as-a-service (SaaS), fintech, digital health, direct-to-consumer brands, and cybersecurity, the firm said in a press release March 12.

“This fund deepens our commitment to India’s startup ecosystem,” Vishal Gupta, the firm’s seniormost partner in the region, said in the release. He adds the focus will remain on entrepreneurs building technology-led businesses.

India’s venture capital (VC) landscape demonstrated resilience and recovery in 2024, with funding rebounding to $13.7 billion—1.4x the 2023 levels, Bain and Company said in its India Venture Capital Report 2025 on March 10. Strong domestic fundamentals, progressive regulatory reforms, and rising public market activity strengthened India’s position as Asia-Pacific’s second-largest VC destination, according to the report.

A rise in deal volumes (880 in 2023 versus 1,270 in 2024, a 45 percent increase) led this growth in deal activity. Small and medium-ticket deals (less than $50 million in value), which made up around 95 percent of the deals, increased by about 1.4x while large deals (more than $50 million in value) nearly doubled, returning to pre-pandemic levels.

Listen: Indian SaaS: Anant Vidur Puri at Bessemer on the AI upside to $50 billion by 2030

Tech-first sectors (consumer tech, software and SaaS, and fintech) remained dominant, capturing more than 60 percent of the total funding. Consumer tech became the largest sector, with funding rising 2.3x to $5.4 billion. Exit activity remained steady in 2024, edging up to $6.8 billion.

Bessemer has been present in India since 2006, led by Gupta. More than 80 percent of its investments in India over the last five years have been in early-stage companies.

The firm takes what it calls a roadmap-driven investment approach, building sound arguments for the potentially high-growth emerging categories it identifies. This has helped it make investments in startups riding India’s mobile revolution, the country’s digital infrastructure, and its much-anticipated healthcare revolution.

Among its investments are Urban Company, Perfios, and Medi Assist. The firm’s first dedicated India fund backed notable startups including Boldfit, MoveInSync, Pepper Content, Shopdeck, Vetic, and Zopper.

Watch: Anurag Begwani at Bessemer Venture Partners on emerging opportunities in Indian fintech

Its broader portfolio includes category leaders such as BigBasket, Livspace, Perfios, Swiggy, and Urban Company. Bessemer has also seen nine IPOs within its India portfolio.

Bessemer is a globally integrated firm with teams of investors and partners in Tel Aviv, Silicon Valley, San Francisco, New York, London, Hong Kong, Boston, and Bengaluru.

Worldwide, Bessemer has $18 billion in assets under management. It has seen more than 145 IPOs and 300 portfolio companies in sectors including enterprise, consumer and healthcare. Its global portfolio included ServiceTitan, Pinterest, Shopify, Twilio, Yelp, LinkedIn, PagerDuty, DocuSign, Wix, Fiverr, and Toast.

Bessemer Partner Anant Vidur Puri added that India is seeing an AI-driven transformation, with founders building both domestic and globally-competitive businesses in enterprise software, fintech, and consumer technology.

As AI adoption accelerates, “this fund allows us to back entrepreneurs shaping the next phase of India’s digital economy”, Puri said.