Tiger Global's aggressive big bets this year might do a world of good for the American hedge fund major, although riding the beast can prove tricky at times for founders
Scott Shleifer, partner at Tiger Global Management. Photo by Ben Gabbe/Getty Images
August 2015, New Delhi
Zo Rooms was in the midst of a bitter, and money-guzzling, war with Oyo. In July, the online budget hotel aggregator reportedly raised a series A round of $15 million, led by hedge fund major Tiger Global. A month later, Zo Rooms went back to its existing set of backers—Tiger and Orios Venture Partners—and got another $30 million. The same month, the much-bigger Oyo, which counted Sequoia Capital and Greenoaks Capital among its investors, raised all of $100 million in a Softbank-led series B funding round.
Oyo’s muscle-flexing didn’t, however, perturb Zo Rooms, which was planning to beef up its war-chest by looking for new backers as well going back to its funders. “If they have Softbank, we have Tiger,” proudly exclaimed one of the co-founders of Zo Rooms to this reporter back in 2015. “We will give them a good fight,” he asserted. The exuberance of the entrepreneur was understandable. The New York-headquartered Tiger was in the thick of its most expansive year in India, and closed 2015 with an astounding 39 deals. Tiger, the co-founder confidently reasoned, would be the best weapon to take on its much-famed rival.
The same year in April, Grofers raised $35 million from existing investors Tiger Global and Sequoia. Seven months later, in November, it raised $120 million, an aggressive move to build a war-chest to take on rival BigBasket. Though the round this time was led by Softbank, Tiger too participated. After two years, in 2019, a massive $220 million round of funding was led by SoftBank. Tiger Global too participated. The investment, interestingly, came after a reported funding at a beaten-down valuation in February 2018.
Fast forward four years. Online stockbroking firm Upstox raised $25 million in its second round of funding, led by Tiger Global in 2019. The same year in August, edtech startup Vedantu raised $42 million in a Series A round led by Tiger Global and WestBridge Capital.