Our New Fund: All In on India

Elevation Capital announces Fund VIII of $670 million, to accelerate partnering with category defining early stage companies in India

We believe we are in the golden age of Indian entrepreneurship and technology-driven innovation that will spearhead India’s rise to an economic superpower. 20 years ago, when Elevation (then SAIF Partners) first started investing in India, it was difficult to imagine the pace at which tech would pervade every sphere of life. We at Elevation feel proud and privileged to be an enabler for many transformative founders from the very start of their journeys.

Despite the spectacular progress made so far, we are just at the beginning of India’s startup story. We believe that India’s tech ecosystem has now reached an inflection point. Not only is India’s GDP set to cross $5 trillion in five years, this rising prosperity is augmented by foundational rails such as the UPI system, Universal ID, and streamlined taxation structures. Adding value to this mix are favorable factors such as a deep professional talent pool with global tech exposure, soaring internet mobile penetration rates and strong global capital inflows. A combination of these economic, technological, infrastructural, and demographic factors creates the perfect environment for many more tech companies to be built for and from India.

However, what does this mean for the future? India’s equity market capitalisation is already the fifth-highest in the world at $3.2 trillion and is expected to approach $10 trillion over the next 10 years. Given that the Indian startup ecosystem has an even stronger outlook, we are further convinced that we have just scratched the surface of India’s tech potential. The ~100 unicorns in India alone have a combined valuation of $240 billion. We believe that this will grow over 10x over the next decade and Indian tech companies will have more than $2 trillion of market cap.

At Elevation, we have played a crucial role in nurturing the earliest of tech entrepreneurs in India. Over the past two decades, we have invested almost $2 billion of capital in over 150 companies across seven funds, with 13 early-stage investments becoming unicorns.

We have been early investors in multiple category defining companies. This has given us a front-row seat to seeing incredible, high-impact businesses that were built. These include category leaders such as Acko, FirstCry, Makemytrip, Meesho, NoBroker, Paytm, Sharechat, Spinny, Swiggy, Unacademy, Urban Company, Xpressbees and many others.

Today, we announce Elevation’s new fund, Fund VIII, of $670 million and reaffirm our commitment to partnering with visionary founders building transformative businesses.

Elevation’s Fund VIII is one of the largest India-focused venture platforms to date, enabling us to continue being a pivotal catalyst for Indian founders to fulfill their aspirations. Fund VIII will allow us to demonstrate a greater commitment to exceptional founders with a larger initial investment and continued support to them until much later in their journeys.

We will continue to focus on the Seed/Series A stage as our core. Early-stage investing is where we have found our ikigai — the perfect intersection of our capabilities, passion, and the needs of the founder ecosystem. As a result, our investment pace has been accelerating and went up by 100%, just in the past 12 months.

We pride ourselves on being the partner of choice for India’s tech entrepreneurs. This is due to the way we operate — we have a founder mindset versus that of a mere capital provider. We understand that the pre-Product Market Fit phase is when founders need the most amount of support of all types — tactical, operational, strategic, and moral.  Thus, every Partner and Principal at Elevation dedicates personal attention to each founder, walking with them through the ups and downs, right from the very first day of their entrepreneurial journey. Once a company passes this stage, they are on their way to becoming category creators and market leaders.

A long-term commitment to the conviction of the founders and their vision is the cornerstone of our approach. It is because of this ethos that we do not make competing investments. Once we decide to back a founder in a space, we keep an unwavering resolve to not “hedge our bets” by investing in multiple companies in that space.

Fund VIII marks a renewal of Elevation’s commitment to India’s new age entrepreneurs; if you have an idea that can help a new India achieve her boundless ambitions, write to us here. It is never too early to get in touch with the team at Elevation. For us, the genesis of an idea is where it all begins.