Social Network Industry: South Asia’s Top 11 Investors in Seed Funding Rounds

Intro

The Social Network Industry focuses on allowing people with similar interests to connect, come together, and sharing information. Projects in the industry can involve anything from social shopping and recruiting to social media to online forums to social network services. People are constantly looking for ways to connect with each other, creating room for new and creative startups to break out in the industry. These can range from something that’s catering to the general public to something that’s targeting an audience with a niche interest. Because the industry is actively growing, investors are on the lookout for startups to add to their portfolios.

The following article and chart outline the top 11 investors in South Asia, including VC funds and corporate investors, that have invested and are actively investing in the Social Network Industry. Specifically, the investors in the sample are ones that have invested in projects in the Seed Stage over the last 5 years. The money raised in Seed funding rounds amounts to $23.0M, accounting for 1.9% of the total amount of money raised in the Social Network Industry in South Asia over the last 5 years.

Social Network Industry: South Asia’s Top 11 Investors in Seed Funding Rounds
data provided by Unicorn Nest

Key takeaways

• Funds Geography – All funds in the sample are located in India, most commonly in Mumbai, which is home to 7 funds. Also notable are funds from New Delhi, Chennai, and Bengaluru. For the most part, funds tend to invest in startups from either India or The United States. Since the majority of the VCs tend to invest in projects from countries of the funds’ establishment, most funds end up investing in startups from India.
• Industry Focus – The funds’ most common field of investment is Finance, however, they are also willing to invest in Enterprise Software, Gamification, and EdTech.
• Important Years – The oldest fund in the sample was founded in 2000 and the newest in 2017. The most amount of funds was founded in 2006. 6 funds made the most deals in 2019. 2015, 2016, and 2018 were also fruitful years for VCs in the sample.
• Investments – VCs in the sample typically take part in 2 funding rounds per year and sometimes in 7-12. The number of funding rounds for VCs in the sample ranges from 14 to 122, with the average falling at 121.6 and the median dipping below it at 87.0. When it comes to lead investments, the amount for VCs in the sample ranges from 5 to 122, with the average falling at 44.7 and the median at 28.0. The index of difference in percentage points of lead investments from the average can be used to infer how likely it is that the given investors will act as lead investors. For this sample, the value ranges from -47.19 at the minimum and 15.59 at the maximum. With the average falling at -15.18 and the median sitting below it at -17.27, it can be inferred that funds in the sample will act as lead investors less often than other funds.
• Typical Rounds  – VCs in the sample tend to participate in rounds with 2-3 investors and will participate, albeit less often, in rounds with 1-2 investors. The average round size for funds in the sample is less than 100 thousand or 100 thousand – 1 million. The funds’ average multiplier for portfolio companies at the last known valuation ranges from 0.0 to 1.07, with the average falling at 0.38 and the median just below it at 0.27.