South Asia’s Mobile Industry: 20 Most Active Investors Over the Last Four Years

Intro

The rapid growth of the Mobile industry worldwide can be proven by a single fact: in 2016, around 3.7 billion of the world’s population were using a smartphone. As of 2021, according to Statista, the number of people owning this kind of device is 7.9 billion, around 70% higher than five years ago. Along with production, the Mobile field includes mobile apps, payments, and app discovery. For instance, in July 2021, almost 2.9 million apps were available for download on Google Play Store in any imaginable sphere, from trading to healthcare to security and more. As time goes on, 80% of the world’s population who use smartphones are increasingly likely to shop, search, socialize, and do many more things via mobile devices, opening up the opportunities for innovations in the industry. 

The diagram below features 20 investors in South Asia that have been especially active with the Mobile industry. Overall, this region’s 303 financing rounds account for a 2.8% share of the total funding in the sector over the last four years. Arranged according to the number of times they participated, those investors draw up in the following order:

South Asia’s Mobile Industry: 20 Most Active Investors Over the Last Four Years
data provided by Unicorn Nest

Key takeaways

• Funds Geography – All top investors in the region’s Mobile industry come from India. The city to host the majority of the funds is Mumbai, with 9 firms based there. Other frequent locations are Bangalore, Gurgaon, and Bengaluru. While the startups from India attract the lion’s share of financing, the listed companies also support projects from the US. Commonly, the VCs tend to put money into startups from their country of origin.
• Industry Focus – The funds’ primary focus is aimed at the Finance industry. They also back startups from the Enterprise Software, Social, and Banking fields.
• Important Years – The most recent year of establishment among the sampled funds is 2017; the oldest VC, Smile Group, started operating in 1999. As for the rest of the firms, many were founded in 2011. While 2020, 2018, and 2015 showed many deals accomplished, the most fruitful year was 2019. The same year exposed the highest rate of successful exits performed for several firms; others experienced this peak between 2015 and 2021. 
• Investments – Although the VCs usually participate in funding rounds twice per year, this figure occasionally rises to 7-12 rounds annually. The maximum standard and lead investments among the sampled funds is 425 and 127; the two lowest numbers are 23 for the common investments and 5 for the lead ones. The average values for the two types of investment are 125.0 for the former and 36.2 for the latter; their medians equal 89.0 and 20.5, respectively. Most commonly, the sampled firms chose to lead the deal 13 times. The difference between the two classes of financing rests between -40.57 and 19.48 percentage points. This index’s average value (-7.16) and the median (-2.67) are negative; therefore, particular VCs from the sample act as lead investors less frequently than others.
• Typical Rounds – The listed firms are far more likely to invest at the Early stage than Seed, Late, and Venture. Commonly, the VCs involve 2-4 investors participating in the deal and allocate from 10 to 50 million dollars per round. Less often, the size is 10 times higher, in a 100-500 million interval. While the funds’ average multiple for portfolio companies reaches 36.0, its most frequent value is slightly above zero. According to the last known valuation, this figure’s average is 4.88, and the median is 0.46.

Generally, the most support for the Mobile industry in South Asia stems from India-based VCs in Mumbai, Bangalore, Gurgaon, and Bengaluru. Those funds mainly focus on the Finance industry and participate in two deals per year. Less frequently, they enter from 7 to 12 rounds yearly. Although the amount of money they issue can sometimes lay between USD 100 and 500 million, they tend to allocate 10-50 million in most cases.