QED Eyes India for Major Investment Boost

The Venture Capital firm QED is planning to invest $300 million in India. This commitment is seen after the recently raised capital of $925 million fund in India and Asia Pacific. It is estimated that these returns will be doubled in the next five years, with high interest rates and geopolitical uncertainty.

Sandeep Patil, the partner and Head of Asia at QED Investors stated, “India will continue to corner a large proportion of our investments, we don’t have specific allocation targets for any one country, but India remains central to our Asia strategy. We’re also looking to deepen our presence in markets like Japan and Australia.” This initiative was taken after QED closed two major funds, which made the total investable capital $925 million.

Previously, QED had invested in May 2023: Fund VIII, with a $650 million vehicle for the early-stage bets. The Series B to the pre-IPO stage was funded with $275 million in Growth II. Sandeep stated, “This move is driven by what we call ‘clone war’ dynamics,” said Patil. “After a company receives Seed or Series A funding, we often see several clones emerge with similar business models. But at later stages—Series B or C—it becomes easier to identify which companies can truly scale and become generational businesses.”

Formerly, QED had funded notable startups like OneCard, Jupiter, Refyne, and Financepeer, limiting itself to businesses of lending, neo-banking and insurance. But at present it is exploring newer areas such as embedded fintech and artificial intelligence.  The firm is planning to fund early-stage investments with $3-$20 million, and growth stage rounds with $20-$40 funds.