International Data Group (IDG), a US-based technology research and media group with $3bn in annual revenues, is starting to raise its second India-focused corporate venturing fund.
Patrick McGovern, chairman and founder of IDG and an advisory board member of Global Corporate Venturing, said the IDG Ventures India Fund for early-stage deals would target $175m and have an upper limit of $200m.IDG will commit a quarter of the total raised, he added.
IDG committed $150m to its first India fund in 2006 led by Sudhir Sethi, which in the past few months has invested in Apalya Technologies, Myntra and Perfint Healthcare.
IDG traditionally commits the whole amount raised in the first fund for a specific region and then third parties can invest as limited partners in the second and subsequent funds.
"I expect that at the end of 2020 we will have half a billion dollars of money under management in India which will, excepting China, be the largest pool of funds that IDG manages in the world," McGovern told news provider VCCircle.
McGovern said India would be the second-largest market for technology products in Asia and an equally big market for venture and private equity.
As a result, IDG Ventures India’s fundraising comes alongside plans for IDG to raise $300m to $400m for a growth equity fund for more mature companies and a mezzanine fund to back companies before their flotations in the country, he told VCCircle.
The rationale behind floating various fund strategies is to support the company throughout its lifecycle as "they go through various capital needs in their growth process."
It also boosts the rest of IDG’s regional units outside of the US that are currently fundraising.
In January, IDG committed at least $25m in its second Korean corporate venturing fund, which is a quarter of its $100m target (the same size as the first fund raised in 2007), and promised to raise $400m for two Vietnam-focused funds over the next few years.
India was the final Asia-focused corporate venturing fund planned by IDG after IDG Capital Partners, the media group’s China-based corporate venturing unit, said last month it was raising two funds with its venture capital partner, Accel Partners.
IDG-Accel has raised $1.3bn across two joint funds: a $550m fund for early-stage and fast-growing companies and a $750m fund for later-stage and pre-flotation investments. They will be called IDG-Accel China Growth Fund III and China Capital Fund II, respectively.
The first $310m IDG-Accel China Growth Fund was raised in July 2005 and managed by IDG with a second, $510m fund closed two years later. In May 2008, IDG-Accel China Capital Fund raised $600m for the third fund in the series.