Strategic investment arm of Bertelsmann SE & Co. KGaA in India, Bertelsmann India Investments (BII), is targeting to make bets on two to four Startups in the next 12 months with an average ticket size of $10 million, said a report by Business Standard.
Next year, BII will also do 3-5 follow-on investments in its current portfolio. BII, which is a mid-stage venture capital firm, has made a follow-on funding in logistics aggregator for D2C sellers, Shiprocket, in May this year. The VC firm did not make any new investment this year and besides Shiprocket made 7-8 follow-on investments in its current pool of portfolio companies such as Licious and Lendingkart.
Pankaj Makkar, managing director of BII, said, "Of 11 of our portfolio companies in India, about 6-7 could become Unicorns in a couple of years. We are waiting for some of these success stories to emerge after which would start exiting some of them in the next 3-5 years."
Bertelsmann has been active in India since 2003 and most of its divisions have a presence here. The RTL Group subsidiary FremantleMedia has produced international hit shows including “Indian Idol”, “X Factor” and “India's Got Talent” through its production unit in Mumbai.
At the end of September, Bertelsmann Investments held 244 investments in startup companies and funds through its international fund structures. In the period under review, the funds made 46 new and follow-on investments, and also realized eight exits.
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