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BENGALURU: Thirteen years after it began operations in the country, Omidyar Network India, backed by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar, will exit India by 2024.
When TOI reached out to Omidyar, the firm said, ” Omidyar Network India will stop making new investments and will completely transition out of the market by the end of 2024. Over the next two months, the board and leadership team will assess how best to manage the organisation’s portfolio while recognising the long and trusted partnerships that the Omidyar Network India team has built.”
In 2019, Omidyar Network India was conceptualised as an autonomous investment advisory firm focused on India-specific strategy and investment thesis developed by the Indian team.Omidyar’s portfolio in India includes 1MG, Healthkart, Vedantu, WhiteHat Jr, ZestMoney and Doubtnut.
Recently, fintech lending startup ZestMoney, which once valued at $450 million, shut shop, letting go of 150 employees. In yet another instance, offline coaching company Allen Career Institute acquired doubt-solving platform Doubtnut in a fire sale for $10 million. Edtech firm Byju’s was in talks to acquire Doubtnut for $125 million, but the deal didn’t go through.
Omidyar said the decision to exit India was heavily informed by the significant change in context and the growth in the economic landscape that the India-based team has experienced since first making investments there in 2010. “Today, there is more Indian-led philanthropic and venture capital than ever before, the country has a vibrant startup sector, and several funds now have a middle and lower-middle income focus as part of their investment strategy. From its outset, the India team identified these system shifts as critical to impact and worked diligently to help catalyse this change,” it said in a statement.
Omidyar said its unique focus on bringing the country’s next half billion into the formal economy through a dual check book model combining for-profit funding and non-profit investing helped support the startup ecosystem that exists today.
When TOI reached out to Omidyar, the firm said, ” Omidyar Network India will stop making new investments and will completely transition out of the market by the end of 2024. Over the next two months, the board and leadership team will assess how best to manage the organisation’s portfolio while recognising the long and trusted partnerships that the Omidyar Network India team has built.”
In 2019, Omidyar Network India was conceptualised as an autonomous investment advisory firm focused on India-specific strategy and investment thesis developed by the Indian team.Omidyar’s portfolio in India includes 1MG, Healthkart, Vedantu, WhiteHat Jr, ZestMoney and Doubtnut.
Recently, fintech lending startup ZestMoney, which once valued at $450 million, shut shop, letting go of 150 employees. In yet another instance, offline coaching company Allen Career Institute acquired doubt-solving platform Doubtnut in a fire sale for $10 million. Edtech firm Byju’s was in talks to acquire Doubtnut for $125 million, but the deal didn’t go through.
Omidyar said the decision to exit India was heavily informed by the significant change in context and the growth in the economic landscape that the India-based team has experienced since first making investments there in 2010. “Today, there is more Indian-led philanthropic and venture capital than ever before, the country has a vibrant startup sector, and several funds now have a middle and lower-middle income focus as part of their investment strategy. From its outset, the India team identified these system shifts as critical to impact and worked diligently to help catalyse this change,” it said in a statement.
Omidyar said its unique focus on bringing the country’s next half billion into the formal economy through a dual check book model combining for-profit funding and non-profit investing helped support the startup ecosystem that exists today.
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