Here are the 7 most active investors in India this year

2014 was a watershed year for fund flows into India’s startup ecosystem: a billion dollar funding round, the entry of Japanese giant SoftBank with big ticket investments, and the emergence of Bangalore as one of the fastest growing startup hubs in VC deals.

Far from abating, the fund flow has gathered even more momentum this year. Software industry body Nasscom says the country is on course in 2015 to see a doubling of the previous year’s funding level for startups incorporated since 2010 – from US$2.2 billion to US$4.9 billion. (The 2010 cutoff excludes some biggies like Flipkart, Quikr, InMobi, and Zomato.)

The growth in seed stage funding has been steeper – six times higher than the previous year. Over 400 startups have received funding already this year, more than two times the number in 2014.

Feeding frenzy

“There’s going to be a feeding frenzy,” predicted 500 Startups founder Dave McClure in an interview with Tech in Asia last year. And so it is proving to be, possibly even earlier than Dave had anticipated.

But who are the most voracious among the active investors in India this year? Not surprisingly, the top three are Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, and Accel Partners, who have the biggest India-focused funds at their disposal. They accounted for nearly a hundred deals in the first three quarters of the year, according to data from Bangalore-based venture capital analytics firm Tracxn.

We went by the number of deals made by an investor, rather than the total dollars invested, because we were more interested in deal activity than the quantum of funding – which can shoot through the roof with a few mega deals. That explains the conspicuous absence from this list of SoftBank and Alibaba, who pumped big money into Snapdeal and Paytm.

Top 7

Here then are the seven most active investors in India this year, based on Tracxn data.

1. Sequoia Capital – 41 deals

Last year, Sequoia Capital raised the largest India-focused fund of US$530 million, which it topped up earlier this year with another US$210 million. Now it is reported to be raising another US$800 million fund.