NEA to invest $200M in India

New Enterprise Associates (NEA) a venture capital firm is expanding its operations in India. The Indian operations will work closely with NEA's U.S. based technology team as it focuses up to $200M investments in several sectors like telecom, KPO/BPO, media, energy, technology driven consumer finance and technology innovations in rural and agricultural sectors within India in over three to four years.

The minimum investment in an organisation that NEA is planning to make is five million dollar and highest around $ 40-45 million with no break ups in the total investment into different sectors. Their highest investment would be for Indian entrepreneurs.

"We have been selectively investing in India for many years and believe the country offers an attractive environment for venture investing," said Peter Barris, NEA Managing General Partner. "Given our experience to date, we believe it is the right time to expand our investment focus in this region and we look forward to working with the many talented and successful entrepreneurs and executives in India."

The India expansion is in line with NEA's strategic plans to develop a presence in the emerging markets of India and China. "NEA's focus in India will be on expanding its investment portfolio, while making returns on our initial investments. We look forward to working with India's best and brightest entrepreneurs in telecom, media, alternative energy, technology-enabled services and infrastructure and we are in talks with four to five solar companies that are looking at bio- fuel as a space," said Krishna "Kittu" Kolluri, General Partner, NEA.

India has traditionally been building products and services companies targeting global markets, however there are several macro trends that are creating new ventures opportunities targeting the Indian market.

NEA will primarily invest in early-stage IT investments indirectly, through NEA-IndoUS Ventures. NEA's direct investments will be primarily in mid to late-stage opportunities.

The company has strategically focused some of its technology investing efforts on high-growth markets in India, having invested in several Indian and India-U.S. cross border companies. Examples of these investments include Sasken, Telsima, Nevis Networks, Protostar, InSilica and GlobalLogic.