Impact investment firm Omidyar Network, which has invested in Indian companies such as Bounce, Indifi, Dealshare, Healthkart and Vedantu, has decided to exit India and will completely move out of the market by the end of 2024.
Omidyar Network, which started operating in India in 2010 and had set up Omidyar Network India for an India-centric investment strategy with a dedicated team in 2019, has decided not to make any new investment in India.
“After several months of deliberation, it has been decided that Omidyar Network India will stop making new investments and will completely transition out of the market by the end of 2024,” it said in a statement.
“Over the next two months, the board and leadership team will assess how best to manage the organization’s portfolio while recognizing the long and trusted partnerships that the Omidyar Network India team has built,” the firm said.
Omidyar invested more than $500 million in India. It invested nearly $150 million in non-profit ventures and the remaining in for-profit companies. Of this, the firm reportedly yielded returns of $250 million from its for-profit investment, with a distributed paid-in-capital ratio of 0.7. It made its last investment in India last month, in Sequretek.
“Omidyar exiting the Indian market came as a surprise for all of us. It was even hiring till last month,” a person aware of the development told VCCircle, asking not to be identified. “It will scale down the Indian team in phases and while it won’t make any new investment, it will continue operating in the country till December 2024,” he added.
In its statement, Omidyar said it made the decision due to “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 Omidyar Network India team identified these system shifts as critical to impact and worked diligently to help catalyze this change,” it said.
