Multi-stage global private investment firm Matrix Partners has opened its third office in India, in national capital Delhi, as it seeks to double down on the region's booming startup ecosystem, it said in a statement.
“Delhi was a natural choice for us given our growing portfolio of companies in the city, and the large and rapidly increasing base of high-quality founders here,†said Tarun Davda, managing director at Matrix Partners India.
According to research by Matrix, over 30% of all new startups in 2016 across sectors were founded in Delhi-NCR, followed closely by Bangalore at 19%, the statement said. Delhi-NCR has also overtaken Bangalore in the total number of new startups as well as in the number of funded startups over the last two years, it added.
“Delhi is the capital of the country and also the capital in terms of number of startups and number of billion dollar plus companies in the technology ecosystem,†said Avnish Bajaj, founder and managing director, Matrix Partners India.
According to recent data published by research firm CB Insights, Delhi-NCR is home to the highest number of homegrown unicorns, which are private companies valued at more than $1 billion.
Matrix Partners India opened its second office in Bangalore in May 2015. Besides Bangalore and Delhi-NCR, the firm also has a branch in Mumbai.
The venture capital firm's investments in Delhi-based companies include online shopping platform Limeroad, business-to-business marketplace OfBusiness, restaurant management startup Limetray, and eye care chain Centre for Sight. It had also invested in women’s fashion brand W from which it exited last year.
Matrix Partners is one of the VC firms which can boast of having backed more than one Indian unicorn such as Ola and Quikr.
Meanwhile, the firm went through a major churn as co-founder Rishi Navani quit in April last year to float investment firm Epiq Capital. At the time, Matrix Partners said that it raised a fresh corpus worth $110 million to make new investments in early-stage tech startups.
