Destination India for Chinese investors

India’s thriving ‘mobile-first’ internet economy — fuelled by 250 million mobile internet users, its youthful demographics and the fact that it’s the fastest growing economy in the world — has captured the interest of Chinese investors who are looking to make quick financial returns outside their country.

A group of 15 Chinese investors representing nine firms who are in Bengaluru to meet and listen to the pitches made by 125 Indian start-ups in the mobile and internet space, told BusinessLine that they plan to collectively invest $1 billion in Indian start-ups over three years.

The two-day speed-dating event, called “Date with Chinese Investors”, was organized by Mobile10X (an IAMAI initiative) along with Onionfans, a tech media and investment company.

New VC fund Yeahmobi, an intelligent mobile advertising platform headquartered in China, which has made 26 investments in start-ups all over the world, is now actively investing in the India market.

It recently launched Cyber Carrier, an India-focused VC fund of $45 million. The corpus will be invested in mobile internet companies in areas such as fintech, e-commerce platforms, B2B, education and healthcare.

“We have already invested several million dollars in six Indian firms such as Milkbasket and OnionMobi over the past six months. The other four firms which we will announce soon, are in the areas of fintech, adtech, utility apps and e-commerce platforms.

“With the Cyber Carrier VC fund, we would like to close investments in 12-20 projects this year,” Jessica Wong, Partner of Cyber Carrier VC Fund and Vice-President of Yeahmobi, told BusinessLine . Yeahmobi, which counts Flipkart, Snapdeal, Paytm, Myntra and Voonik as its India customers since 2012, already garners $40 million in India revenues.

Focus shift Domestic investment opportunities are diminishing in China, confessed Jianbiao Ziang, founder of Incapital, a VC firm focused on early-stage investments. Incapital manages nine funds with a total fund size of 800 million yuan.

“We are looking for overseas investment opportunities, especially in India, now that we have seen first hand the stellar quality of Indian start-ups. Earlier, we parked all our risk investments in Silicon Valley and Israel,” said Ziang, who is willing to invest $5 million per early angel project.

Chinese internet titan Alibaba made the first move and invested over $1 billion in domestic e-commerce firms Paytm and Snapdeal last year. Tencent, one of the largest internet companies in the world, made its first investment in Bengaluru-based online healthcare service provider Practo late last year, leading a $90-million round of funding by a clutch of investors.

In February this year, Alex Yao, Senior Vice-President of Chinese mobile internet company Cheetah Mobile Inc, had told BusinessLine that he is actively scouring the country for early-to-late-stage investment opportunities in 20 mobile and internet firms over three years.

Cheetah made its first investment of $13.4 million in virtual fitness coaching platform GOQii, a few months after setting up its India operations last year.

India is emerging as the largest growth engine for global mobile internet — an opportunity that no reasonable investor wants to miss out on, observed Satyendra Verma, COO, Mobile10X.

“In addition to investor connect events we also organise on-demand online mentoring platforms, provide mobile development training in Android and iOS, facilitate industry connect events and set up start-up hubs in different locations,” added Verma.

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