AI valuations in India much more reasonable than US

RTP Global, the early backer of startups such as Practo and Snapdeal, has evolved into a significant early-stage investor over the last decade.

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With a third of its $1 billion global fund earmarked for the Indian market, the firm is now writing larger cheques and backing startups from seed to Series A. RTP's Asia partner Nishit Garg tells Ayanti Bera about the firm's investment strategy, views on AI valuations, and how the funding landscape has reshaped early-stage bets.

Excerpts:

How much of your fund is allocated to India and which sectors do you invest in?

We're currently deploying a billion-dollar global fund, announced in 2023, with first cheques going out in early 2024. About one-third of the capital is marked for India, which means we will write 25 to 30 cheques over a 3-3.5-year period, with 7-8 cheques every year. We are very agnostic on sectors. We mostly enter at seed or Series A, sometimes early B. Typical cheque sizes are $1-10 million, with one or two follow-on rounds.

It's been observed that Series B and C funding has slowed.