'RTP Global wants to be first to invest in any new sector'

Early-stage venture capital firm RTP Global, a backer of marquee Indian startups like Cred, DeHaat, Delivery Hero, Mobile Premier League (MPL) and Practo, floated its fourth vehicle in June this year.

- Malvika Maloo

With a corpus of $1 billion (around ₹8,300 crore), the firm expects to invest a third in 20 Indian startups from seed to Series Arounds. It will also look to invest in platforms across North America, Europe, and Southeast Asia.

Nishit Garg, partner at RTP Global's Asia investment team, spoke to VCCircle about the fund's investment thesis, investing in India and new interesting sectors for the fund. Edited excerpts:

Tell us about RTP Global. You invest across three or four continents. So, what's the broader investment thesis?

RTP Global is 23 years of age and we started in India in 2011. And since then, we have invested in the early wave of e-commerce and fintech platforms including Freecharge, Rebel Foods and Snapdeal. Then the second bout was with Cred and Mobile Premier League. These were our early bets and in the last few years, we have bet on Dehaat, GoKwik, Newton School, IBC, Wiom and more.

The general philosophy is to be the first ones to invest in any new upcoming sector. It is what we have followed for the last 12-13 years and continue to do So.

What are your preferred areas of investment?

In terms of focus, we are a horizontal seed-series A investor.

We look at tech-enabled names primarily, but some choices of ours also depend on the founders. Like, in the US, we invest significantly in SaaS and B2B businesses. Similarly in Europe, it is a bit of fintech, SaaS and AI.