For 15 years, Bessemer Venture Partners followed a different strategy from its global peers in India, backing local startups from its global funds, and keeping its in-country team small.
That changed in 2021, when Bessemer raised a dedicated $220 million India fund, followed by a second $350 million fund in 2025.
New documents obtained exclusively by Newcomer shed light on how Bessemer has fared in India over the years. A 57-page presentation prepared for current and prospective LPs in mid-2024 shows the tradeoffs of the firm having invested less capital than rivals Sequoia, Accel, and Matrix during the boom years of Indian startups from 2012-21.
Bessemer missed out on some big wins, but it’s also been able to return proportionally more cash to LPs than its bigger competitors. (The selected slides have been altered to remove identifying information.)
Among the highlights:
-
From its global funds, Bessemer has committed $774 million to India since 2006 (not including the $570 million its India-only funds have raised) and returned $683 million to limited partners as of March 31, 2024. The total value of the holding, payouts included, was $1.6 billion.
-
Compared with Sequoia (now Peak XV) and Accel, Bessemer has returned cash at a faster rate. Peak has raised $10.5 billion and returned $7 billion while Accel has raised $3 billion and returned $1 billion. Bessemer’s slow-burn strategy has borne fruit in a market where investors routinely complain of slow cash returns, though its IRR lags.
-
As of mid-2024, Bessemer’s best India investments — many in enterprise software or fintech — were worth 8-10x the amount invested, on paper.
-
From its first India fund, raised in 2021, no company had broken out yet.