A16z Plans $500 Million Investment Round in India

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has launched another round of investment in India, one year after co-leading a $260 million investment in crypto exchange CoinSwitch Kuber.

TechCrunch reported that the venture capital firm is planning to invest around $500 million in Indian startups. a16z currently focuses on technology startups ranging from seed rounds to late-stage.

Funding floods in for Indian Web3 startups

India has two crypto unicorns – CoinDCX and CoinSwitch Kuber. Recently, U.S.-listed Coinbase also expanded into the country with plans for further investments. 

Coinbase chief Brian Armstrong said: “Coinbase Ventures has already invested $150 million in home-grown Indian technology companies in the crypto and Web3 space, and is constantly identifying new opportunities to help Indian founders scale.”

Last month, India-based Ethereum Push Notification Service (EPNS) received $10 million in funding led by Jump Crypto, and participation from names like Tiger Global, Polygon Studios, and Sino Global Capital. Hashed and FTX Ventures have also funded startups in India recently, the report noted.

So far in the year, VC investments in crypto projects globally are estimated to be around $10 billion.

Meanwhile in India, a report by Bain & Co. said that the country’s VC funding peaked at $38.5 billion in the last year, recording almost 3.8 times growth over the year prior.

But lack of clarity threatens growth

But a lack of legislative clarity may harm India’s expected growth for the year. T. V. Mohandas Pai, Co-Founder, Chairman of Aarin Capital, and former CFO of Infosys, said in an interview with inc42 that India could grow more unicorns if it solved the structural issues in the country. 

He argued that India is exporting much of its crypto deep tech to Dubai.

Co-founders of India-based WazirX have reportedly moved to Dubai. Previously, Sandeep Nailwal, the co-founder of Polygon, along with his team moved to the city citing legislative hurdles to Web3 development in India.

Despite that, India is taking its time to draw a regulatory framework for running crypto businesses in the country. India’s finance minister said that the country will take a considerate approach that “can’t be rushed through.”