Falcon Edge secures $300 Mn worth India-focused VC fund

Global alternative asset manager Falcon Edge Capital has raised $300 million for its India-focused venture capital fund Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI). The VC-fund is backed by an undisclosed entity of the Government of Abu Dhabi and investors from the UAE.

Having already poured in $100 million via its India Disruption Partners entity, New York-based Falcon Edge has launched AWI to mainly back startups with capabilities in artificial intelligence and machine learning and the investments from the latest fund will range from $50,000 to $5 million reportedly.

According to an Economic Times report, AWI is in the final stages of closing the corpus and is expected to make 30 deals in the next 12-15 months.

Once the deal gets sealed with its Limited Partners, it would be mandatory for the AWI-backed companies to have a core technology team presence in Abu Dhabi, the report said.

Launched in 2012 by Rick Gerson, Navroz Udwadia, and Ryan Khoury, Falcon Edge offers a variety of investment products including public equity, venture capital, distressed, private equity, and activist strategies.

It officially began its investment journey in India in 2014 with real estate startup Housing.com along with Japan’s SoftBank in a $90 million round.

At present, Falcon Edge has more than $3 billion in assets under management and has made over 30 technology as well as non-tech consumer investments. Its global portfolio companies include SpaceX, Ant Financial, Ola, Daily Hunt, Quikr, Aye, KhataBook, nb.ai, and DealShare.

Additionally, it has also backed few older Indian businesses such as the National Stock Exchange and Domino’s Pizza.

While Falcon led the $11 million worth funding round in social commerce startup DealShare in October last year, Stanza Living had received a commitment of $50 million in July 2019.