Omidyar Network will be pulling out of the India market and will not make any new investments in the world's third largest startup ecosystem, according to people aware of the investor's plans.
While the impact investor will not make any new investments in India, it will honour the deals it had committed to earlier, the people added. In India, Omidyar has invested around $500 million and has already clocked exits worth $250 million in about 13 years.
"This moment is not celebratory in all ways, but look at it this way: Omidyar (in India) has achieved what it set out to achieve about 13 years ago when it started investing in India. They wanted to play a catalytic role and that is exactly what they have done. They want to leave on a high and the decision is along those lines," a person in the know told Moneycontrol.
In an internal blog post, The Omidyar Group confirmed the developments.
"Over the last decade, Omidyar Network India has played a critical role in building the impact investment sector, especially focused on the Next Half Billion. We are proud of our work in this space, which is now attracting larger pools of capital from local VC/impact investors and domestic philanthropists than ever before. Having achieved our primary objective of catalysing impact, Omidyar Network India will not be making any further investments in India," Omidyar Network India told Moneycontrol.
News website Yourstory was first to report the development.
Moneycontrol checked with six portfolio companies and none of the founders had a clue about a move of this magnitude. To be sure, Omidyar Network India, is separate from US-based Omidyar Network. It is an independent, geo-focused, dual chequebook firm.
Omidyar Network India is arm of the family office of eBay founder Pierre Omidyar.
When asked if Omidyar was exiting India, a portfolio company founder told Moneycontrol that the development was “highly impossible” and that the founder was in touch with the company as recently as this week. A company executive.
The impact investor backs startups like Zestmoney, DealShare, VerSe (Dailyhunt), Vedantu and many more in the country.
"After several months of deliberation, it has been decided that Omidyar Network India will stop making new investments and will completely transition out of the market by the end of 2024," the company said.
"Over the next two months, the board and leadership team will assess how best to manage the organization’s portfolio while recognizing the long and trusted partnerships that the Omidyar Network India team has built," it added.
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