 "Fintechs in the country have grown in the last decade, both in the number of entities and scale. The key growth sectors have been payments, credit, insurance and wealth management, fuelled by angel investors, venture capital (VC) and private equity.")
Lighthouse Canton, a Singapore-based investment firm with a presence in asset management, wealth management, and investment banking, expects its second venture capital (VC) fund to be between $150-$200 million but is not looking to raise it immediately.
“Our second fund probably would be $150-$200 million. We don’t want to go and raise a very sizeable fund because, at the end of the day, deployment becomes an issue. So, we want to pace ourselves back,” said Shilpi Chowdhary, group chief executive officer, Lighthouse Canton. “The market has to be mature enough for that asset class to be able to take more.”
This comes after closing its first VC equity fund at $50 million and an ongoing second close for its $75 million venture debt fund. The firm, which started in Singapore in 2014 and expanded to India in 2020, sees India as a critical market for its operations. “India is a natural beneficiary of global capital flows,” noted Chowdhary.
Lighthouse Canton currently manages about $4 billion in assets under management (AUM), with India accounting for roughly a quarter of it. “We would like to be a 10x number in the next five to six years on our AUM, on our revenue, on our profitability,” said Chowdhary.
The firm has been active in India’s venture ecosystem, with its venture equity fund investing in Series A and pre-Series A startups and its venture debt fund targeting growth-stage companies. “Our ticket size on venture equity is typically $1 million; venture debt, anywhere between $2 million to $4 million,” said Chowdhary.
While Lighthouse Canton has seen promising traction in venture debt in India, Chowdhary noted that a key challenge is educating investors about the asset class. “I think the only challenge would be educating the investors to see this asset class not in the prism of a very high risk, but probably more like a moderate risk,” he said.
The firm is also expanding its wealth management footprint in India, having grown from its 2020 launch to a presence in six cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, and Pune, with aims to expand to 20 cities over the next three years. As it gears up for its next phase of growth, the company is positioning itself as a bridge between India and global capital. “We have the opportunity to take India to the world and take the world to India, and that very few people can do,” said Chowdhary.
