General Atlantic to Use $2B to Rekindle Interest in Indian, Southeast Asian Startups

General Atlantic, the global private equity firm, will put $2 billion into India and Southeast Asia in the next few years after declining valuations for startups made them more appealing, Reuters reported Sunday (May 22).

General Atlantic is in talks with 15 companies in various sectors like tech, financial services, retail and consumer, according to business head Sandeep Naik.

This all comes as startups have been having a rough time lately, particularly in India. Founders have been having difficulty raising cash and have had to make job cuts.

Now, after it put in only $190 million in Indian startups in 2021, General Atlantic is looking at opening up its spending, according to Naik.

Naik, speaking to the World Economic Forum at Davos, said the company was “very bullish” on India, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Many tech companies have seen diminishing returns lately, for a variety of reasons — the war in Ukraine and the high interest rates, for example.

General Atlantic’s high profile investments in India include education technology companies like Byju’s, along with the country’s biggest retailer Reliance Retail.

See also: HealthTech Specialist Doctolib Raises $550M, Value Rises to $6.4B

One of the company’s recent investments is Doctolib from Paris, an online booking management software provider for European physicians, PYMNTS wrote.

Doctolib’s platform gives management software for practitioners to manage patients and appointments, along with a service to facilitate patient care. The idea is to allow healthcare professionals to streamline their services.

The funding would be used to reportedly make 3,500 jobs by 2027, which would bring its workforce to 6,000 employees.

Doctolib has also said it wants to expand its practice beyond appointment booking, introducing an instant messaging service for the healthcare community, along with a platform to consolidate medical documents and add to data security.