US-based venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners, which has been investing in India since 2006, has raised a new dedicated India fund with a corpus of $220 million, the first such country-specific fund ever raised by the firm, according to media reported.

The new fund comes at a time when the Indian startup ecosystem has seen a fundamental shift following the pandemic and has Indian startups have raised record-breaking sums of capital this year. In 2021 itself, India has created 41 new unicorns (startups worth over $1 billion) so far.

The fund will focus primarily on early-stage investments, consistent with Bessemer’s approach of starting with seed and Series A investments and sticking with companies throughout their growth lifecycle with later-stage investments. Bessemer plans to apply its roadmap-driven investment approach to deploy the new capital over five roadmaps across consumer internet and cloud software, including marketplaces, digital health, social commerce, vertical and global SaaS, they said.

“We’ve always had a global investment approach, and India has long been a focus for us. This new capital allows us to go deeper into the market while supporting our portfolio with Bessemer’s global network and resources. The dedicated fund exemplifies our confidence in the massive growth opportunities within India,” said Vishal Gupta, partner and managing director of the firm’s Bangalore office. “We are excited not only to continue supporting the many companies with whom we already partner, but to expand our investments to even more innovative entrepreneurs who are shaping the future.”