New Delhi: For the next few years, Growth-equity investor General Atlantic which is an American growth equity firm is expecting to deploy up to $ 1 billion in India, putting money into businesses constructed on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s push for expanding financial inclusion and increase technology usage.

Shantanu Rastogi, managing director and the company’s India head said, “We are tracking big policy changes announced by the government that will accelerate the creation of digital infrastructure for services and products,” adding further, “Affordable supply, affordable infrastructure for financial inclusion, affordable data are big themes for us,” he said.

Earlier too, the growth equity firm has invested $ 4.6 billion in India for more than two decades.

Rastogi also mentioned that a decade ago, General Atlantic transformed from supporting export-oriented companies to focusing on investments that emphasise on India’s rising domestic consumption, majorly in consumer-centric enterprise software, health care and firms providing financial services.

Noting that Walmart-owned fintech company PhonePe is one of the entities backed by General Atlantic in India.

General Atlantic investments

Lately, PhonePe raised an additional proportion of $ 100 million from General Atlantic along with its co-investors. Even, in January 2023, General Atlantic ingrained $ 350 million into a Bengaluru-based firm.

General Atlantic also contributed to healthcare, it backed up ASG Eye Hospitals and KIMS Hospitals in the country.

Varun Tendulkar, principal at General Atlantic who focuses on principal investing and distressed private equity, stated that the government has initiated incentives for production-linked sectors like medical devices and pharmaceutical companies in India.

The move was taken to pull down the cost of treatments and make the country more self-supporting, which resulted in lower-cost medical equipment and consumables that are being manufactured in India, he said, according to a report.

Rastogi adding further said that India is really becoming a fascinating manufacturing hub for a lot of these medical devices and consumables. Also, in 10 years one could see the emergence of four or five large companies.