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Read more Samsung and three major contract manufacturing partners of Apple are among 16 firms to win $6.65 billion incentives under India’s federal plan to boost domestic smartphone production over the next five years. These companies had applied for the incentive program in August.
In a statement Tuesday evening, Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said these companies will be producing smartphones and other electronics components worth more than $143 billion over the next five years. In return, India will offer them an incentive of 4% to 6% on additional sales of goods produced locally over five years, with 2019-2020 set as the base year.
New Delhi’s move is aimed at significantly improving India’s manufacturing and exporting capacities and generating more local jobs. Around 60% of the locally produced products will be exported, the Indian ministry said. The companies will generate more than 200,000 direct employment opportunities in next five years and as many as 600,000 indirect employment opportunities during the same period, the ministry said.
The move is also a precursor to how the dynamics among major smartphone makers will change in India, the world’s second largest market, over the next five years. The inclusion of Foxconn, Wistron and Pegatron underscores how rapidly Apple plans to expand its local manufacturing capabilities in India. Wistron began assembling a handful of iPhone models in India three years ago, followed by Foxconn. Pegatron has yet to start producing in India.
“Apple and Samsung together account for nearly 60% of global sales revenue of mobile phones and this scheme is expected to increase their manufacturing base manifold in the country,” the ministry said.
“Industry has reposed its faith in India’s stellar progress as a world class manufacturing destination and this resonates strongly with Prime Minister’s clarion call of AtmaNirbhar Bharat – a self-reliant India,” the ministry added.
Indian firms Lava, Bhagwati (Micromax), Padget Electronics, UTL Neolyncs and Optiemus Electronics are also among the firms that have received the approval. But missing from the list are Chinese smartphone makers Oppo, Vivo, OnePlus and Realme that had not applied for the program. Chinese smartphone vendors currently command about 80% of the Indian market.
Greycroft, the New York and L.A.-based venture firm founded in 2006 by investors Alan Patricof, Dana Settle, and Ian Sigalow, has closed on two new funds totaling $678 million in capital commitments. One of those funds is its sixth flagship early-stage fund and it closed with $310 million dollars. The firm also collected $368 million in commitments for a third growth-stage fund that it will use to support breakout startups from its early-stage portfolio.
The venture fund invests between $500,000 and $10 million in a first check, and Greycroft will invest up to $15 million in a portfolio company over multiple rounds. Checks from its growth fund begin at $10 million and the firm says it will invest up to $50 million in any one company.
Greycroft now counts seven partners altogether across its two offices, including Settle and Sigalow.
Patricof, who early in his career founded the predecessor to Apax Partners, has since launched another new firm called Primetime Partners that announced a $32 million fund in summer that is investing in platforms and products for aging Americans.
The firm invests in both consumer and enterprise startups, with a heavier emphasis on consumer. Among the brands in its portfolio are Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, the consignment business The RealReal (which went public last year), and the dating site Bumble, which is reportedly gearing up for an IPO at an expected valuation of between $6 billion to $8 billion, as reported by Bloomberg.
The firm also recently co-led a $5.5 million Series A round for Sisu Cosmetics, a nearly two-year-old, Ireland-based chain of cosmetic clinics that’s expanding into the U.S.
Across its now ten investment vehicles, the firm has raised $2 billion altogether and has over 200 active investments.
Those investments are located in 23 states and 15 countries, including the Nigeria-based payment service Flutterwave, which closed on $35 million in Series B funding earlier this year, and Yeahka, a mobile payment and SMB lending provider in China that went public in June.
Greycroft’s most recent early-stage fund had closed with $250 million in 2018; its second growth-stage fund closed with $250 million in 2017.