Investment bank TH Capital has assigned five analysts to the task of studying market trends in India, to do business in the country. The analysts are based at TH Capitals’s offices in China. It is also looking to hire in India to expedite deal-making.
TH Capital is a major tech-focused investment bank in China. It has worked with 30 prominent startups in the country. It functions as a sell-side advisory firm. Thus, it works with a single client and advises them on issuing shares, bonds, etc. To date, TH Capital has raised $17 billion for its customers.
Explaining the company’s plans in India, Wallace Guo, co-founder of TH Capital, said,
It’s a new market for us, and we have been here only for the last three quarters or so. There are multiple companies that we are working with in India, helping them get term sheets. We are targeting capital raises of about $50-100 million at this point.
This year, TH Capital advised ShareChat, a regional language network in Bengaluru, to raise $100 million from investors led by Twitter and PE firm TrustBridge Partners.
Chinese investment in Indian startups rose to $3.3 billion in 2019 from $2.02 billion in the previous year. Investment in all sectors except real estate touched an all-time high of $37 billion in 2019.
TH Capital will have to contend with a crowded market in India, which includes global banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and Citibank as well as Indian firms such as Avendus Capital and many others. TH Capital will leverage its existing partnerships with PE firms Warburg Pincus and Carlyle Group to reach out to Indian investors. Guo believes that Indian investors have not invested enthusiastically in technology-driven startups and still rely on putting their money on safe brick-and-mortar firms. He believes that TH Capital can use its expertise to help Indian investors invest safely in technology-driven startups.