General Atlantic, the US PE giant that has invested up to almost $3 billion in India till date, has so far refrained from investing too heavily into the consumer technology space in the country, due to the amount of capital burn that went with investing in the sector.

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But post the COVID-19 pandemic, that has changed. The PE giant is now set to invest in consumer technology space in a big way.

Speaking exclusively to CNBC TV18, Sandeep Naik, the India Managing Director said the company is looking to invest between $1 billion to $1.5 billion in the consumer tech space.

"I had been a conservative when it came to consumer technology investments and I have stayed away from it barring educational technology which I believe is one segment where people who actually pay to get the best content and best service. However, post the crisis, I have become a big bull in consumer technology companies. Consumer technology companies were burning huge amounts of capital to acquire customers, to get them to understand what their apps do, and then get their behavior changed. This phase has completely shrunk," he explained.

READ MORE: Byju Raveendran and Sandeep Naik reveal how COVID-19 has put India's EdTech in spotlight

When asked on the war chest that he would be open to carving out for the sector, Sandeep said that they have set aside a sizable amount.

"Globally, we have about $10 billion of dry powder right now. We think that the next 2 years will be the best vintage to make these investments as this is the time that you can go in and invest behind entrepreneurs and help them scale their companies. So in terms of deployment in India, I am very bullish that we will be deploying at least $1-1.5 billion in the next year or two. This will be our largest deployment here over the next two years specifically backing innovative digital disruptors that will build the Bharat of tomorrow," he said.

Consumer technology, for GA, spans across telecom platforms, grocery delivery, food delivery, digital fitness, telehealth as well as education technology.

General Atlantic has been investing in India since 2002 and has invested in more than 25 companies. Most have been strategic investments to hold them grow and scale in the country. Naik is a firm believer that this is not the time for investors to hit the pause button or panic. He believes that the period brings in an opportunity for investors to add value to the companies they invest in.

"This is the time you step up because I have always believed that you don't react to a crisis because that leads to panic, you respond to a crisis because that is when you make thoughtful deliberate decisions;" he says.

"This is the time when true value-added long-term investors like us need to step up and back the best entrepreneurs in the segments to help them with their passion of scaling very large tens of billions of dollars of consumer technology companies. I have no doubt in my mind and this is based on almost two decades of investing that the time has come. This is consumer technology 2.0 and we are going to see global companies coming out of India which will be addressing specific needs of emerging markets," he added.

Key current portfolio companies include IndusInd Bank, IBS Software Services, IIFL Wealth & Asset Management, Rubicon Research, PNB Housing,

Kims Hospitals, Capital Foods, Fintech, BYJU, Nobroker, Euangguru, and

Unacademy.

First Published:May 11, 2020 12:43 PM IST