Fintech-focused venture capital firm QED Investors is set to invest $250 to $300 million in Series B and C startups across Asia over the next five years, with a significant portion earmarked for India.
Having already invested around $200 million in India since 2020, the firm is expanding its footprint in Asia, with operations now in Indonesia, Japan, and Singapore, and plans to enter South Korea and Australia.
“It has been an expansion strategy going country by country,” said Sandeep Patil, Partner at QED and Head of Asia. “Expanding to the developed Asia-Pacific market…Japan and Australia in particular, is the next phase of expansion. With that, the footprint in Asia Pacific becomes wider.”
In India, the firm has invested in companies such as Refyne, FPL Technologies (OneCard), Upswing, Jupiter, and Efficient Capital Labs, among others.
QED Investors has deployed around $20 million in markets outside India. Its international portfolio includes two Indonesian startups—Pashouses and Skor Technologies—and one company based in Singapore. Recently, it participated in the Series A funding round of Habitto, a Japan-based digital bank aimed at younger consumers. The firm is also exploring potential investment opportunities in Australia.
“We believe we will find the right set of opportunities which will allow us to invest between $250-300 million in the next five years,” said Patil.
In 2023, QED Investors closed its eighth fund, securing $650 million for early-stage investments along with an additional $275 million dedicated to early-to-growth stage ventures. While the firm previously concentrated on early-stage funding, mainly at the Series A level, it is now evolving into a multi-stage investor, with plans to support companies in the Series B and C rounds as well.
“As a VC, either you take a bet on a team or choose to take the more patient approach and just wait to see which of these companies looks like. We find picking those companies at the Series B stage is far easier, far simpler, because the metrics will then tell you which is the best company,” he said.
“Under the current market circumstances, Series B and Series C also have very attractive risk return profiles for us,” he added.
However, the bulk of the capital will be allocated to India, where QED aims to invest in companies catering to the country’s top 250–300 million consumers.
“India continues to be a very important geography for us. It’s a large part of the investments that we have made so far, and we don’t expect that to change,” said Patil.
This strategic move underscores QED’s commitment to tapping into Asia’s fast-growing fintech ecosystem, with India expected to be a major beneficiary of the upcoming investments.
