Canaan Partners Raises a $650 Million Venture Fund With an Eye Towards India and Israel

Whatever fear has taken hold of the public markets, it has not yet trickled down to venture capital. Canaan Partners today is announcing its eighth fund—a $650 million early stage venture fund with an international bent. Some of Canaan’s Portfolio companies from past funds include DoubelClick, Match.com, SuccessFactors, Tremor Media, Lending Club, and Blurb. In addition to focusing on getting early stakes in U.S. tech and medical startups, Canaan expects to invest a quarter of the fund in startups from India and Israel.

If India is the next China for Web startups, the fund should do well. General partner Deepak Kamra explains that the low-hanging fruit there remains me-too versions of U.S. Web companies with a cultural twist, rather than companies that come up with startlingly original products:

In India, I’d love to do more new product companies. But we have to be realistic that there are only a handful of great product companies coming out of India. In the meantime, you have this huge domestic market just coming onto the Internet. You don’t need to be the latest thing. The adaptation of Web 1.0 companies is what is happening now.

Hopefully, though, in the coming years we will be seeing a lot more Zohos invade the U.S.