<div><em><strong>Silicon Valley venture capitalist to focus on financial services, energy and farm sectors, reports K Chandra Mohan</strong></em></div><div> </div><div>Silicon Valley venture capitalist and former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya is all set to invest $1 billion in Indian start-ups over the next 10 years.<br> </div><div>Recently, he invested $20 million into Indian mobile payments start-up Ezetap through his venture capital fund, The Social+Capital Partnership, the four-year-old VC firm that has backed companies like Box, Palantir and Slack. Later, Palihapitiya became chairman of the Ezetap board, the first for him in a portfolio company outside the US.</div><div><br>"We don't do board meetings Ezetap, because it can be done through mails. As a chairman, I prefer to review products, and build the right product and strategise the product road map, most importantly give them the benefit of my learning at Facebook," he said. </div><div><br>Palihapitiya is looking to invest in businesses with products and solutions that target a billion plus people in the field of financial services, energy, power and agriculture. To understand the degree of the Indian market which is totally new to him, has partnered with Bengaluru based, seed-stage VC fund Prime Venture Partners (previously known as Angel Prime). Outside of Silicon Valley startups, Palihapitiya is more interested in investing in India. In India, the Social+Capital is introduced through Prime Venture Capital to Ezetap. </div><div> </div><div>The California based, The Social+Capital partnership has raised $ 1.2 billion in three rounds to date, and has already invested in 50 companies. Palihapitiya was instrumental in bringing Facebook's user base from 18 million to 1 billion. The Social+Capital VC hatch and spends in disruptive start-ups in the areas of healthcare, education, finance, mobile and enterprise software. </div>
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