Peak XV, the biggest enterprise capital firm operating in India and Southeast Asia, is reducing the size of a few of its funds and lowering fees as it looks to “engage more deeply” with its limited partners.

The company, which secured $2.85 billion in capital commitments totaling $2.85 billion in mid-2022, informed its supporters Tuesday evening that it was releasing them from $465 million in capital commitments from legacy funds, in response to an investor letter obtained by TechCrunch for 2022.

The enterprise capital group, which stays the biggest within the region, is just not only cutting growth and multi-stage funds – it closed five of them in 2022 – but can be reducing the fees it charges sponsors, lowering management fees to 2% and the share of interest it charges from profits, as much as 20%, in comparison with 2.5% and 30% respectively.

There is a caveat regarding performance. Peak XV will maintain its interest adjustment provisions of as much as 30% upon reaching thrice its paid-in capital to paid-in capital ratio, the letter said. The economics of seed and enterprise capital funds remain unchanged.

Peak XV didn’t comment.

The move comes greater than a yr after Peak XV separated from Sequoia. The well-known enterprise capital firm said it was disconnecting from its units in China, India and Southeast Asia to avoid market conflicts and misunderstandings amid geopolitical tensions between Washington and Beijing.

Peak XV’s decision reflects a broader trend within the enterprise capital industry, wherein many firms have either reduced the size of recent funds or have struggled to lift their goal amounts lately following a correction following a 13-year bull run within the technology sector.

Rationale for Peak XV is driven by growing concerns in regards to the uncertain performance of the general public market in India and the perceived paucity of venture-scale opportunities within the near future. The letter said he stays optimistic in regards to the region, saying the changes being made higher align the corporate with its supporters.

Macquarie analysts recently noted that India’s price-to-earnings ratio is around 21 times in comparison with 10 times for emerging markets overall, 14.5 times for global markets, 17 times for the US and 8 times for the case of China. This yr, India saw more technology initial public offerings than the US

Peak XV’s fund size exceeds that of its competitors in India. Lightspeed’s latest India-focused fund is valued at $500 million, while Accel closed its latest India fund at $650 million. Matrix, Elevation and Nexus raised $550 million, $670 million and $700 million, respectively, of their latest funding.

Peak XV began its journey in India over a decade ago. The letter revealed that the corporate has made $10 billion in realized and unrealized profits so far. As TechCrunch reported last week, the corporate has made about $1.2 billion in exits since separating from Sequoia last yr.

Peak XV’s dominant position within the region was met with praise and criticism. The company’s Surge program, which offers early-stage startups favorable conditions and extensive resources, has develop into a desirable place to begin for young startups in India and Southeast Asia, somewhat overshadowing the attractiveness of Y Combinator’s offer.

Earlier this yr, the corporate also revealed plans for an endowment fund backed by its own partners.

Since its inception, Peak XV has amassed $9 billion in assets under management, with a further $2 billion remaining to be deployed. Its portfolio includes over 400 firms, including over 50 unicorns and roughly 40 firms with annual revenues exceeding $100 million.

As of 2020, 15 of its portfolio firms are listed on public markets, ahead of other India-focused enterprise capital funds.

After a three-minute promotional video, complete with HD footage of drone collisions and military vehicle explosions, Anduril founder Palmer Luckey took the stage at Pepperdine University in Malibu, California, on Tuesday afternoon. In an hour-long conversation with Pepperdine University President Jim Gash, the billionaire raged against America’s opponents, supported fully autonomous weapons and suggested an Anduril IPO.

In 2017, Luckey co-founded defense technology company Anduril with Trae Stephens, Matt Grimm, Joe Chen and Brian Schimpf, most recently valued at $14 billion. He made it clear that he had no hesitation when it got here to Anduril constructing weapons.

“Societies have always needed a warrior class, full of enthusiasm and excitement about using violence against others in pursuit of good goals,” he told Gash. “You need people like me who are sick with this and don’t lose sleep creating tools of violence to maintain freedom.”

Luckey, dressed in his usual uniform of a Hawaiian shirt and mullet, walked Gasha through the primary hours of the war in Ukraine and explained why he thought Anduril could have made a big impact. Luckey said he first met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2019, after Zelensky examine Anduril in a Wired article. He asked Luckey whether Ukraine could acquire some of Anduril’s border control technology. “Unfortunately, the State Department was not very interested in Ukraine at that time,” Luckey said.

“Look if we were able to provide Ukraine with real-time intelligence containing traces of all major Russian weapons systems days before their air forces were eliminated and their long-range precision fires were exhausted,” he said. “I think it could have made a really big difference.”

According to Luckey, Anduril actually delivered weapons to Ukraine throughout the second week of the war.

He then aligned himself with many of Silicon Valley’s founders and called for unlimited AI development (Anduril products are powered by the Lattice AI platform). He insisted that “many of our adversaries are currently waging a ‘dark campaign’ inside the United Nations to deceive Western countries into stopping their aggressive pursuit of artificial intelligence.

“(Our opponents) use phrases that, in short, sound really good: ‘Well, wouldn’t you agree that a robot should never be able to decide who lives and who dies?'” Luckey said. “I want to tell them where is the moral high ground in a land mine that doesn’t know the difference between a school bus full of children and a Russian tank?”

The development of fully autonomous weapons – weapons that don’t require human involvement in the choice about who lives and who dies – is very controversial. The U.S. government is not buying them, and even Anduril co-founder Stephens has said he would not want to construct them. “Human judgment is extremely important.” said Kara Swisher last yr. “We don’t want to remove it.”

Luckey ended his speech by making it clear that Anduril wanted to finally reveal his information to the general public. “The reality is that for political, practical and financial reasons, a private company will never win something like a trillion-dollar joint fighter (jet) effort,” he said. “It just won’t happen. Congress will not allow this.”

People have created the chance of being conquered. “I’m just pointing out what it looked like on my end last time,” Luckey said, referring to how he was forced out of Facebook in 2016 after selling his previous startup, virtual reality company Oculus.

As he got up to leave, Gash tried to give him a leather-bound collection of “The Lord of the Rings”, which gave Luckey the name “Anduril”. But Luckey politely declined. “I can’t fit it on my bike,” he said.

In response to customer and dealer feedback, Ford is lowering each the monthly and annual cost of its hands-free driver assistance feature, BlueCruise, for brand new and existing owners, TechCrunch reports.

Car manufacturer announced on Tuesday that it would now charge $49.99 a month or $495 a 12 months for BlueCruise, which allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel on pre-designated highways across the United States. This is down from the previous price of $75 per 30 days or $800 per 12 months.

Ford is also now offering a “one-time purchase” option for BlueCruise. Buyers should buy the BlueCruise for $2,495 when ordering the vehicle recent, and Ford guarantees it would last for no less than seven years. The company says owners won’t must pay one other cent after seven years “if the service is available.” Owners cannot transfer their BlueCruise subscription to a different vehicle.

The price drop comes as BlueCruise is currently under federal investigation following two fatal crashes that occurred earlier this 12 months while the feature was lively. The driver involved in a single of these accidents was recently charged with manslaughter under the influence of alcohol.

Announced in 2021, BlueCruise uses a camera-based driver monitoring system to examine whether drivers are watching the road when the system is lively. The company wouldn’t disclose what percentage of owners activated this feature. Ford’s price change to BlueCruise also comes a day after the company switched announced offers a free home charger and installation coverage to extend the adoption of electric vehicles.