Venture Capital firms made 242 investments worth $910 Million in the first nine months of 2017 - 30% lower compared to 346 deals worth $1.1 Billion recorded in the same period in 2016, data from Venture Intelligence shows. The investments in Jan-Sep 2017 are 42% lower than the all time highs (of 414 deals) seen in the comparable period in 2015. Note: Venture Capital is defined by Venture Intelligence as Seed to Series D round investments in companies less than 10 years old with value of up to $20 Million.
July - September Quarter
VC firms invested about $271 Million across 63 deals during the quarter ended September 2017 – the lowest among the preceding 9 quarters. The investments were 37% lower compared to the same period in 2016 which registered 100 deals worth $429 deals. The latest quarter witnessed a significant low down in early stage tech investments as well as in non-tech sectors. Among the sectors that saw a significant fall in early stage investments included logistics tech and travel tech.
Three companies raised $20 million rounds in Q3 2017 - Enterprise software co Sapience Analytics - from Credit Suisse (through a combination of primary and secondary acquisition); automobiles marketplace Droom (from Integrated Asset Management and existing investors) and US-based cloud storage company Minio (from Nexus Venture Partners and others). Other significant sized rounds included defense technology startup Tonbo Imaging’s $19 million Series B round and the $15 million Series C round attracted by online pharmacy 1MG.
Investments by City
Fall in investments in companies from Mumbai also contributed to the dip. Investors also did not venture out of the key metros in Q3'17.
(Investments by Super Angels and Angel Networks)
Angel investments (by angel networks and super angels) declined sharply in Q3’17 to just 29 deals, down 57% compared to the 68 investments in Q3’16.
VC Exits
Venture Capital investors made 12 exits worth $1 Billion in Q3’17 dominated by the reported $800 million part exit of Tiger Global from Flipkart (via a secondary sale to SoftBank). This marks the third consecutive quarter of VC exits crossing over $500 million, driven by large exits from consumer Internet & Mobile companies. The second largest exit during the period was Bay Capital’s exit from FMCG firm Vini Cometics - via a secondary sale as part of the company’s INR 1,100 Cr (about $170 M) round from WestBridge Capital and Sequoia Capital India. Bay made a 17x return on its 2012 investment.
Bessemer, Mayfield and JP Morgan part exited with $51 million at return rates of 3-8x in the IPO of Matrimony.com