Press Release
Private Equity - Venture Capital (PE-VC) firms invested a record $49 Billion (across 840 deals) in Indian companies during the first 9 months of 2021, shows data from Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on private company financials, transactions and their valuations. These figures, which have already surpassed the full year investment total of $39.5 Billion (across 892 deals) in the entire of 2020, represent a 52% increase over the $32.2 Billion (across 651 deals) in the first nine months of 2020. (Note: These figures include Venture Capital type investments, but exclude PE investments in Real Estate).
The $20 Billion investments in Unicorns (VC-funded startups valued at $1 Billion or more) account for close to 41% of the value pie in 2021 thus far. The July-September 2021 quarter (Q3'21) saw over $10 Billion (across 28 deals) being invested in such companies. India has minted a total of 29 Unicorns in the first 9 months of 2021 - 13 of which were anointed during Q3'21.
PE-VC investments in Q3'21 - at $20.1 Billion across 368 deals - rose by 35% compared to the immediate previous quarter (which saw $14.9 Billion across 231 deals) and 69% compared to the same period last year ($11.9 Billion across 211 deals). Q3'21 witnessed 40 mega deals ($100M+ rounds) worth $15.9 Billion, compared to 15 such investments worth $9.9 Billion (topped by Reliance Retail Ventures) in Q3'20.
The latest quarter saw three Billion Dollar deals led by E-commerce giant Flipkart's $3.6 Billion Pre-IPO round (which marked the return of Japan's SoftBank Corp to its cap table since its exit to Walmart in 2018). This mega deal, which accounted for around 18% of the total investment in Q3'21, was followed by BPO firm Hinduja Global Solutions' sale of its healthcare services business to Baring Private Equity Asia for $1.2 Billion. Also, Blackstone acquired a controlling stake in the wealth management focused ASK Group for $1 Billion. New Edtech unicorn Eruditus' $650 million round and merchant commerce platform Pine Labs' $600 million fundraise were the fourth and fifth largest investment respectively during Q3'21.
"While it is heartening to see the record pace of PE-VC investments in India sustaining, the highlight of the latest quarter was the successful IPOs of the Indian consumer market focused Zomato and the global enterprise SaaS focused Freshworks," noted Arun Natarajan, Founder of Venture Intelligence. "Such exemplary liquidity events will expand the share of the asset allocation pie that PE-VC investing in India commands from both domestic and foreign investors," he added.
By Industry
Led by the Flipkart and Hinduja Global mega deals, IT & ITeS companies accounted for $28.1 Billion of the total investment pie during the first 9 months of 2021. The tech industry witnessed 58 Mega deals ($100M+ deals) during the period totaling $21.8 Billion, of which 22 deals (aggregating to $10.4 Billion) were announced during Q3'21.
The BFSI (Banking, Financial Services & Insurance) industry attracted $8.6 Billion over the first 9 months of 2021 - a 3.6x jump from the $2.4 Billion raised during the same period last year. Investments in the industry was led by two mega buyouts: the $5.2 Billion Piramal Enterprises-DHFL deal in Q1 and the $1 Billion Blackstone-ASK Group deal in Q3. The industry absorbed $1.9 Billion in PE investments during Q3'21. Apart from the Blackstone-ASK Group deal, tech-led general insurer firm Digit raised $216 million (from IIFL VC, Faering Capital, TVS Capital, Sequoia Capital India, and others), followed by SME-focused NBFC Ofbusiness' $160 million round (led by Falcon Edge Capital, SoftBank Corp, and Matrix Partners India).
The Healthcare & Life Sciences industry attracted about $2.6 Billion during the first 9 months of 2021 - a 26% increase compared to the same period last year. The Education industry came in fourth attracting $2.5 Billion, dominated by Byjus (which has raised about $1.5 Billion during the year) followed by Eruditus' $650 million raise and Blackstone's acquisition of a controlling stake in Simplilearn for $250 million.
Venture Intelligence is India's longest serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital and M&A) & their Valuations in India.
(Venture Intelligence Subscribers will be mailed detailed reports of the PE-VC action during Q3'21 in the next few days.)