CHENNAI: With 579 deals, India’s private equity-venture capital (PE-VC) investments reached nearly $20 billion between Jan and Aug this year (CY2024). However, it is less by $4 billion when compared with the corresponding eight-month period of CY2023 at $24 billion.
Data released by research firm Venture Intelligence on Friday said PE-VC investments in August this year stood at $2.2 billion, an increase from $1.9 billion during the previous month of July.
Quick commerce startup Zepto raising $340 million in funding led by US-based venture capital firm General Catalyst was the top deal in August.
It was followed by Japanese banking giant Mitsubishi UFG Financial Group (MUFG) investing $334 million in digital lending company DMI Finance.
Renewable energy player Fourth Partner Energy raising $275 million from a consortium comprising International Finance Corporation (IFC), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and DEG (Deutsche Investitions und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH) is the third largest PE-VC deal in August.
Arun Natarajan, founder, Venture Intelligence, said the PE-VC investment figures in recent months indicated that the recovery was going to be gradual.
“Apart from the ecommerce segment led by Zepto, the August investment figures were fuelled by continued interest in clean energy, EV and NBFC sectors. In the ecommerce segment, with Zepto taking the lead on raising mega rounds (reminiscent of Flipkart and Snapdeal in 2014-15), it remains to be seen if the excitement spills over into better valuations for other Unicorn startups as well,” he told TOI.
