Private Equity

PE-VC Fund Investments

PE-VC investments fall 22% to $9.1 B in Q1’26

Press Release   Venture Intelligence Subscribers  

Private Equity - Venture Capital (PE-VC) firms invested over $9.1 billion (across 316 deals) in Indian companies during the first three months of 2026, shows data from Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on private company financials, transactions, and their valuations. (Note: These figures include Venture Capital type investments, but exclude PE investments in Real Estate).The investment amount represents a 22% decline over the $11.7 billion (across 337 deals) invested in the same period during 2025 and a decline of 16% when compared to the immediate previous quarter (which witnessed $10.9 billion being invested across 329 deals). Deal volumes in Q1’26 fell by 6% compared to Q1’25 and by 4% compared to the immediate previous quarter.Q1’26 witnessed 17 mega deals ($100 M+ rounds) worth $5.8 billion, compared to 29 such investments (worth $8.6 billion) in Q1’25 and 19 such deals (worth $7.2 billion) in the immediate previous quarter.The largest investment in Q1’26 was the $1.8 billion acquisition of sports team Royal Challengers Bengaluru, by US-headquartered PE firm Blackstone as part of a consortium comprising Aditya Birla Group, the Times of India Group and Bolt Ventures. Blackstone was also part of the next largest deal of the quarter: the $600 million acquisition of a controlling stake in data centre platform Neysa (along with TVS Capital, 360 ONE, Nexus Ventures and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan). This was followed by another data centre investment: the $475 million investment in Bharti Airtel subsidiary Nxtra Data (by Carlyle, Alpha Wave Global and Anchorage Capital Partners). The top five for the period were completed by two housing finance firm investments: Advent International’s $304 million investment in Aditya Birla Housing Finance and Carlyle’s $230 million investment in Nido Home Finance (formerly Edelweiss Housing Finance).Venture Intelligence Subscribers will receive detailed reports analysing the quarterly data over the next few days.