Private Equity

PE Fund Investments

PE-VC investments fall 29% in 2022 to $46 Billion

 

Private Equity - Venture Capital (PE-VC) firms investments in India fell by 29% in 2022 compared to the record highs of 2021. PE-VC firms invested USD 46 Billion (across 1,261 deals) in Indian companies in 2022, compared to USD 65 Billion (across 1,362 deals) in the previous year, according to data from the Venture Intelligence PE-VC Deal Database. (Note: These figures include Venture Capital type investments, but exclude PE investments in Real Estate). 2022 witnessed 111 mega deals ($100M+ rounds) worth $31 Billion, compared to 152 such investments worth $50.3 Billion in 2021. Qatar Investment Authority's $1.5 Billion investment in the new media and consumer technology-focused platform Bodhi Tree (co-created by media veteran Uday Shankar and James Murdoch's Lupa Systems) was the largest in 2022. This was followed by the $1.1 Billion investment into publicly listed Yes Bank by global PE investors Carlyle Group and Advent International. While IT & ITeS companies topped the value of PE-VC investments in 2022 at USD 20.4 Billion, tech investments declined 51% YOY. Investments in the BFSI industry (at USD 5.2 Billion during 2022) and Healthcare & Life Sciences (at USD 4.1 Billion in 2022) actually grew YoY - by 20% and 14% respectively. VC* investments in 2022 - at USD 24 Billion across 1,130 deals - fell by over 32% compared to 2021 (USD 35.4 Billion across 1,215 deals). (For the purpose of this analysis, VC is defined as Seed to Series F investments in companies less than ten years old and late-stage tech investments). FinTech and E-Commerce sectors attracted more than USD 5 Billion in VC funding each, while Enterprise Software startups attracted USD 4.8 Billion. India minted a total of 21 "Unicorn" companies in 2022 - 18 of them during the first six months of 2022 and less than half the 44 Unicorns minted in 2021. In fact, the final quarter of 2022 did not see any new unicorns being created. SaaS companies accounted for 29% of all the new unicorns in 2022