According to a report by Venture Intelligence, Private Equity-Venture Capital (PE-VC) funds invested $6 billion across 139 deals in India-based start-ups during the quarter ended September 2023 (Q3'23).

This represents a 15 per cent decline compared to the same period in 2022, which saw $7 billion being invested across 327 deals. The investment amount also dipped 49 per cent compared to the immediate previous quarter, which saw $11.7 billion being invested across 202 deals.

Q3’23 saw 16 mega deals worth $4.5 billion, compared to 13 such investments in Q3’22 and 22 such deals in the immediate previous quarter.

Qatar Investment Authority’s $1 billion investment in Reliance Retail Ventures accounted to 17 per cent of the overall PE-VC investment pie. Similarly, Baring Asia’s buyout of fertility clinic chain Indira IVF for $700 bilion and The Carlyle Group’s $500 billion investment in engineering services BPO firm Quest Global were the other top PE-VC deals of Q3'23.

These were followed by two investments by global PE investor KKR: a $275 billion investment in logistics tech startup Leap India and a $250 billion investment in Reliance Retail Ventures.

Quick commerce start-up Zepto ended the 11-month unicorn drought in Q3’23. Overall, unicorn start-ups in India attracted close to $400 billion in Q3'23. This is down by 16 per cent compared to the same period last year, which saw $500 billion being invested in unicorn start-ups and down by 44 per cent when compared to the previous quarter (which saw $700 billion being invested in unicorn startups). 

Whereas IT and ITeS companies accounted for $1.8 Billion of the total investment pie in Q3'23, lower by 12 per cent when compared with Q3'22. Tech industry investments were led by the $500 billion investment in Quest Global by Carlyle and the $229 billion raised by B2B SaaS fintech startup Perfios Software. These were followed by quick commerce firm Zepto's $200 billion fundraising.

The healthcare industry also attracted about $1.3 billion in Q3'23 led by the $732 billion acquisition of a majority stake in Indira IVF by Baring Asia, followed by India Resurgence Fund's acquisition of IndSwift Laboratories active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) and contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS) businesses for $200 billion.

"While there is clearly no returning to the lofty heights of 2021 any time soon, recent weeks have seen global investors like KKR and India-focused firms like Westbridge Capital, MEMG Family Office, IIFL AMC and India Resurgence Fund stepping up their investment activity, With continued strength in the public markets (including IPOs) and the large amounts of 'dry powder' available with India-dedicated funds, a few more "confidence building" transactions will help catalyse the 'trickle down' effect into private markets and earlier stage companies," said Arun Natarajan, founder, Venture Intelligence.