CHENNAI: A Decline in Startup Investments

2024 concluded with private equity-venture capital (PE-VC) investments in India plummeting to $31.1 billion, the lowest recorded since 2019. This figure represents a 5.5% decrease from the previous year, which saw investments of $32.9 billion, marking it as the second lowest in the past six years. Despite the downturn, the number of deals surpassed 1,000, up from 993 in 2023. Notably, these PE investments do not include those from the real estate sector.

Investment Trends and Major Deals

December alone recorded an investment of $2.2 billion, as per data from research firm Venture Intelligence. A significant portion of the PE-VC investments, nearly $9 billion across 165 deals, was directed towards late-stage companies that are more than 10 years old, specifically series-G or later rounds of institutional investments. Following closely were investments in growth-PE stage companies, totaling $6.3 billion across 136 deals. Growth-PE encompasses seed to series-D investments, targeting companies less than a decade old with investments exceeding $20 million. The largest PE-VC investment of 2024 was Brookfield's over $2-billion deal with ATC India in January.

"2024 saw 74 mega deals (each valued above $100 million) amounting to $20.7 billion, a slight decrease from 75 such investments worth $23.2 billion in 2023. A notable aspect of the year was the public markets' warm reception to IPOs of PE-VC backed companies like Swiggy and Ola Electric," stated Arun Natarajan, founder of Venture Intelligence, in an interview with TOI.