Private Equity Venture Capital (PE-VC) firms investment dropped by 8 per cent in the first quarter of 2024. Q1 investment was $6.2 billion across 205 deals in Indian companies as compared to $6.7 billion (across 242 deals) in the same period during 2023, as per data from Venture Intelligence.
Further Q1 investment was also down by 6 per cent from $6.6 billion that was invested across 200 deals. Deal volumes in Q1'24 also declined 15 per cent compared to Q1'23 and were down by 2 per cent compared to the immediate previous quarter, according to a report by Venture Intelligence.
Similarly, Q1 2024 witnessed eight mega deals with over $100 million rounds. This was in comparison “to 17 such investments (worth $3.6 billion) in Q1’23.” The largest investment during Q1 2024 was the $2 billion acquisition of American Tower Corporation (ATC), the Indian business of telecom infrastructure provider Brookfield.
Other top private equity investments were from GIC in Sterlite Power Transmission for $500 million. Multiples PE and Advent International invested $233 million in Svatantra Microfin.
In a company blog post, Arun Natarajan, Founder, Venture Intelligence, said, “Despite the fall in the number of mega deals, new bets by both global investors and homegrown PE firms during Q1'24 point to a more 'normal' funding environment. The diversified nature of the sectors that received funding was also an encouraging feature.”
Telecom is the biggest gainer
If one must go industry-wise, the telecom sector was the biggest gainer with the $2 billion acquisition of ATC-Brookfield. It was followed by the IT and ITeS industries.
The industry attracted $1.6 billion across 114 deals in Q1’24. However, it was a “40 per cent decline from $2.7 billion across 145 deals in Q1’23.”
The $200 million majority stake acquisition by NIIF in iBus was one of the biggest deals. It was followed by “investment in Indo-US cross-border enterprise AI software firm Kore.ai and a $103 million fundraise by audio-content platform Pocket FM.”
Further, as per Tracxn's Geo Quarterly India Tech Report, Q1 2024, there has been a 51 per cent decline in tech start-ups. From $3.2 billion in funding in the same period last year, there was a drop to $1.6 billion.
