Surge in early stage deals has pushed the venture capital (VC) investments to an all time high in India, crossing the $1-billion mark for the first time in first nine months of 2015.
VC investments during the period stood at 323 deals worth $1,438 million, which crossed the previous historical high of 2014, which stood at 304 investments worth $1,170 million, according to the data from Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on private company financials, transactions and their valuations.
The main action was concentrated in the early stage investment segment- which includes seed, first and second round investments in companies not more than five years old. This segment, for the first time ever, has attracted over $1 billion investments in 2015 with $1,018 million across 266 investments in the first nine months as compared to the previous high of $553 million across 167 transactions in 2011.
VC firms invested $536 million over 111 deals in India during the three months ending September 2015 – again record figures for a single quarter, the Venture Intelligence analysis showed.
The investment activity during Q32015 was 41% higher compared to the same period in 2014, which had witnessed 79 investments worth $264 million. The activity level was 9% higher to the immediate previous quarter which witnessed 102 deals worth $473 million.
The overwhelming attraction of information technology and IT-enabled services (IT&ITeS) companies – especially internet & mobile firms – to venture capitalists continued in Q32015 with the industry accounting for 79 investment worth $376 million -71% of the VC investments in volume terms and 70% in value terms.