Even as fundraising environment remains challenging, the private equity (PE) space in India is consolidating at the top. In 2025, so far, just 12 PE funds have raised $5.78 billion whereas in 2021, a similar quantum was mopped up by as many as 24 players. In 2023 too, the spoils of about $6 billion were shared between 23 funds, as per Preqin data.
This concentration of capital shows that LPs (limited partners) are funneling larger cheques to a smaller number of proven fund managers, pushing the country closer to more home-grown, billion-dollar PE funds.
As Nishesh Dalal, partner and PE leader, Deloitte South Asia told FE, India’s private equity ecosystem is maturing, marked by fewer but larger funds, deeper domestic participation, and a clear shift towards control-oriented investing. “LPs are deliberately backing proven managers with scale and operational depth, and this confidence is reflected in the rise of billion-dollar funds like ChrysCapital and Kedaara Capital,” he observed.
Last week, homegrown private equity firm ChrysCapital closed its latest Fund X at a record $2.2 billion, marking a 60% jump over its $1.35-billion Fund IX in 2022. Before that, in 2024, another domestic PE firm, Kedaara Capital, closed its $1.73 billion fund, Kedaara IV, which was India’s largest PE fund till then.
Saurabh Chatterjee, MD, ChrysCapital told FE that when global investors decide where to allocate private equity capital, they look at team stability, track record, and strategy. “ Three of our five partners have been with the firm for 20+ years, and the average tenure across MDs is 15+ years. Investors know they are backing the same group of people doing the same strategy consistently, he added.
The rise in domestic billion-dollar-plus funds, a rare feat before 2020, has also led to more control deals. Larger domestic funds are driving an increasing number of buyout and platform-building deals, often partnering with sovereign and pension funds.
Buyout deals accounted for 51% of PE deal value in 2024, up from 37% in 2022, according to a report by Bain & Company and IVCA from earlier this year. “Supported by regulatory reforms, stronger capital markets, and growing domestic investors such as family offices, banks, and insurers, the industry is moving from growth capital to strategic ownership,” Dalal noted.
Recent big-ticket investments like ChrysCapital in Theobroma Foods and Kedaara in life sciences software company Axtria and Porter illustrate this evolution, he added.
Globally too, the narrative is similar. As fundraising remains tight, LPs are consolidating relationships, preferring large, experienced fund managers over emerging ones. In 2025, 78% of global PE fundraising has been by billion-dollar-plus funds, as per a quarterly report by KPMG published in October.
On the deployment side, India is increasingly seen as a strategic geography. The Bain and IVCA report notes that 87% of the top 30 global GPs now actively invest in India, with large players such as Blackstone aiming to double its India AUM from $50 billion to $100 billion and Temasek planning to deploy an additional $10 billion over the next three years.
The capital concentration is also widening India’s domestic investor base. Large family offices, banks, and prominent financial institutions are joining sovereign and pension funds to co-invest in large deals, marking a departure from India’s earlier dependence on foreign LPs. For instance, ChrysCapital raised from domestic LPs for the first time for its latest $2.2 billion fund.
“We could have raised the entire fund this time around from global investors as well, but we saw large wealth creation in Indian family offices, while banks and insurance companies are becoming more open to investing in PE-VC funds,” Chatterjee said.
