Private Equity – Venture Capital (PE-VC) investments during the first quarter of 2024 declined by 8 per cent from the year-ago period, as per data from Venture Intelligence. Q1 investments stood at more than $6.2 billion across 205 deals in Indian companies vis-a-vis $6.7 billion across 242 deals during Q1 of 2023.
Q1 2024 investments were also down by 6 per cent from $6.6 billion invested across 200 deals in the immediate previous quarter. Deal volumes in Q1 2024 also dropped by 15 per cent compared to Q1 2023 and were down by 2 per cent compared to the immediate previous quarter.
The first quarter reported 8 mega deals with over $100 million rounds worth $3.5 billion in comparison to 17 such investments worth $3.6 billion in Q1 2023 and 15 such deals worth $4.1 billion in Q4 2023.
The $2 billion acquisition of the Indian business of telecom Infrastructure provider American Tower Corporation (ATC) by Brookfield was the largest deal of Q1 this year followed by GIC’s $500 million investment in power transmission firm Sterlite Power Transmission and Multiples PE & Advent International’s $233 million investment in Svatantra Microfin.
“Despite the fall in the number of mega deals, new bets by both global investors and homegrown PE firms during Q1’24 points to a more ‘normal’ funding environment. The diversified nature of the sectors that received funding was also an encouraging feature,” said Arun Natarajan, Founder, Venture Intelligence in a company blog post.
Meanwhile, startup funding during the first quarter saw a 51 per cent drop to $1.6 billion across 222 rounds from $3.2 billion invested in startups in Q1 2023 and a 27 per cent decline from $2.2 billion in 291 rounds in Q4 2023, as per Tracxn’s Geo Quarterly India Tech Report – Q1 2024 (till March 15) released last week.
Late-stage funding in Q1 recorded the sharpest fall of over 46 per cent to $0.67 billion from $1.25 billion raised in Q4 2023 and a 48 per cent decline compared to $1.3 billion raised in the same period in Q1 2023.