Reliance's Jio Platforms Raised $4.6 Bn in May, which's 85% of All PE/VC Investment in India

The month of May recorded investments worth $5.4 billion across 58 deals, with $4.6 billion invested in Jio Platforms, according to a report by IVCA-EY.

IVCA (Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association), which is India's apex association representing the interests of India's private equity & venture capital industry, together with Ernst & Young has released this report, which is a monthly PE roundup.

If not for Jio Platforms, PE/VC investments would have recorded a fourth straight month of decline, recording just US$791 million in investments, a 72% y-o-y decline and 15% lower than April 2020, the report said.

According to the report, the month of May 2020 saw almost double of Private equity and venture capital investments -- on year on year basis.

It is to be noted that in the first 5 months of 2020 there have been only US$1.5 billion worth of fundraises, 91% of which were raised in the first two months i.e. -- January & February (which is pre Lockdown), compared to US$4.6 billion raised in the same period last year.

[caption id="attachment_146269" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Source ~ IVCA.in[/caption]

Investments in May 2020 were 92% higher compared to May 2019 (US$2.8 billion) and 5.8 times the value recorded in April 2020 (US$935 million). However, 85% of the investments in May 2020 were due to the Jio Platforms PE deals aggregating US$4.6 billion, said the IVCA-EY report.

From a sector point of view, telecom sector (US$4.6 billion across four deals) emerged as the top sector due to Jio Platforms, followed by life sciences sector (US$354 million across four deals) which includes Carlyle’s buyout of 74% stake in SeQuent Scientific Limited for US$210 million and financial services (US$309 million across 16 deals).

PE-VC Investment in India Zooms to All-Time High of $8.3 Bn in July: Report

Private equity and venture capital investments in India crossed USD 8 billion in July -- the highest fund infusion in a month by PE/VC funds -- amid strong investment activity in infrastructure and real estate asset classes, a report said on Monday.

According to EY's private equity deal tracker, July 2019 recorded investments worth USD 8.3 billion across 106 deals against USD 1.8 billion in July 2018 through 70 deals.

"The USD 8.3 billion worth of PE/VC investments in India in July 2019 is the highest value of monthly investments by PE/VC funds ever recorded, eclipsing the previous historical monthly high of USD 7.1 billion invested in March 2019," said Vivek Soni, Partner and National Leader Private Equity Services, EY.

According to the report, strong investment activity in infrastructure and real estate asset classes drove the overall deal tally as there were USD 4.7 billion worth of mega deals in the infrastructure sector in July 2019.

"With this, the year to date cumulative PE/VC investments in the Indian infrastructure sector add up to USD 12 billion, which is greater than the total investments received by the sector in previous seven years put together," Soni said.

PE/VC investments in Indian infrastructure so far this year exceed the total PE/VC investment made in the next three largest sectors (financial services, real estate and technology), Soni said.

"On the back of these mega PE/VC investments in Indian infrastructure we are already at 90 per cent of the historical high PE/VC investments recorded in 2018. 2019 is well on its course to be the best year for Indian PE/VC investments," Soni added.

According to the report, Brookfield-Reliance Jio's USD 3.7 billion deal is the largest ever PE/VC deal in India, surpassing the USD 2.5 billion investment made by Softbank in Flipkart in 2017.

Baring PE Asia's USD 800 million buyout of Citius Tech was the other major deal during July.

July 2019 recorded 14 large deals (deals of value greater than USD 100 million) aggregating USD 7 billion compared to three large deals worth USD 402 million in July 2018. PTI DRR

PE, VC Investment in Indian Tech Startups at $20.5 Bn in 2018

Private equity (PE) and venture capital (VC) investments in the country stood at USD 20.5 billion across 786 transactions in 2018 on account of tech-enabled start-ups, e-commerce and information technology-enabled services, according to a report by Grant Thornton.

The funding in 2018 was the same as the investment in year 2017, the assurance, tax and advisory firm said.

"The top trending themes during the year were revival of start-ups, continued uptick in control deals and larger bets, and increased focus of sovereign wealth funds towards Indian assets. Start-ups accounted for 59 per cent of the total PE investments recorded in 2018 by values and 26 per cent by volume," said Vrinda Mathur, partner, Grant Thornton India LLP.

In terms of the size of investments, the sharp increase in the PE and VC funding was due to 47 deals valued at USD 100 million or greater, including six deals worth over USD 500 million. Big-ticket investments were driven by complex deal structures, PE-backed merger and acquisition, later-stage funding and the inflated start-up valuations, it said.

Further, the report said it is not unusual to witness high levels of public spending in election years and it may push investments in rural and infrastructure-related sectors in the near term.

The core sectors may not get impacted as most mid-market investments take a long-term bet on growth potential, the report said.
Consequently, PE deal volumes are expected to pick up in the second half of the year with 2020 expected to be the year of the highest volumes of PE investments.

The report focuses on the PE and VC industry in India and has been produced in association with the Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA), an organisation that works towards promotion of PE and VC firms. 

E-commerce and Consumer Internet Startups Raised over $7 Bn in 2018

E-commerce and consumer Internet companies have raised over $7 billion (~ ₹ 4,89,00,00,00,00 ) in private equity and venture capital funds in 2018, says a report by EY.

Of the total investment, startups such as Oyo, Swiggy, Byjus, Paytm Mall, Pine Labs, Zomato, Udaan, Policybazaar and Curefit collectively raised the lions share of USD 4.6 billion in 2018, says the report.

The report covers sectors such as travel and hospitality, edutech, payments and wallets, fintech and healthtech, among others, as part of the e-commerce and consumer internet segment.

Also Read - Battery Storage, Smart Grid and Energy Efficiency Companies Raised $2.8 Bn in VC Funding in 2018

A few large deals included Walmart's acquisition of Flipkart for $16 billion, Alibaba's investment in Bigbasket and Paytm, Tencent's investment in Dream11, and Nasper's investment in Byjus and Swiggy.

"This massive opportunity has been unlocked by the increasing number
of digital transactions, digital literacy and the rise of rural
e-commerce, growing use of vernacular content, adoption of the
omni-channel strategy, low mobile data tariffs coupled with data-driven
personalization," says the report.

The stimulus provided by Digital India, Start-Up India and Make in
India also helped, it added and expects the trends in terms of
consolidation will continue in 2019 as well.

"Companies will need to consolidate to add more services and segments to expand the level of engagement with customers and leverage emerging technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain and internet of things, among others, to service the market better," it said. 

A report last year revealed that blockchain startups in India have raised mere $5.3 million between January 2016 and April 2018, including & counting all funding options, sources, investment instruments etc.

Earlier this year, an another report by Venture Intelligence said that PE investments had already surpassed the previous high - $24.3 Billion across 734 deals in 2017 – in the first nine months of 2018, big ticket investments in Swiggy and Byju's towards the end of the year catapulted the year’s investment tally by 36% year-on-year.

India's Oldest PE Firm ChrysCapital Raises $850 Mn in Record 4 Months

India’s oldest Private Equity (PE) firm ChrysCapital has closed its latest eighth fund of $850 million corpus in record four months making it fastest fund-raising by any India-bred private equity firm.

This speedy fund-raise suggests that global risk capital providers are positive despite of macro-economic uncertainties worldwide.

The four partners of the asset manager pumped in about $75 million from their side, taking the overall corpus of the fund closer to $925 million.

Founded in 1999, ChrysCapital's partners are -- former Goldman Sachs executive Kunal Shroff, ex-Ranbaxy honcho Sanjiv Kaul, former KPMG executive Ashley Menezes and manufacturing expert Sanjay Kukreja as partners.

[caption id="attachment_128054" align="aligncenter" width="621"] (From left) ChrysCapital partners Ashley Menezes, Sanjiv Kaul, Sanjay Kukreja and Kunal Shroff. Photo: Manoj Verma/LiveMint.com[/caption]

ChrysCapital, which has $4 billion worth of total assets under its management, is known for its 2016 investment in India’s largest stock exchange NSE and cutting other lucrative deals in non-bank financial services company Hero FinCorp and skin care specialist Curatio.

“Given our strong pace of deployment of over $200 million per year and an active pipeline, we decided to embark on raising eighth fund in August 2018,” said Kunal Shroff, managing partner at ChrysCapital.

ChrysCapital has made 80 investments in India and exited 60 of these since its inception. The firm's notable investments in the past include Axis Bank, HCL Technologies, and KPIT Technologies.

Last month, ChrysCapital has acquired a controlling stake of 80% in US-based healthcare service provider GeBBS Healthcare Solutions, in a deal worth Rs 1,000 crore ($140 million).

In April last year, the PE firm has hired former SBI chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya as an advisor.

Source - Times of India

India's PE Investments in 2018 is Highest Ever at $33 Billion

Private Equity (PE) investments in India rose to their highest ever figure of $33.1 billion in 2018, according to data from Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on private company financials.

According to the research firm, PE investments had already surpassed the previous high - $24.3 Billion across 734 deals in 2017 – in the first nine months of 2018, big ticket investments in Swiggy and Byju's towards the end of the year catapulted the year’s investment tally by 36% year-on-year.

The year 2018 witnessed 81 PE investments worth $100 million or more (accounting for 77% of the total investment value during the period), compared to 47 such transactions in 2017. Of these, 40 were larger than $200 million each (by themselves accounting for 60% of the total value) - compared to 30 such investments in the year ago period, the note from Venture Intelligence said.

Led by the $1 Billion investments in Swiggy from South Africa-based Naspers and others and Oyo (led by SoftBank, IT & ITeS companies accounted for 32% of the PE investment pie in 2018 (attracting $10.6 Billion across 383 deals). Food delivery app maker Swiggy had started the year with a $100 million investment led by Naspers, followed it up with mid-year $210 million raise (co-led by Naspers and DST Global) and polished the year off with a $1 Billion investment (led by Naspers and Tencent). Hotel chain Oyo raised $800 million (with an additional commitment for $200 million) led by SoftBank Vision Fund. Paytm raised $445 million from SoftBank and Alibaba for its E-commerce business, Paytm Mall and $356 million from Berkshire Hathaway at the parent company (One 97 Communications) level.

Other large ticket IT & ITeS investments in 2018 included the $300 million attracted by online payment gateway service BillDesk from Temasek and others; the $236 million raise by online insurance broker PolicyBazaar (led by SoftBank) and the $410 million (across two rounds) raised by Swiggy competitor Zomato. Other notable tech companies that attracted rounds of $100 million or more during the year included payments enabler Pine Labs, event ticketing service Bookmyshow, regional language social app ShareChat, music service Gaana.com and fantasy gaming startup Dream11, said Venture Intelligence.

Financials Services companies, led by the HDFC and Star Health Insurance, attracted 72 investments worth $5.9 Billion and included 17 deals of $100 million or more.

“The mid-year Walmart-Flipkart deal clearly re-energized international investors’ appetite for mega bets in Indian Internet & Mobile companies. This has helped offset the slowdown in investments in sectors like Financial Services, Manufacturing and Infrastructure towards the year end triggered by nervousness in the public markets and the IL&FS scare,” said Arun Natarajan, Founder of Venture Intelligence. “Whether the PE investment tally of 2019 can outdo the highs of 2018 seems set to hinge substantially on Global Economic trends in the New Year and the outcome of the upcoming National Elections,” he added.

According to an another report by Venture Intelligence in October, Japanese multinational telecommunications and Internet corporation, SoftBank has alone contributed over USD 4 billion of the investment value or 24% of the total PE investments in the first nine months of year-2018.

In September quarter of last year, the private equity & venture capital (PE/VC) investments in Indian startup ecosystem reached a whopping $8.7 billion, according to a report by research company Ernst and Young (EY). The figure at that time was significantly higher than what was recorded for the same period of year 2016.

In July-September 2017 quarter, Indian startups witnessed a total of nine $200-million-plus deals, with SoftBank’s $2.5 billion investment in Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart being the largest PE investment ever recorded in the Indian subcontinent.

Source - Economic Times

PE investments fall to $14.60 Bn in Jan-Sep 2018

In first nine months, January-September, of 2018 the Private Equity (PE) investments has fallen down to US $14.60 billion from lat year's $15.60 billion of same period, according to Grant Thornton's latest PE Dealtracker report.

The decline is a result of macroeconomic concerns, market volatility and valuations of companies, said the report. Besides these factors, private equity investors are also turning cautious due to falling prices of rupee against the US dollar and touching its all-time low amid an investors exodus from the emerging markets.

During the January-September period of 2018, a total of 621 PE deals worth $14.60 billion were reported as compared with $15.60 billion in the same period last year. On the other side, the July-September quarter saw a total of 217 PE deals worth $5.2 billion, an increase of 41% in terms of the number of deals, despite a drop in value by 28%, compared with the same period last year, the report added.

Telecom, e-commerce, manufacturing, energy, agriculture banking and IT sectors led the deal activity, capturing 85% of the total deal value. Startups had a share of 46% of the total investment volumes. Financial technology also attracted significant attention from investors with 20 deals, followed by retail and health tech segments. “The environment for private equity market has been sluggish due to concerns like the economy, market volatility and valuations, among other things,” said Prashant Mehra, Partner, Grant Thornton India LLP, in the report.

Some of the other top deals during the third quarter include ADIA and TPG Capital's investment in UPL Corp, KKR's investment in REEL, Udaan's series C funding for USD 225 million, the report said adding that Curefit raising USD 120 million marks the biggest ever fund raise by an Indian healthcare startup.

In September quarter of last year, the private equity & venture capital (PE/VC) investments in Indian startup ecosystem reached a whopping $8.7 billion, according to a report by research company Ernst and Young (EY). The figure at that time was significantly higher than what was recorded for the same period of year 2016.

In total, Indian startups witnessed a total of nine $200-million-plus deals in the July-September 2017 quarter, with SoftBank’s $2.5 billion investment in Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart being the largest PE investment ever recorded in the Indian subcontinent.

An another report by research firm Venture Intelligence, the first nine months (July-September) of 2017 had saw private equity firms investing about a whopping US $17.6 billion in Indian firms, a figure which is already past the previous record of USD 17.3 billion in the year 2015.

Source - Financial Express

PE/VC Investments At Record High of $8.7 Billion in Jul-Sep

In what could be considered as an excellent news coming in for the Indian startup industry, private equity/venture capital (PE/VC) investments in the ecosystem reached a whopping $8.7 billion in the September quarter, a figure which is significantly higher than what was recorded for the same period last year.

According to a report by research company Ernst and Young (EY), the sector saw its PE/VC investments for the quarter July-September increase from $3.1 billion in the same period last year to a record high $8.7 billion this year. The report highlighted that this sharp increase was largely courtesy the big-ticket transactions that took place over the said period.

In total, the ecosystem witnessed a total of nine $200-million-plus deals in the July-September 2017 quarter, with SoftBank’s $2.5 billion investment in Indian ecommerce giant Flipkart being the largest PE investment ever recorded in the Indian subcontinent.

In August, Flipkart raised the second portion of its Series J funding from SoftBank Group. The $2.5B investment by the Japanese telecom and internet giant was a part of its $93 billion Vision Tech Fund, which is considered as the world's biggest private equity fund.

The EY report further revealed that not only did PE/VC investments saw a sharp jump in the July-September quarter, but the period also saw record exits for PE players and the largest IPO exits ever recorded in the history of Indian startup ecosystem.

According to the report, exists registered on a year-on-year basis saw an increase of a staggering 128 per cent in value terms at $4.7 billion across 65 deals. The EY report noted that this number was largely driven by exits via open market, secondary sale and IPOs.

The quarter also recorded the largest IPO exits ever with Fairfax selling its 12 per cent stake in ICICI Lombard for a celebratory $558 million.

Speaking to PTI, Vivek Soni, partner and leader for PE Advisory, EY said, “India is clearly maturing as a PE market, with bigger and complex deals becoming more common. Greater numbers of large deals and buyouts support this thesis, and it is clearly visible in the third quarter 2017 investment numbers.”

Commenting on the increase in the number of IPO exits and exits of PE players, Soni added, "The good news is that there is a massive amount of dry powder available globally and most global funds are now keenly looking at India for investment opportunities. The compulsion of corporate India to deleverage by selling assets is expected to add momentum to the growth of buyout deals in India.”

In August, another EY report had highlighted PE/VC investments in the Indian subcontinent had reached a record USD 11.2 billion in the first half of this calendar year. This meant, the country witnessed a whopping 41 per cent increase over last year driven by some big ticket deals.

This development was first reported in Business Standard.

PE/VC Investments At Record High of $8.7 Billion in Jul-Sep

In what could be considered as an excellent news coming in for the Indian startup industry, private equity/venture capital (PE/VC) investments in the ecosystem reached a whopping $8.7 billion in the September quarter, a figure which is significantly higher than what was recorded for the same period last year.

According to a report by research company Ernst and Young (EY), the sector saw its PE/VC investments for the quarter July-September increase from $3.1 billion in the same period last year to a record high $8.7 billion this year. The report highlighted that this sharp increase was largely courtesy the big-ticket transactions that took place over the said period.

In total, the ecosystem witnessed a total of nine $200-million-plus deals in the July-September 2017 quarter, with SoftBank’s $2.5 billion investment in Indian ecommerce giant Flipkart being the largest PE investment ever recorded in the Indian subcontinent.

In August, Flipkart raised the second portion of its Series J funding from SoftBank Group. The $2.5B investment by the Japanese telecom and internet giant was a part of its $93 billion Vision Tech Fund, which is considered as the world's biggest private equity fund.

The EY report further revealed that not only did PE/VC investments saw a sharp jump in the July-September quarter, but the period also saw record exits for PE players and the largest IPO exits ever recorded in the history of Indian startup ecosystem.

According to the report, exists registered on a year-on-year basis saw an increase of a staggering 128 per cent in value terms at $4.7 billion across 65 deals. The EY report noted that this number was largely driven by exits via open market, secondary sale and IPOs.

The quarter also recorded the largest IPO exits ever with Fairfax selling its 12 per cent stake in ICICI Lombard for a celebratory $558 million.

Speaking to PTI, Vivek Soni, partner and leader for PE Advisory, EY said, “India is clearly maturing as a PE market, with bigger and complex deals becoming more common. Greater numbers of large deals and buyouts support this thesis, and it is clearly visible in the third quarter 2017 investment numbers.”

Commenting on the increase in the number of IPO exits and exits of PE players, Soni added, "The good news is that there is a massive amount of dry powder available globally and most global funds are now keenly looking at India for investment opportunities. The compulsion of corporate India to deleverage by selling assets is expected to add momentum to the growth of buyout deals in India.”

In August, another EY report had highlighted PE/VC investments in the Indian subcontinent had reached a record USD 11.2 billion in the first half of this calendar year. This meant, the country witnessed a whopping 41 per cent increase over last year driven by some big ticket deals.

This development was first reported in Business Standard.

Softbank Contributes Nearly 24% To India's PE Investments Till Date

With almost nine months down on the calendar of 2017, transaction research firm Venture Intelligence decided to evaluate the progress of private equity investments recorded in the country in the year so far and unearthed some interesting facts and figures.

The firm found out that, the first nine months of 2017 has seen private equity firms investing about a whopping USD 17.6 billion in Indian firms, a figure which is already past the previous record of USD 17.3 billion in the year 2015.

Divulging details about the sizes of the deals witnessed, the firm revealed that, in the nine months that have passed since the year starting, India has seen as many as 21 investments over USD 200 million in addition to 15 deals between USD 100 million and USD 200 million.

One of the most interesting facts highlighted by Venture Intelligence is that, Japanese multinational telecommunications and Internet corporation, SoftBank has alone contributed over USD 4 billion of the investment value or 24 per cent of the total amount in the year gone by so far.

The investments which helped the Japanese major achieve this feat include a USD 2.5 billion investment in Indian e-commerce giant, Flipkart; a USD 1.4 billion investment in Indian mobile wallet giant, Paytm; and a USD 250 million investment in Indian-origin hotel room aggregator website, Oyo.

Interestingly, at 402, the number of deals witnessed so far in the year are 23 per cent lower than what was recorded during the same period last year.

Coming to the latest quarter, July-September, about 106 private equity deals took place this time garnering about USD 5.7 billion. This means, the quarter was the second best quarter in the year gone by so far, only behind Jan–Mar 2017, which saw 163 deals going through that churned out a whopping USD 6.4 billion.

In what could be considered as an encouraging figure for the Indian startup scene, the latest quarter saw 13 investments above USD 100 million going through as compared to 10 in the same period last year.

While SoftBank’s USD 2.5 billion investment in Flipkart was the largest investment that took place in the quarter, the other investments that made headlines were made for by BFSI companies- General Atlantic’s USD 240 million buyout of investor services firm Karvy Computershare; Carlyle’s USD 300 million into SBI Cards and the USD 260 million raised by RBL Bank.

Last year saw the Indian startup industry going through a sluggish period when it came to the number of investment deals taking place. The Indian startup industry, which was once the apple of every investor's eye saw experienced investors tightening heir pursue strings and taking much longer than before concluding transactions. But, the latest figures made available by Venture Intelligence show that the industry is bouncing back and how.

This development was first reported in MoneyControl.