Covid fails to dampen PE, VC interest in India
The second wave of the pandemic has not been able to affect the enthusiasm of private equity and venture capital funds as investments continued to grow for four straight months of 2021.
PE/VC investments in April 2021 stood at $7.5 billion, which were 6.5 times the value recorded in the lock-down hit April 2020 at $1.1 billion. The April 2021 investments were also 37 per cent higher compared to $5.5 billion in the previous month of March.
In the past four months of 2021, there has been a sequential increase in investments from $1.6 billion in January to $7.5 billion in April.
Technology was the top sector to grab $3.1 billion, followed by e-commerce with $1.5 billion. E-commerce also saw the highest monthly investment value in the past 31 months. The financial services sector received $614 million and media and entertainment $515 million.
“The revival in PE/VC investments has been driven by an increase in large deals valued over $100 million. Of the 41 large deals recorded in the first four months of 2021, 32 were in the past two months. While Covid resilient sectors like pharma, healthcare, edutech, online media, SaaS, Technology and IT/ITeS continue to see good traction in both value and volume of PE/VC deals, there has been a significant uptick in the value and volume of investments in the e-commerce sector,”
Exits also were quite active in April. April 2021 recorded 13 exits worth $2.7 billion, almost 23 times the value of exits in April 2020 at $117 million and 25 per cent higher than the value recorded in March 2021 at $2.1 billion.
said Vivek Soni, and National Private Equity EY.
Partner Leader, Services,
Exits also were quite active in April. April 2021 recorded 13 exits worth $2.7 billion, almost 23 times the value of exits in April 2020 at $117 million and 25 per cent higher than the value recorded in March 2021 at $2.1 billion. Secondary exits in April 2021 were highest at $2.1 billion across three deals. Exits worth $7 billion in the first four months were 17 per cent higher than the total value recorded last year.