PE-VC investment inflow in ‘healthy territory’
The consultancy firm said that the trend lines pointed to a “sharp reset for the PE-VC landscape,” which has battled a so-called “funding winter” as risk capital inflow to India had dried up from the latter half of 2022.
This downturn had followed a boom in private equity and venture capital investment witnessed in 2021 and early part of 2022 when Indian startups received a record inflow of capital. The subsequent downward trend in risk capital investments has changed in the three-month period ended June 2023, the data revealed.
PE and VC investments reached $13 billion in the period, clocking 60% growth over January-March, propelled by large deals concentrated in the second quarter.
Dev Khare, partner, Lightspeed Venture Partners told ET that following the imbalance witnessed in the last few years, the investment ecosystem has become healthier and has more depth in terms of experienced founders starting up.
“If you compare it with 12 months ago, it’s a funding winter but overall if you look at 2018, 2019, it’s more now than it was before,” he said.
Pointing to “little bit of imbalance in the middle,” Khare said it is “healthy right now.”
“We’ve made a record number of investments as Lightspeed this year itself. We’ve made seed, Series A and Series B investments and we’ve signed growth investments as well,” he added.
To be sure, the Bain report pointed out that while PE investments grew in the first half of 2023 over second half of last year, VC investments fell by 25%.
