2024 sees 5.5% fall in PE-VC investments compared to 2023; what’s in store for 2025?

CHENNAI: Calendar year 2024 ended with private equity – venture capital (PE-VC) investments of $31.1 billion, the lowest since CY2019 in India. It was a decrease by 5.5% when compared with CY2023 at $32.9 billion, the second lowest in the past six years.
However, the number of deals exceeded 1,000, which was 993 a year ago (in CY2023). The PE investments exclude the real estate sector.
December recorded an investment of $2.2 billion as of Dec 27, 2024, data released by research firm Venture Intelligence has revealed.
“There were no major deals in the past four days (Dec 28-31) and henceforth this data is valid for the full month and the year,” Arun Natarajan, founder, Venture Intelligence, said.
Nearly $9 billion of PE-VC investments comprising 165 deals was made in late stage companies that are more than 10 years old, Series G or later rounds of institutional investments. It is followed by investments in growth-PE stage companies at $6.3 billion involving 136 deals. Growth-PE are Seed to Series D investments, wherein the investments are more than $20 million and companies are less than a decade old.
Canada-based Brookfield’s more than a $2 billion deal with ATC India in Jan was the largest PE-VC investment in CY2024.
“CY2024 witnessed 74 mega deals (valued above $100 million) accounting for deals worth $20.7 billion, compared to 75 such investments worth $23.2 billion in the previous year (CY2023). On most parameters, 2024 was very comparable to 2023 – from the overall deal values to the sectors of choice and the number of mega deals. The key highlight of the year was, of course, how receptive the public markets have been to IPOs of PE-VC backed companies, including startups like Swiggy and Ola Electric,” Natarajan told TOI.
CY2024 has signalled a return to stability/normalcy in PE-VC investments. “As long as geo-political events (including currency movements) do not impact our markets adversely, 2024 has set the base for a turnaround,” Natarajan replied to a query on forecast for CY2025.