Mumbai, Jul 29 (PTI) Private equity and venture capital funds' bets on India have declined 19 per cent on-year to USD 26.4 billion in January-June 2025 as against USD 32.4 billion recorded in the same period last year, a report said on Tuesday.
The investments were higher when compared with the July-December 2024 period's USD 23.8 billion, as per the report by industry lobby grouping IVCA and consultancy firm EY.
In terms of number of transactions, 593 deals in January-June 2025 were lower than the 704 in the year-ago period and 649 transactions in the second half of 2024, it said.
"While early signals such as strong GST collections, the recent rate cut by the Reserve Bank of India, and the IPO pipeline are encouraging, the outlook is cautiously optimistic given the concerns on earnings growth and the US-India FTA discussions that are stretching timelines," the consultancy firm's partner Vivek Soni said.
He opined that the second half of 2025 could see higher investment activity on better earnings performance by companies and also on culmination of the India-US free trade agreement.
Pure-play PE/VC investments excluding the real estate and infrastructure sectors came at USD 18.3 billion, which was 3 per cent lower compared to the USD 18.9 billion in year-ago period, and 13 per cent higher compared to the USD 16.2 billion in July-December 2024.
There were 60 large deals of USD 100 million and above during the reporting period, with the USD 1.5 billion buy of New Mountain Capital into Access Healthcare Services being the largest, the report said.
The six months saw USD 11.6 billion of exits by such funds, which was almost the same as the year-ago period, but 31 per cent down when compared to the USD 16.8 billion in second half of 2024.
PE and VC funds raised USD 8.4 billion across 54 funds during the six months, which was higher both on-year and also from the preceding half of 2024.