Led by the large ticket investment in Star Health Insurance and CAMS, fifteen Chennai-based companies attracted $1.6 billion in Private Equity and Venture Capital (PE-VC) investments during the third quarter of 2018. During the same period last year, seven investments worth $107 million flowed into city based firms.
Companies that raised significant capital during the latest quarter include Sanmar Chemicals ($150 million more from existing investor Fairfax Group); NBFC Five Star Business Credits ($100 million) and SaaS software maker Freshworks ($100 million).
At the national level, Private Equity (PE) investments in the first nine months of 2018 touched $23.7 billion (across 525 deals), up 29% (across 527 deals) when compared to the same period in 2017. Calendar 2017 was the biggest ever year for PE investments in India, recording $23.7 Billion across 704 deals. According to data released by Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on private company financials, transactions and their valuations, PE firms invested a record $9.2 billion (across 154 deals) during the quarter ended September 2018 – up 60% compared to the $5.8 billion (across 146 transactions) in the same period last year.
The investment amount in Q3’18 was 11% higher than the immediate previous quarter (which had recorded the previous highest quarterly investments at $8.3 Billion across 191 transactions). Note: These figures include Venture Capital investments, but exclude PE investments in Real Estate.
The latest quarter witnessed 22 PE investments worth $100 million or more (accounting for 79% of the total investment value during the period) compared to 13 such transactions in Q3’17. Of these, 12 were larger than $200 million each (by themselves accounting for 65% of the total value) - compared to just four such investments in the year ago period, the Venture Intelligence data shows.
International Investors
“International investor interest in Indian Internet and Mobile companies has shot up dramatically post the Walmart-Flipkart deal,” said Arun Natarajan, Founder of Venture Intelligence. “Investments in other industries - including in manufacturing, energy and engineering companies – is also quite strong. This lends confidence that 2018 will set a significantly new high for PE investments in the country, even if the nervousness in the public markets and global events begin to affect private markets in Q4,” he added.
