Investments made by Private Equity (PE) and Venture Capital (VC) firms have fallen by 64.8% during the second quarter of 2019, when compared to the same period last year in Tamil Nadu.
During the second quarter of 2019 , PE and VC firms invested $82 million across 9 deals as against $233 million (13 deals) during the same quarter in 2018, according to data from Venture Intelligence , a research service focussing on private company financials, transactions and their valuations.
“There are ample number of investors and networks available in Tamil Nadu who are willing to pump cash into startups. But the challenge is we are not able to get good ideas in which we can invest. Also, there are no startups which have made it big in the last one year in the State. So investors are becoming more cautious,” an investor, who has funded three startups, said on condition of anonymity.
A closer look at the data shows that angel investments (includes only super angels and angel networks) have also remained stagnant during the second quarter of this year at four deals.
During the same period last year there were five angel investment deals and in the first quarter of 2019, the number of deals stood at four. Though the exact details were not available, those who track the startup ecosystem in Tamil Nadu pointed out that the amount of angel investment received by these firms were also meagre.
On Wednesday, a Chennai-based startup, The Indus Valley, engaged in running an online healthy cookware products store received funding from The Chennai Angels (TCA). But the amount was ₹1 crore.
The funds will be used to expand their presence in India’s growing home and cookware products space.
Chandu Nair who led the investment from The Chennai Angels, said the cookware industry was poised to grow at 21% per annum as customers are getting increasingly health conscious. The organic food, wellness market, fitness market was growing at 20-25%.
