CHENNAI: Investments by Private Equity-Venture Capital (PE-VC) firms nose-dived in July, which also recorded the lowest number of deals this year. The month (July 2024) had 64 deals with a collective investment value of $1.7 billion, a sharp decline by about 49% over the previous month of June at $3.3 billion.
It is also a decrease by $200 million when compared with July last year at $1.9 billion, data from research firm Venture Intelligence on Wednesday said.The lone silver lining is July had seven more deals against 57 deals during the same month in CY2023.
Canadian asset management firm Brookfield announcement on acquisition of a majority stake in Tamil Nadu-based renewable energy company Leap Green Energy with an upfront investment of over $200 million and an option to infuse $350 million more in the future was the largest deal in July this year. It was followed by global private equity major KKR announcing that it will acquire a controlling stake in Kerala-based Baby Memorial Hospital for $300 million. July had four mega PE-VC deals, each valuing more than $100 million, with a collective value totalling $1.2 billion.
Arun Natarajan, founder, Venture Intelligence said, on a month-on-month comparison, it comes down to how many mega deals went through during a specific period when compared with another. “With the election related uncertainty out of the way, the Union budget taking specific favourable steps to encourage PE-VC investments and the public market (especially the IPO segment) being as strong it is, all signs for the rest of the year are only positive. The fact that a seven-year young company like Ola Electric that was raising a Series E round last year, is going public a year later is proof enough of how far the ecosystem has developed,” he told TOI.
On a YTD basis, the total value of deals was also down by 20% in the current calendar year. While the Jan-July period of this year witnessed an investment amounting $17 billion, it was at $21.3 billion during the same seven month period of CY2023.