BENGALURU : The total value of private equity and venture capital deals in India surged nearly fourfold last week from the previous five-day period, thanks to a couple of large investments by private equity firms and several mid to small-sized transactions.
Startups cumulatively raised $851 million from VC and PE firms last week, compared to $241 million in the preceding week, showed data collated by VCCircle. Deal volume, however, remained unchanged at 18 transactions last week.
In the week’s largest deal, Japan’s Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp., Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, and PE firm Intermediate Capital Group (ICG) invested $250 million in Amp Energy India. A few weeks ago, VCCircle reported on ICG’s $50 million investment in the renewable energy company.
Omni-channel eyewear retailer Lenskart received the second largest fund infusion last week, garnering a $100 million investment from homegrown PE firm ChrysCapital.
The financial services sector saw a couple of noteworthy mid-size deals with TVS Credit Services Ltd, the non-bank lending arm of two-wheeler maker TVS Motor Company Ltd, securing $90 million from PremjiInvest, which gave the family office investment arm of Wipro Ltd founder chairman Azim Premji, a 9.7% stake in the NBFC.
Similarly, online lending platform Indifi Technologies raised $35 million in a funding round from ICICI Venture, the alternative investment arm of ICICI Bank, and micro-mortgage lender Aviom India Housing Finance raised $30 million in its Series D equity funding round led by global investment management firm Nuveen.
Among other mid-size deals, fleet management service provider Everest Fleet secured $20 million in a funding round led by ride-hailing giant Uber. Patni Family Office, Incred, Ashish Kacholia, Spark AIF, and Grip Invest also participated in the round.
Last week saw consumer startups score the highest investments among sectors in an otherwise equitable sectoral split among different sectors such as financial services, electric mobility and healthtech in terms of deal volume.
In a recurring trend, small deals ranging from $200,000 to $10 million dominated deal volume with 60% of the transactions falling within this range.
Interior design platform HomeLane raised $9.1 million in a bridge funding round from its existing backers, whose names, however, were not disclosed. Also, healthcare-focused PE firm Somerset Indus Capital Partners invested $9.1 million in pharmaceutical ingredients maker Natural BioGenex Pvt. Ltd.
The week also saw close to three deals whose financial details weren’t disclosed, a drop from the previous week which saw 7 such deals.
Dealmaking in the merger and acquisition (M&A) space remained at the same level last week with three M&A deals, similar to the week before.
Beauty and personal care brand VLCC acquired male grooming brand Ustraa for $30.5 million during the week. VCCircle reported that the grooming brand was valued at ₹250 crore in the cash-and-stock deal. The decade-old startup last raised capital at a pre-money valuation of ₹400 crore and a post-money valuation of ₹416 crore, or around $50 million in 2022, implying the VLCC deal is a sharp drop in Ustraa’s valuation of about 34-50%.
Diagnostic lab chain Sterling Accuris Wellness Pvt. Ltd, bought Ahmedabad-based pathology service provider VIP Labs for an undisclosed amount to grow its presence in Gujarat.
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Updated: 19 Jun 2023, 12:47 AM IST