India Recorded $16.8 Billion PE Investments In 2015

All's well that ends well. Private equity investors ended 2015 on a positive note making record investments of $16.8 billion, about 16% higher than the previous high of $14.5 billion made in 2007, the bumper year for investors.

After the boom period of 2007, with the global economic slowdown casting its spell on India, investors were forced to tighten their purse strings and adopt a cautious step towards fresh investments. In fact, there were years altogether that saw a complete slowdown in private equity and venture capital investments in the country. Also, what had added to the woos of investors was the fact that there weren't enough exits happening in the market.

But 2015 brought in luck and saw private equity investors coming out of the woods with both exits and investment opportunity options opening up. As per data available with research firm Venture Intelligence, private equity investments in India touched a $16.8 billion across 661 deals. This is almost 50% higher than the $11.2 billion invested in 2014 across 530 deals.

The surge was led by continued mega investments in new age sectors in the consumer space such as ecommerce and mobile. In fact of the top 5 investments that happened last year, as many as 3 were in emerging businesses - Flipkart, Ola and Snapeal. What's more, these were all big ticket transactions, over $500 million.

Ecommerce firms Flipkart and Snapdeal garnered a total of $1.45 billion between them, followed by taxi aggregator Ola Cabs that gathered $900 million. Flipkart raised $700 million at a reported $15.2 billion valuation in a round that saw participation from existing investors Tiger Global and Steadview Capital and taking the total funding raised by the company to $3.2 billion. Snapdeal raised $500 million in August in a round led by Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba Group, Foxconn Technology Group and existing investor Softbank Group.

The momentum is Expected to Continue
Going forward, industry analysts say that private equity investments are expected to continue with new opportunities coming up in the startup space. Also, with exits picking up in the market with investors cashing out profitably, investment sentiments are expected to see a further boost.