PE-VC investments in Indian firms up 57% YoY, hit record $63 bn in 2021

The year had eight investments worth $1 bn or more, led by Flipkart's $3.6 bn pre-IPO round; E-commerce was the favorite sector, attracting $10.3 bn, followed by fintech ($7.7 bn)

Private Equity/Venture Capital (PE-VC) firms invested a record $63 billion across 1,202 deals in Indian companies during 2021, registering a 57 per cent rise over the $39.9 billion (across 913 deals) invested in the previous year, data from Venture Intelligence, which included venture capital type investments, but excluded PE investments in real estate, showed.

The country saw an addition of 44 Unicorns -- VC-funded startups valued at $1 billion or more --- in 2021, 15 of them during Q42021. The $23.4 billion invested into the Information Technology sector dominated list of Unicorns and accounted for more than 37 per cent