India’s VC deal value hits record high in Q3 as Flipkart’s fundraise tops global chart

India’s venture capital investments touched a record quarterly high during July-September led by a bunch of big fresh funding involving unicorns including e-commerce giant Flipkart’s mega fundraise of $3.6 billion that was the world’s largest, according to a KPMG report.

The venture capital deal value was at over $14 billion during the quarter compared with $6.76 billion during April-June and $3.12 billion in January-March this year. In the July-September period of last year, venture funding deal value was at $4.23 billion.

In terms of deal volume, too, the venture deals in India hit a record of 498 during the quarter.

Apart from Flipkart, the other mega deal in India was that of edtech giant Byju’s that raised $1.7 billion during the quarter. Byju’s fundraise was the fourth largest in the world and the second largest in Asia-Pacific during the period.

Besides Byju’s, another edtech startup Eruditus also made it to the top 10 deals in the Asia-Pacific region with a $650 million fundraise and so did social commerce firm Meesho with a $570 million during the quarter.

Other major deals in India during the period included the $500 million funding round of ride hailing firm Ola and e-pharmacy startup PharmEasy, which, however, did not make it to the top 10 transactions in the region.

During the quarter, India also saw the creation of nine unicorns including edtech firms Eruditus and UpGrad, fintech firm BharatPe and crypto exchange CoinDCX. India has produced 33 unicorns so far this year as compared to just 11 in the whole of last year. Unicorns are private companies that raise funding at a valuation of over $1 billion.

India’s initial public offering (IPO) market was also very strong during the quarter, the report said, as food delivery startup Zomato became the first tech unicorn to list on the domestic stock exchanges in July. A slew of other tech companies such as Paytm and MobiKwik, which have already received regulatory approval for the public float, are also expected to list soon. India could also see a number of blockbuster IPOs before the end of this year, it added.

Investors outside traditional venture capital firms including traditional private equity firm, which have not been historically part of consumer tech deals, also took part in venture style transactions during the period, the report noted.

The report also said that investments in China will dry up considerably moving forward due to new rules for tutoring companies introduced during the period. This could see venture capital money flowing into India’s edtech segment, which is already a red-hot area of investment.

It further said that the venture capital investment is expected to grow more in India in the October-December quarter given the euphoria around investments in consumer tech, direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands, fintech and edtech. Social commerce could also attract more attention from venture capital firms in India in the next few quarters, it added.