Indian tech startups raised a record amount of capital from private equity and venture capital firms in 2021. Investors pumped in $74 billion worth of investments in the previous calendar year across 1,123 deals, according to the India Investments Pulse report by Praxis Global Alliance, a global management consulting and advisory services firm based in India.

“E-commerce, Consumer platforms, and IT services sectors were favourites among investors, recording 56 percent of total deal value in 2021”, said the report. 41 companies were added to the unicorn club in 2021, marking a record 3x increase over previous years.

The first-of-its-kind research report is supported by rich insights from around 100 VCs, PEs, LPs, and advisors on the evolution of the VC/PE ecosystem, changes across deal-making, fundraising, exits, and their overall outlook for 2022.

The report also draws parallels between India and other countries like the USA, China, UK, Germany, Singapore, and France, to provide an International VC and PE deal flow overview.

Madhur Singhal, managing partner and CEO of Praxis Global Alliance, said that 2021 has been a record year for tech and internet investments with a $40 billion deal value. “While this sector has grown rapidly, other sectors like IT services, healthcare, and manufacturing are doing well too,” said Singhal. “Investors will remain bullish over the India opportunity in 2022 as Indian tech startups will continue to attract capital from both private and public markets. We also believe that SaaS, Consumer, B2B tech, and Healthcare to become darling of investors this and the next few years driving the growth of the overall ecosystem.”

This report is intended to provide industry stakeholders (VC/PE funds, business leaders, entrepreneurs, and policymakers) with an overall perspective on Indian private market investments in 2021. In this report, Praxis touched upon the evolution of the Indian macro-economic outlook. The firm also conducted an in-depth analysis of the various trends in Indian VC and PE deal-making, including sectoral, deal size, and stage distribution.