PE-VC investments in May CY2025 hit hard, down to $1.5bn

Chennai: Private equity-venture capital (PE-VC) investments in May witnessed a sharp fall. It fell 48% over April (CY2025) at $2.9 billion and plunged by $2.3 billion when compared with May last year (CY2024) at $3.8 billion. The investments as on May 30, 2025, exclude those from the real estate sector.

“Buyouts have been a key driver of the value of PE investments in recent years. Even in the first quarter of 2025, global PE firms like KKR and TPG, as well as home grown firms like Multiples PE and Everstone have executed significant such control transactions. The pace of large buyout announcements have significantly slowed down in the last couple of months - contributing to the decline in PE investment value,” Arun Natarajan, founder, Venture Intelligence told TOI. Assuming the global economic turbulence settles down, we can expect more confident bets by both Indian and international investors, he added.

In May, Porter, an on-demand logistics platform, raising $200 million in a Series F round led by Kedaara Capital and Wellington Management topped the PE-VC investments. It was followed by private equity fund Norwest announcing that it has led a Rs 1,465-crore investment in the non-bank lender IKF Finance.

Growth in the PE-VC investment sector was also flat during the Jan-May period of CY2025 at $13.5 billion against $13.2 billion during the corresponding period last year, data released by research firm Venture Intelligence on Friday showed. It was dominated by institutional investments in late stage companies that are more than 10 years old at $3.9 billion.

Apart from global macro uncertainty, factors including shift in investors sentiment, who are being more cautious with capital deployment influenced investments, according to analysts.

Ashutosh Kumar Jha- general partner at Expert Dojo, a US-based startup accelerator and VC firm said, many VC and PE funds have shifted their focus from volume to value. “These dips aren’t always bad news. Sometimes, they just mean investors are thinking harder about where to place their bets.”

Noting that dominance of late-stage deals indicate that investors are doubling down on companies that have proven business models and closer to profitability or IPOs, he said, “Growth looks flat, but this phase could be laying the groundwork for a healthier and more disciplined investment cycle in the second half of the year,” he added.


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