Indian startups clocked $9.5 billion, or approximately Rs 70,600 crore, in 2021, adding to the industry’s achievements in what was a watershed year for the ecosystem.
Exits, whether partial or complete, by existing investors of startups via initial public offerings (IPOs), mergers and acquisitions (M&As), and secondary share sales increased nearly eightfold this year through December 10 from $1.2 billion, or about Rs 8,900 crore, in 2020, according to data from Venture Intelligence, which tracks startup deals data.
Except for the Walmart-Flipkart deal in 2018, this is the highest number of exits Indian startups have been able to provide investors in recent years. The exit figure for 2019 was $2.9 billion across 82 deals, compared to $2.4 billion across 88 deals in 2017. Exits totaled $14.8 billion in 2018 across 113 transactions.
“LPs (limited partners who invest in venture funds) always wanted visibility on exit timelines from investors. While the Walmart-Flipkart deal in 2018 went through, it is not a common occurrence often in India,” said Ashish Dave, CEO at Mirae Asset Venture Investments (India). “But now with IPOs, secondary and strategic sales, there are multiple avenues opening up. These are pure-play exits as the big question gets addressed.”
Mirae’s portfolio includes food delivery giant Zomato, Tata Group-owned egrocer BigBasket, and taxi aggregator Ola. According to Dave, the growing number of exits will encourage investors to reinvest in the ecosystem.
