Private equity and venture capital investments in India hit USD 5.3 billion in October 2025, a 9% YoY increase. Key sectors & trends.
“The number of deals decreased to 102 in October 2025, a 9 per cent year-on-year (112 deals in October 2024) and 30 per cent decline month-on-month (145 deals in September 2025),” said Vivek Soni, Partner and National Leader, Private Equity Service, EY.
Pure-play PE/VC investments hit a 13-month high of USD 5 billion – an 81 per cent increase over October 2024 – while real estate and infrastructure investments fell sharply by 86 per cent.
Private investments in public equity (PIPE) emerged as the dominant deal category, surging nearly ten-fold to USD 2.1 billion. Startup investments followed at USD 2 billion, up 175 per cent year-on-year. Growth investments fell to USD 810 million, while buyouts remained flat at USD 227 million.
Credit investments dropped 90 per cent to USD 189 million.
Large-ticket deals continued to play an outsize role, with nine transactions worth USD 3.7 billion accounting for 70 per cent of overall inflows. The largest was International Holding Company’s USD 1-billion purchase of a 43.46 per cent stake in Sammaan Capital.
Financial services dominated sectoral activity with USD 2.9 billion in investments, followed by e-commerce at USD 715 million and technology at USD 455 million – together representing 77 per cent of total PE/VC inflows in October.
PE/VC exits fell sharply to USD 640 million across 14 deals in October 2025, down 43 per cent from October 2024 and significantly lower than the USD 2.6 billion recorded in September. Open-market transactions accounted for 37 per cent of the exit value at USD 234 million.
The biggest exit of the month was Advent’s USD 186 million sale of a 2 per cent stake in Aditya Birla Capital.
Fundraising activity rose to USD 1.8 billion, compared with USD 209 million a year earlier. The largest raise was HSBC’s USD 1 billion fund to support short-term working capital and term loans for early and late-stage start-ups.
EY said the broader PE/VC landscape is entering an active phase shaped by mixed Q2 earnings, resilient performance in banking, IT and FMCG, and margin pressures in manufacturing and commodities. The Bihar election outcome, potential shifts in US trade policy under President Trump, strong GST collections and easing inflation could support capital flows and new capex cycles.
Soni noted that buoyant capital markets and high IPO appetite continue to pose valuation challenges for private deal-making, but added that a potential US-India FTA could potentially provide the trigger for sentiment change.