The third quarter of 2020 witnessed a resurgence in deal activity in India after the pandemic-induced lull earlier this year. As much as $3.14 billion was raised across 258 deals in the July-September period, according to DealStreetAsia – Research and Analytics’s latest report.
While the overall deal value more than doubled in Q3, compared to $1.4 billion in Q2, it was only 77.8 per cent of the deal value seen in Q1 ($4.03 billion), the India Deal Review: Q3 2020 report stated.
In terms of deal count, July-September recorded a 33 per cent quarter-on-quarter increase. (DealStreetAsia started tracking deals from January 2020).
This was supported by the bumper month of September, where $1.88 billion worth of deals were raised from 92 VC and PE transactions. This is the highest amount raised in a single month so far this year. The second highest was seen in February when $1.5 billion was raised.
Note: The charts do not take into account undisclosed deals
The education and online training industry accounted for the lion’s share of total investments in Q3 at $1.14 billion across 33 transactions. This represents about 36.4 per cent of the total capital raised in the quarter. Leading the pack was Byju’s, which raised $622 million across two rounds.
The software sector occupied the second slot as 44 companies — the top sector by deal count — collectively bagged $393.2 million in Q3. The largest deal in the space was clocked by Redis Labs ($100 million) in August.
In the mini-deals space (deals under $10 million), the ten most attractive industries collectively raised $287 million from 105 deals.
Software, internet and financial services were the top three industries for mini-deals as they clearly benefitted from the widespread COVID-induced lockdowns that necessitated new services and ways of doing business. The three industries together recorded 56 mini-deals worth almost $163.7 million, representing 46.5 per cent of overall deal value for mini-deals.
