Private Equity – Venture Capital (PE-VC) firms invested over $9.1 billion (across 316 deals) in Indian companies during the first three months of 2026, shows data from Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on private company financials, transactions, and their valuations. (Note: These figures include Venture Capital type investments, but exclude PE investments in Real Estate).
The investment amount represents a 22% decline over the $11.7 billion (across 337 deals) invested in the same period during 2025 and a decline of 16% when compared to the immediate previous quarter (which witnessed $10.9 billion being invested across 329 deals). Deal volumes in Q1’26 fell by 6% compared to Q1’25 and by 4% compared to the immediate previous quarter.
Q1’26 witnessed 17 mega deals ($100 M+ rounds) worth $5.8 billion, compared to 29 such investments (worth $8.6 billion) in Q1’25 and 19 such deals (worth $7.2 billion) in the immediate previous quarter.
The largest investment in Q1’26 was the $1.8 billion acquisition of sports team Royal Challengers Bengaluru, by US-headquartered PE firm Blackstone as part of a consortium comprising Aditya Birla Group, the Times of India Group and Bolt Ventures. Blackstone was also part of the next largest deal of the quarter: the $600 million acquisition of a controlling stake in data centre platform Neysa (along with TVS Capital, 360 ONE, Nexus Ventures and Ontario Teachers Pension Plan). This was followed by another data centre investment: the $475 million investment in Bharti Airtel subsidiary Nxtra Data (by Carlyle, Alpha Wave Global and Anchorage Capital Partners). The top five for the period were completed by two housing finance firm investments: Advent International’s $304 million investment in Aditya Birla Housing Finance and Carlyle’s $230 million investment in Nido Home Finance (formerly Edelweiss Housing Finance).
By Industry
IT & ITeS remained the top industry for the quarter attracting $2.7 billion across 169 deals. The biggest deal in the industry was the $170 million investment in used car marketplace Spinny by Fidelity India, WestBridge and Accel USA. It was followed by the $82 million investment in electronics manufacturing services provider SFO Technologies led by Trident Growth Partners and Amicus Capital Partners. The $70 million investment in vibe-coding platform Emergent Labs led by SoftBank Corp and Khosla Ventures completed the top three deals in the industry.
Led by the $1.8 billion investment in Royal Challengers Bengaluru, the Sports & Fitness industry rose the second position among the most favored industries by PE-VC investors during the quarter.
The BFSI industry attracted about $1.1 billion across 15 deals during Q1’26. Investments in the industry were led by the $304 million investment in Aditya Birla Housing Finance and the $230 million investment in Nido Home Finance. They were followed by the $133 million investment in another NBFC, Avanse Financial Services, by existing investors Warburg Pincus, Kedaara Capital and Mubadala Investment.
Venture Intelligence is India’s longest-serving provider of data and analysis on Private Company Financials, Transactions (private equity, venture capital, and M&A) & their Valuations in India.
(Venture Intelligence Subscribers will be mailed detailed reports of the PE-VC action during Q1 2026 in the next few days.)
