IPO Momentum Reshapes India's PE-VC Landscape According to Experts

Private equity and venture capital (VC/PE) investments in India increased by 9 per cent in October, compared to September 2025 in value terms.

According to a joint October investments report by EY & IVCA, October 2025 recorded a USD 5.3 billion in PE/VC investments, with a 9 per cent y-o-y increase from USD 4.9 billion in October. The number of deals, however, decreased to 102, a 9 per cent drop y-o-y and a 14 per cent decline month-on-month, with 145 deals in September 2025.

Padmaja Ruparel, co-founder of IAN Group, said that IPOs have enabled companies to secure growth capital and generate liquidity for their shareholders.

"What's interesting is that more startups in India are now considering public listings earlier, driven by a strong IPO market that makes going public a viable alternative to large late-stage private funding," said Ruparel.

As a result, Ruparel noted that funding rounds of USD 100 million or more have slowed, while smaller and mid-sized deals remain active, and venture capital continues to be deployed.

"Many startups are reassessing their IPO readiness, opting for pre-IPO rounds where possible or heading straight to the public markets. Notably, tech IPOs are no longer only billion-dollar issues, with several companies listing at sub-unicorn valuations," added Ruparel.

According to the report, GST collections have remained robust, and the decline in the October Consumer Price Index is supposed to provide the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) with a bit of wiggle room for potential rate cuts - a move that could accelerate capex spending and consumption-led growth.

"With the capital market valuations remaining buoyant and the appetite for IPO's remaining strong, valuations continue to challenge private deal-making. A favourable US-India FTA could potentially provide the trigger for sentiment change – we remain cautiously optimistic," said Vivek Soni, Partner and National Leader, Private Equity Services, EY.

Ajay Jain, Managing Partner of Silverneedle Ventures, remarked that 2025 has been a special year for the firm. The firm completed follow-on investments in 4 of its existing portfolio companies, by participating in SuperK's INR 100 crore round and OnFinance's USD 5 million round.

"Overall, we are sitting pretty with all of our portfolio companies having completed follow-on rounds or doing so in the next 6 months. On this backdrop, we have launched SilverX Fund, an INR 800 crore fund, with a focus on deeper technologies such as Quantum, Semiconductor, Spacetech, GenAI, and materials," said Jain. The firm also completed three exits in investments, including Brainsight.AI, Vama.App, and Makershive.io.

Exits in PE/VC stood at USD 640 million across 14 deals in October, which is 43 per cent lower than October 2024, when deal values stood at USD 1.1 billion. Public exits, including open market and IPO, accounted for 73 per cent of total exit value, at USD 467 million. Top deals included an open market exit by Aditya Birla Capital, selling 2 per cent of its stake from Advent, at USD 186 million.