Late-stage cheques go big at $86 million average this year

Late-stage private market funding in India averaged about $86 million per deal in the first half of the year, more than double the average size seen in the previous two six-month periods. Capital concentrated in larger transactions focused on artificial intelligence infrastructure, data centres, clean energy, lending and a few established consumer-facing platforms.

Total late-stage funding increased to $3.8 billion across 44 rounds in January-June, from $3 billion across 78 rounds in the second half of 2025, and $3.5 billion across 94 rounds in the first half of last year, according to Tracxn data. The average cheque size was about $38 million in the second half of 2025 and $37 million in the first half.

The largest rounds this year have been led by strategic, private equity and long-horizon institutional capital, including Meta's $900-million Cred deal, Nxtra's $710-million PE round, Neysa's $600-million artificial intelligence infrastructure funding from Blackstone, and large transactions in Inox Clean Energy, Hygenco, GreenCell Mobility and KreditBee.

Selective Deals

Rapido's $730-million raise was among the few large consumer-facing scale-up deals, though more than 60% comprised secondary share sales. Half of Meta's investment in Cred was also in secondaries, giving some early investors three to 16 times returns, ET reported last week.

The numbers signify that growth capital remains available but is flowing to companies with revenue visibility, hard assets and clearer exits, rather than broad user growth bets.

Traditional late-stage venture capital (VC) for pure technology and consumer-internet companies has remained selective after the 2021-22 funding boom.

"These are late-stage investors. Their approach isn't to make 10 investments, hoping one or two succeed," said Neeraj Shrimali, managing director and head, digital technology and consumer investment banking, Avendus Capital. "They expect every investment to generate returns. One investment may deliver a higher internal rate of return than another, but capital preservation is a must."

Risk appetite changes

Investors and dealmakers said demand is stronger for companies with deep revenue and profit pools or businesses where growth is tied to enterprise demand, financial services, energy transition, data infrastructure or government-backed policy tailwinds. That was visible in data centre capacity, AI compute, solar energy, green hydrogen, electric vehicle mobility and lending deals.

Sanjay Khan Nagra, partner at Khaitan & Co, who advises on technology and mergers and acquisitions (M&As), said companies mature enough for public markets are also becoming relevant for PE or strategic investors when initial public offering (IPO) windows turn uncertain.

"All these IPO-ready companies are actually ripe for PE acquisition," he said. "If they are actually IPO-ready and it is just the market that is holding them back, they are ripe for two things - M&A to a strategic or PE."

Nagra said capital is still available for strong companies, but the market has become concentrated. "Funds remain available. There is dry powder. Everybody wants to deploy, too. Now everybody is fixated on those few assets. So, if you are a good asset, then earlier you were just running a fundraise. Now you are running a bid," he said.

Diligence gets Sharper

Dealmakers said the 2021-22 playbook, when investors moved quickly to avoid missing out, has given way to closer checks on financials, governance, contracts, exit options and downside risk.

"Earlier, the dealmaking was very fast-paced," Nagra said. "Now, even in good assets, investors take their time in value discovery to their satisfaction. Deal-making is a lot more measured now."