India came in second among the Asia-Pacific nations in terms of venture capital activity in the full year 2021 at $36.5 billion, up 217 per cent from a year ago, the latest report on Asia Pacific Private Equity Investments by Refinitiv, an LSEG Business, showed.
China led the Asia-Pacific nations with venture capital activity of $83.3 billion, up 65.5 per cent over 2020 levels. In all, Asia-Pacific venture capital activity totaled $152.2 billion across 6,272 transactions in the full year 2021. This reflected a 106.9 per cent increase in value and 69.1 per cent increase in volume from the same period in 2020, the Refinitiv report showed.
Top venture investments
The Asia-Pacific’s top three venture stage investments totaled $10.5 billion, completed in the full year 2021. The largest is Taiwan’s Footprintku Inc with $3.8 billion, followed by Flipkart Online Services Pvt Ltd of India, with $3.6 billion in equity value. Rounding out the top three is SVOLT Energy Technology Co Ltd from China amounting to $3.1 billon.
Asia-Pacific buyout deals
In 2021, Asia-Pacific buyout stage investments totaled a record high of $105.6 billion, a 61.2 per cent increase compared to a year ago. By the number of deals, there were 647 transactions during the year, an increase of 83.8 per cent compared to the full year 2020. A buyout is the acquisition of a controlling interest in a company.
After Australia and China, India was third with $16.2 billion and 176 deals for the full year 2021, a 93.4 per cent increase compared to the full year 2020. Australia took the lead with $33.6 billion in value, a 241.4 per cent increase from the same period in 2020. China followed with $24.0 billion in value, up 298.8 per cent from a year ago.
Hexaware Technologies Ltd is among the top five PE buyout deals in Asia, with a deal value of $3 billion. Among the top Asia Pacific venture capital deals were renowned names such as Flipkart Online Services Ltd with a deal value of $3.6 billion; Bundl Technologies Pvt Ltd ( Swiggy) at $2.05 billion, Think and Learn (BYJU’s) at $1.75 billion; Blinkit India (formerly Grofers) $1.37 billion and Sporta ( Dream 11) with a deal value of $1.24 billion. Sequoia Capital India LLP ranked sixth among the most active investors in Asia Pacific venture capital Investment, with whopping participation in 90 deals.