Indian startups clock $9.5 billion via exits, among its largest ever

Indian startups clocked $9.5 billion, or about Rs 70,600 crore, of exits in 2021, adding to the milestones the industry has hit in what was a seminal year for the ecosystem.

INDIA: Indian startups clocked $9.5 billion, or about Rs 70,600 crore, of exits in 2021, adding to the milestones the industry has hit in what was a seminal year for the ecosystem.

Exits, partial or full, by existing investors of startups through initial public offerings (IPOs), mergers and acquisitions (M&As) and secondary share sales jumped nearly eight times this year up to December 10 from just $1.2 billion, or about Rs 8,900 crore, in 2020, according to data from Venture Intelligence, which tracks startup deals data.

The data shared with ET is as of December 10.

This is the highest amount of exits Indian startups have been able to give investors in recent years barring 2018 when the Walmart-Flipkart deal happened.

The exit number for 2019 was $2.9 billion across 82 deals while the same in 2017 was $2.4 billion through 88 deals. In 2018, $14.8 billion worth of exits happened across 113 deals.

“LPs (limited partners who invest in venture funds) always wanted visibility on exit timelines from investors. While the Walmart-Flipkart deal in 2018 went through, it is not a common occurrence often in India,” said Ashish Dave, CEO at Mirae Asset Venture Investments (India).

“But now with IPOs, secondary and strategic sales, there are multiple avenues opening up. These are pure-play exits as the big question gets addressed.”

Mirae’s portfolio includes food delivery major Zomato, egrocer BigBasket that has been acquired by the Tata Group, and taxi aggregator Ola.

Dave said the increasing number of exits will help investors reinvest into the ecosystem.

Besides a flurry of IPOs, 2021 also saw the mega $4.7-billion merger of PayU and BillDesk through which investors like General Atlantic, Temasek, and TA Associates snagged an exit of $2.2 billion, the data showed.

Founders and investors told ET that the biggest question Indian startups have had to answer over the past decade has been about the sparse exits. But with IPOs and large-scale M&As being struck, those concerns are getting addressed.