VC investments in '13 dips 18% to $805 mn:Venture Intelligence

Venture Capital firms invested about USD 805 million over 206 deals in India during 2013, registering a fall of about 18 per cent over the corresponding period a year ago, says a report.
According to analysis by Venture Intelligence, a research service focused on private company financials, in 2012 there were 252 transactions worth USD 898 million.
The report further noted that the Information Technology and IT-Enabled Services (IT and ITES) industry retained its status as the favourite among VC investors in 2013 accounting for 63 per cent of the investment activity.
Healthcare and life sciences emerged as the second favourite destination attracting 27 investments worth USD 181 million.

The agri-business and food and beverages attracted seven investments (worth USD 20 million) and six investments (USD 30 million) respectively.
The top VC investments of 2013 include the USD 20 million each raised by restaurant chain Barbeque Nation (from CX Partners) and online taxi booking service Olacabs (from Matrix Partners India and existing investor Tiger Global), the report said.

Early Stage investments accounted for 68 per cent of all VC investment activity (44 per cent in value terms) during 2013. The share of early stage investment activity however declined significantly from the 83 per cent during 2012.
Meanwhile, companies based in South India accounted for 41 per cent of all VC investments (55 per cent by value) during 2013. Their peers in Western India accounted for 29 per cent of the pie during the year (27 per cent by value).

Companies based in North India accounted for 24 per cent of the investments in 2013 (23 per cent by value).
Among cities, companies headquartered in Bangalore and Mumbai were the favourite among VC investors during 2013 attracting 49 investments each, followed by Delhi based companies that accounted for 24 investments and Chennai based companies with 21 investments.
Gurgaon and Hyderabad followed with 15 deals and 8 deals respectively, it added.