VC investment in India tumbled to just $2.2 billion in Q1 20

After a record-breaking six billion dollars in Q4 19, venture capital (VC) investment in India fell sharply to just 2.2 billion dollars in Q1 20 in part due to economic uncertainty, professional services firm KPMG said on Monday.

On a global scale, the emergence of novel coronavirus COVID-19 shattered original expectations for the year, putting previous trends and concerns like Brexit and the US-China trade tensions on the backburner.

The spread of coronavirus, deemed a pandemic by the World Health Orgsation on March 11, created turmoil in nations, economies, and public markets around the world.

Despite the impact of COVID-19, VC investment globally remained quite robust in Q1'20, primarily due to the strong pipeline of deals in many jurisdictions around the world, said KPMG in the latest 'Venture Pulse Q1 2020.'

In particular, VC investment in the United States remained strong, led by a 2.25 billion dollars raise by Waymo, a one billion dollars raise by Generate Capital, and a 750 million dollar raise by Quibi.

VC investment was also strong in Europe, led by a 500 million dollar raise by Revolut and a 240 million dollar raise by Lilium.

Asia, meanwhile, saw VC investment drop significantly driven by a slowdown in deals activity in China where the fight against COVID-19 began much earlier than in other jurisdictions.

Despite a sharp decline in the number of deals, Asia saw a number of mega-rounds during Q1 20, including three billion dollar raises by Gojek and Kuaishou and a one billion dollar raise by Yuanfudao.

Initially, India was not as affected by COVID-19 in Q1 20 compared to China. Concerns related to the pandemic grew later in the quarter due in part to the fact India receives a significant amount of VC investment from international VC firms and corporates.

India has seen deals deferred as these investors wait to see how COVID-19 will affect businesses. While the pipeline for deals is expected to remain relatively robust in India, deal flow is expected to become very slow, particularly in Q2 20.

In India, said KPMG, while VC investment might be challenging in the short-term, it is expected to remain robust over the longer-term. Edtech is expected to remain a very hot sector of VC investment, in addition to autotech and healthtech related to fitness.

Gaming could also see an uptick in VC investment in India."VC investors are already starting to question how will business be impacted by COVID-19," said Nitish Poddar, Partner and National Leader at Private Equity of KPMG in India.

"This is a question everyone will be asking for the next few quarters. Here in India, we are beginning to feel the full impact of the virus," he said.

"Over the next quarter, while the pipeline will likely remain strong, deal flow is expected to slow down. A lot of deals will probably get deferred to the later half of the year," said Poddar.

( With inputs from ANI )