New Delhi, Sep 17 (PTI) : As many as 890 funding deals are expected to be signed in the telecom, media and technology space (TMT) in India this year, up from 515 deals last year, a Merisis Advisors report says.
According to the report, a bulk of these deals (580) is expected to be in the under USD 1 million category while those above USD 10 million and USD 100 million are forecast to be about 95 and 10, respectively, in 2015.
In the first half of 2015, 288 deals were seen in under USD 1 million category and 160 in the over USD 1 million range.
Some of the large funding deals this year include Ola’s USD 400 million in April, Snapdeal’s USD 500 million by Alibaba and others and Practo raising USD 90 million in August.
Compared with 2015, a total of 515 deals were inked in 2014 in the TMT space. Of this, 324 were in the under USD 1 million and 191 in the over USD 1 million brackets.
Over 430 funding deals were signed in 2013, the report said.
“The data clearly confirm our focus on the USD 10+ million deal size, we are also open to doing USD 5-10 million fund raising as it gives us the opportunity of working with young entrepreneurs with whom we would like to create a relationship too early on in the lifecycle,” Merisis Advisors co-founder Sumir Verma said.
Asked if there was a saturation setting in in terms of funding opportunities, Verma replied in the negative.
“Not really. There are plenty of investment opportunities in India currently and for some time to come. However, macro conditions will decide investor appetite,” he said.
Verma said investors look for companies disrupting an untapped market with technology driven solutions headed by a strong management.
“Some funds have focus on certain themes at various times ranging from hyperlocal to food-tech, but it largely comes down to whether or not there is a large enough market for the company’s solution,” he added. PTI SR ARD
