India’s PE-VC Exits See Record $33B in 2024

2024 was a breakout year for private capital exits in India. Total realizations touched $33B, up 16% from 2023, with 360 transactions, the highest number ever recorded in a single year in India.

The catalyst? A favorable window in the public markets. IPOs and block trades surged as sponsors capitalized on high valuations and ample domestic liquidity. Public market exits accounted for 59% of total exit value, up from 51% the previous year.

IPO exit value grew 2.2x to ~$4B in 2024, driven by high-profile listings like:

• Vishal Mega Mart – $960M
• Swiggy – $792M
• Aadhar Housing Finance – $239M
• Sagility India – $250M
• FirstCry – $227M

The IPO resurgence was underpinned by structural reforms like faster T+3 listings, reduced lock-in under the Innovators Growth Platform (IGP), and stronger flows from retail and mutual funds. Improved issuer quality and governance also played a role. Many of the companies that went public had already achieved scale, profitability, or a dominant position in niche verticals. This made them attractive not only to retail and domestic mutual funds, but also to institutional buyers looking for exposure to India’s consumption and financial inclusion stories.

Sector rotation and strategic exits

Exits were concentrated in financial services, healthcare, and consumer/retail. Major block trades included Trent ($1.4B, Lead Exiting Fund – Xander Group) and PNB Housing ($1.3B, Lead Exiting Fund – Carlyle and General Atlantic). Meanwhile, sponsor-to-sponsor deals, like Healthium (Apax to KKR) and Manjushree (Advent to PAG), remained active despite valuation pressure.

These sectors also reflected a blend of exit rationales – in financial services, regulatory clarity and public market tailwinds created favorable conditions for monetization; in healthcare, buyers sought scalable platforms with clinical margins and asset-light expansion models.

In consumer and retail, consolidation played a role. Strategic acquirers were drawn to companies with omnichannel reach, premium positioning, or defensible distribution moats. For example, Trent’s momentum gave Xander a timely exit at peak valuation multiples.

Strategic buyers also returned: Brookfield acquired a $900M green energy portfolio, while Sumitomo Mitsui bought SMFG India Credit from Temasek.

The return of strategic buyers marked a meaningful shift from the last two years, when volatility and macro tightening had sidelined many corporate buyers. Now, with balance sheets repaired and interest rate outlooks stabilizing, strategics are once again looking to grow inorganically.

This mix of IPOs, sponsor-to-sponsor deals, and strategic buyers reflects a maturing exit environment, one where funds are no longer reliant on a single path to liquidity. The diversity of exit modes in 2024 gave GPs more optionality, allowed better pricing discovery, and helped reduce dependency on IPO timing alone.

Also notable was the operational readiness of exit candidates. More assets came to market with institutional-grade reporting, independent boards, and defined exit narratives, signs that PE-backed companies in India are maturing in structure as well as scale.

Exits are gaining traction in India not just because of favorable markets, but because the ecosystem itself is becoming more exit-ready. Over the last decade, India’s private capital playbook has matured: GPs now build with clearer exit theses, LPs expect quicker distributions, and founders increasingly view exits as growth milestones. At the same time, structural enablers have improved. Capital markets reforms have streamlined IPO timelines and a new generation of corporate and sponsor buyers are more active and better capitalized. What used to be a bottleneck is now a lever. Exits are no longer the hard part of the investment journey but an actively managed, repeatable process. This shift is critical in repositioning India not just as a deployment market, but as a full-cycle capital ecosystem where distributions, not just investments, drive momentum.

Can this momentum last?

Public market corrections since Q4 2024 have taken some steam out of IPO enthusiasm. January-February 2025 saw just 11 listings compared to 24 in Nov-Dec 2024. Still, funds are expected to lean into exits in 2025, particularly for aging assets with vintage years 2018-2019, which now sit at extended holding periods.

This may prompt increased use of continuation vehicles and structured secondaries, all of which are gaining traction in India. Meanwhile, investor sentiment remains cautiously optimistic as macro tailwinds like interest rate cuts and recovering consumption continue to support valuations, especially in core sectors like financials and healthcare.

Exit strategy has now become a portfolio design tool. GPs are now underwriting investments not just on entry price or growth trajectory, but also on the feasibility of multiple exit paths, including those that didn’t exist five years ago.

The rise of secondaries and recapitalizations is also helping address the growing mismatch between fund life cycles and company scaling timelines. With private companies staying private longer, exit timelines are stretching, making flexible tools essential to maintain distributions and manage portfolio pacing.

A new baseline for private capital exits

The breakout exit year of 2024 may not repeat in pure numbers, but it set a new standard for liquidity depth and flexibility in India’s private markets. For GPs, it proved that disciplined holding periods and diversified sector bets can pay off. For LPs, it offered the clearest signal yet that India is no longer a one-exit-path market but rather a real distribution engine.

In the past, exit optionality was seen as a constraint in India. That narrative is fading. Sponsors are now exiting through IPOs, strategic sales, secondary sponsors, and structured solutions – often in combination. This new normal of multimodal exit planning reflects the growing maturity of both the investor base and the operating ecosystem.

Ultimately, what defined 2024 wasn’t just the $33B headline. It was the strategic intelligence with which capital was recycled. As GPs return to market with fresh funds, they now carry a recent track record of execution, which will likely reinforce India’s attractiveness in the global LP landscape.

Dive deeper into returns thinking with DPI vs IRR: From Growth to Payouts, Tracing DPI Through India’s IPO History, and How 2024 Became a Defining Year for IPOs.

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