Indian PE-VC Investments Expands its APAC Share, Govt Announces Major R&D Boost The rebound was driven by a surge in venture and growth deals, sectors rooted in technology and new-age consumption.

By Entrepreneur Staff

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India's private capital market is looking to find its footing again, with the total private equity-venture capital investments expanding its share to nearly 20 per cent of Asia-Pacific private capital flows, according to Bain & Company's India Private Equity Report 2025.

The rebound was driven by a surge in venture and growth deals, sectors rooted in technology and new-age consumption.

The BCG–Retailers Association of India (RAI) 2025 report, Winning in Bharat & India: The Retail Kaleidoscope, projects India's retail market alone to grow to INR 190 trillion (~USD 2.3 trillion) by 2034, expanding across both premium urban segments and value-driven rural consumers. The study highlights a "dual engine" structure: India, which is urban, digital, aspirational, and Bharat, which is value-seeking, distributed.

Investors are said to be tapping both with tailored strategies, urban D2C and lifestyle brands on one hand, and value FMCG and mass-market products on the other.

Avnish Bajaj, Founder and Investor, Z47 wrote, "Cross-border trade is unlocking new markets; financial services are democratizing access for millions; and consumer businesses are redefining how we consume, travel, and entertain."

Meanwhile, the BCG, Bain "How India Shops Online 2025" report estimates that the Indian e-retail market crossed USD 60 billion GMV in 2024, with projections to reach US USD 170–190 billion by 2030.

Top funding in the space includes Zepto raising USD 450 million in 2025, taking the company's valuation to USD 7 billion. Enterprise AI company Uniphore raised USD 260 million.

"Our customers want to move generative AI apps and agents from proofs-of-concept to full-scale deployment without friction," said Andrew Ferguson, Vice President of Databricks Ventures. "Uniphore's Business AI Cloud helps organizations streamline data access, model interoperability and agent orchestration, and ultimately, turn AI initiatives into real business outcomes."

On the policy front, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently spoke about the launch of INR 1 lakh crore Research, Development, and Innovation (RDI) Fund.

The fund will act as a major boost to the overall R&D ecosystem in the country, helping consumer goods and new-age technology sectors that thrive on valuable insights that founders get from research.

"It's a matter of immense joy that the Research Development and Innovation (RDI) Scheme Fund will also be launched, giving an impetus to several researchers across India," said Prime Minister Modi in an X post.

Rajat Tandon, President, Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA), said that the launch of the INR 1 lakh crore Research, Development and Innovation Fund is a decisive step towards building India's innovation capital framework.

"It lays the foundation for a new era of public–private collaboration in research and technology, anchored in long-term, risk-taking patient capital. The framework announced today, where the Anusandhan National Research Foundation will steward the corpus and channel it through professional fund managers such as AIFs—resonates deeply with what IVCA and the industry have been advocating. This is a forward-looking step that will catalyse private sector R&D, deepen India's innovation capital, and accelerate the country's vision of Viksit Bharat 2047," said Tandon.

Entrepreneur Staff

Entrepreneur Staff

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