India has seen a great deal of activity in the fundraising space in the past few years with the trend continuing into 2026 as the nation appears set for what could be the strongest year ever in the country for private equity/venture capital (PE/VC) fundraising efforts. A total of $23.7bn has been raised across 56 funds during the January-July period, according to a report by EY.

In July, the inflow was $4.1bn, up 3% year-on-year and up 52% month-on-month. The number of deals in July 2026, however, was down 7% year-on-year.

Pure-play PE/VC investments in July 2026 were $2.3bn, down 29% year-on-year. The real estate and infrastructure segment meanwhile recorded investment of $1.8bn, up 148% year-on-year. On a month-on-month basis, pure-play PE/VC investments were up 110% in July, while real estate and infrastructure investments jumped 11%. When it comes to the number of deals, pure-play investments as well as real estate and infrastructure saw a decline of 7% y/y.

Despite the uncertainties overshadowing the global macro environment, fundraising activities have been resilient over the last few years, EY said. Fund managers are continuously raising bigger pools of capital to capitalise on long-term growth opportunities up for grabs in India.

Investor confidence has also been boosted by range-bound Indian rupee and public markets, stable Reserve Bank of India monetary policy and better-than-expected corporate earnings in Q1FY27. EY believes that India's macroeconomic fundamentals are supportive of investment activity, as there remains enough dry power available across PE/VC funds. The likelihood that there will be some stabilisation in the geopolitical situation is going to boost deal-making further.  

Ten large deals

July 2026 saw a total of 10 large deals with a combined value of $2.8bn, up 9% compared with July last year. When compared with June 2026, the value recorded a 60% jump. Large deals made up nearly 68% of the total PE/VC deployments in July 2026. The largest deal in July 2026 was Brookfield’s investment of $600mn in green energy company Lumara Energy.

Buyout investments took up the biggest share of the PE/VC activity in July 2026, with total deployment to the tune of $1.4bn. This segment recorded a 176% increase in value compared with the same month last year. Credit investments took the second spot, with total value at $880mn, a rise of 3% from $855mn in July 2025. Growth investments registered $817mn, down 28% compared with the amount recorded in July 2025. Start-up investments totalled $805mn in July 2026, rising 90% year-on-year from $425mn in July 2025. PIPE investments, by contrast, declined 83% year-on-year to $173mn from $1bn in July 2025.

Infrastructure led private equity and venture capital investment activity overall in July 2026, attracting $1.5bn, followed by financial services at $649mn and food and agriculture at $335mn. Collectively, the three sectors made up 61% of overall PE/VC investments during the month.

PE/VC fundraising has maintained an upward trend in recent years, with funds raising a combined $135.8bn across 781 fundraises since 2016. Fundraising has accelerated significantly since 2021, which accounted for $97.7bn, or nearly 72% of the total capital raised, across 547 funds, equivalent to 70% of the overall number.

Bain Capital’s $10.5bn fund accounted for a substantial share of this total. The fund will invest across Australasia including in Japan, India, China, Australia and South Korea, focusing on sectors including technology, industrials, consumer, healthcare, business services and financial services.

Bain Capital’s fund made up almost 44% of the aggregate capital raised during the year. In contrast, last year saw the largest number of fund increases, at 123.

Other significant fundraising numbers included $3.2bn by the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), $2.7bn by Tiger Global and $2.2bn by ChrysCapital.

The largest share of the capital raised was taken by sector-agnostic funds at $45.4bn, or 46% of the total. They were followed by technology-focused funds with $20.3bn, real estate funds with $12bn and infrastructure funds with $9.7bn. The highest number of fundraising numbers, at 219, was also reported by sector-agnostic funds. Technology funds were next, recording 154, and real estate funds at 55.

Overall, private equity funds led fundraising with $39.8bn, representing 41% of the total, followed by venture capital funds with $28bn, or 29%, and debt funds with $12.9bn, or 13%.

According to a VCCircle report, dry powder available to India-focused alternative investment funds (AIFs) is approaching $100bn, EY said, adding that this pool of uncommitted capital could support further investment activity over the medium term, particularly if investor sentiment improves and geopolitical uncertainties ease.