Despite the COVID-19 pandemic and several uncertainties, private equity and venture capital companies invested $598 million in Tamil Nadu-based companies through 33 deals during 2020.
In 2019, the State attracted $1,641 million in private equity and venture capital investments through 54 deals, according to data sourced from Venture Intelligence, a research company. For 2020, the State got funding for 22 angel investment deals, compared with 16 in 2019.
Traditional strengths
“Tamil Nadu-based companies are benefiting from the growing investor interest in sectors such as software as a service (SaaS) and financial services that play to the traditional strengths of companies in the State,” says Venture Intelligence founder Arun Natarajan.
Companies such as TVS Logistics and agritech start-up WayCool Foods also attracted investor interest during 2020. TVS Supply Chain Solutions had raised $100 million from gateway partners in the first quarter, while WayCool closed the Series C round of $32 million led by Lightbox.
Mr. Natarajan says that since the start of the lockdown, investors, including angel networks like The Chennai Angels, have been reporting that the quality of start-up teams and their business plans have increased.
The volatile and uncertain environment is likely to separate the strong companies from the weak companies in 2021 too, he adds.
