Private equity and venture capital investments in India posted a record new high of $21.8 billion in 2017 till date (January-October), surpassing the previous record of $19.6 billion for entire year of 2015.

The rise has been primarily driven by a significant number of large deals worth $500 million and above and many involving big bets by global pension funds, according to an EY study.

Till date, 2017 has recorded seven such deals totalling $8.6 billion, of which four deals were greater than $1 billion. This is in contrast to 2016, which recorded two deals worth $2.5 billion, and 2015, which recorded four deals worth $2.2 billion.

“Continuing the trend of the record July-August-September quarter, which saw over $8.7 billion of PE/VC deal announcements, October 2017 has not disappointed,” Vivek Soni, Partner and Leader for PE Advisory at EY said.

“The year-to-date PE/VC investments have eclipsed the highs seen in 2015, already making 2017 a record year for both investments and exits. With two months to go for the year-end, we expect to close the year with PE/VC investments 25 per cent to 30 per cent higher than the 2015 record levels,” he added.

October also recorded a 77 per cent rise in the value of investments, while in terms of volume it fell 6.6 per cent compared with the same period last year ($2.1 billion across 56 deals in October 2017 versus $1.2 billion across 60 deals in October 2016). On a month-on-month basis, there was an increase of 16.7 per cent in value terms and 19.1 per cent in volume terms.