Deal Value Trajectory
$B · Indian PE/VC, 2011 → 2025
Indian PE/VC deal value has grown roughly 5× in fifteen years.
EY-IVCA · Bain India PE · 2025
Insights · India
Why is India interesting?
A closer look at India - the world's fourth-largest and fastest-growing major economy.
Scroll to begin
A short note
A few facts that define Indian markets today. Familiar to close watchers. Essential context for everyone else.
01Young
India is the world's youngest major economy.
The median Indian is 29 years old. In Japan, it's nearly 50. Only 7% of India's population is over 65 - compared with 30% in Japan and 23% in Germany. Most developed economies have already peaked demographically; India's peak is still roughly fifteen years away.
Source · UN Population Prospects, 2024
India
7%
aged 65 or older
Median age
29.2
Germany
23%
aged 65 or older
Median age
45.3
Japan
30%
aged 65 or older
Median age
49.4
Labour Force
68%
of India is working-age
India's labour force is larger than the US, Japan, Germany, UK, and Italy combined.
India added 46.7 million workers in FY24 - roughly the size of Germany's entire labour force.
Source · EY India at 100 · RBI-KLEMS · Destatis · 2024
02Rising
In one generation, India went from the #10 economy to the #4 - overtaking twelve countries along the way.
In 1990, India's economy was smaller than Spain's. By 2025, it was bigger than the UK, France, and Italy. Thirty-five years, twelve countries passed, and the IMF projects India will be the world's third-largest economy before the end of this decade.
GDP rank · 1990 → 2025
Top economies by nominal GDP
India
Others
Countries India overtook along the way
1992Sweden
1998Australia
1999Netherlands
2007Mexico
2008South Korea
2010Spain
2013Canada
2015Italy / Brazil / Russia
2019France
2022United Kingdom
Source · IMF World Economic Outlook, 2025
03Growing
India is growing faster than any other major economy.
India's real GDP grew an estimated 6.6% in 2025 - more than triple the United States' pace and roughly twenty times Germany's. Among the world's ten largest economies, India is the only one growing at a rate historically associated with take-off decades.
Real GDP growth, 2025
Year-on-year, major economies
IMF WEO · Oct 2025
India
6.6%
China
4.8%
USA
1.9%
Japan
1.1%
Germany
0.3%
India is growing more than three times faster than the United States - and roughly twenty times faster than Germany.
Source · IMF World Economic Outlook, October 2025
04Mobile
India built the world's first true mobile-first economy.
Mobile data in India costs nine cents per gigabyte - roughly eighty times cheaper than Switzerland, and around sixty-five times cheaper than the United States. The average Indian smartphone user consumes 32 gigabytes a month, the highest on Earth. And 81% of Indian e-commerce happens on a phone, against 50% in the US.
01
81%
of Indian e-commerce is mobile
United States: 50%
02
$0.09
mobile data per gigabyte
Switzerland: $7.29 · United States: $6.00
03
32GB
used per smartphone per month
Highest consumption on Earth
Mobile e-commerce share, by country
% of total e-comm
India
81%
UK
60%
USA
50%
France
49%
Source · DataReportal, Cable.co.uk, Ericsson Mobility Report, 2024
05Everywhere
Many of the world's most powerful companies are led by people of Indian origin.
Microsoft. Google. Adobe. IBM. Palo Alto Networks. Each of these CEOs was born and raised in India. Together, they run more than seven trillion dollars of global market capitalisation. Few countries match this density of Fortune 500 leadership.
$3.9T market cap
Alphabet · Google
Sundar Pichai
CEO since 2015
$2.85T market cap
Microsoft
Satya Nadella
CEO since 2014
$230B market cap
IBM
Arvind Krishna
CEO since 2020
$140B market cap
Palo Alto Networks
Nikesh Arora
CEO since 2018
$97B market cap
Adobe
Shantanu Narayen
CEO since 2007
Source · Fortune 500, 2025
And the capital is arriving
India's private markets, in pictures.
The facts above describe India. The numbers below describe how global capital has responded to it over the last decade.
Startups
159,000+
recognised startups in India
The third-largest startup ecosystem in the world - after the US and China.
DPIIT Startup India · 2025
Unicorns
64
active Indian unicorns
Third globally, after the US and China. More than the UK, France, or Germany.
Hurun Global Unicorn Index · 2025
Fundraising
$23.2B
raised by Indian PE/VC in 2025
137% higher than 2024. The highest fundraising year on record.
Bain India PE Report · 2025
Exits
$87.7B
in exits, 2023-2025
5.2× the 2014-16 cumulative total. 40 PE/VC-backed IPOs in 2024 alone.
EY-IVCA · 2025
APAC Share
21%
of APAC private-capital now flows to India
Up from 12% in 2015-2019. India has become the second-largest private-markets destination in Asia-Pacific.
Bain APAC PE Report · 2025
Global Mega-Funds · Doubling Down
The biggest names in private capital are committing like never before.
Blackstone
~$100B
target India exposure (2× current)
KKR
~$20B
potential deployment over the next decade
Carlyle
30-35%
of Pan-Asia fund targeted for India
Bain Capital
~$10B
over the next 3-5 years
Bain · PitchBook · 2025
Homegrown · At Global Scale
$2.2B
ChrysCapital Fund X (2025)
Indian-domiciled funds now compete at global scale. Kedaara Fund IV closed $1.73B in 2024.
ChrysCapital · Kedaara Capital · 2025
New Managers
3×
more first-time funds launched in 2025 vs 2024
45 maiden funds in 2025 vs 15 in 2024. Growth-fund fundraising hit a six-year high of $5.1B.
IVCA · Bain · 2025
The story is both old and new. The demographic dividend is decades old. The rising GDP is decades old. What's new is that global capital, at serious scale, has finally arrived.
Want the full story?
The 37-year story of how Indian PE & VC became one of the world's most consequential private-capital markets.
Told in 18 moments - from India's first VC firm in 1988 to its record-breaking 2025.