Author
Harsh Batra
Harsh Batra
Rising claims are usually read as a warning. In India’s M&A market, they look more like a coming of age.
Notifications under transactional risk policies climbed 30% YoY, according to a new Marsh report, a sign of how deeply warranty and indemnity and tax cover have embedded themselves in the country’s larger deals.
India now accounts for a third of all such notifications across Asia. Private equity sponsors sat behind 92% of notifications. Tax remains the most common trigger.
And as Q2 heads into its final stretch, healthcare M&A has fresh figures to show. Global pharmaceutical M&A reached $65 billion in Q1, its strongest start since 2020, according to Forbes. India takes the spotlight, with highlights like Anthem Biosciences scaling from a Bangalore drug-development outsourcer to a multi-billion-dollar listed name.
With plenty in motion, do check this week’s deal highlights below.
- Emirates NBD completed its 60% majority stake acquisition in RBL Bank, marking a sizeable inbound banking transaction into India, backed by a reported primary capital infusion of INR 26,000 crore.
- Bharti Airtel secured shareholder approval to lift its Airtel Africa stake to 79%, acquiring an additional 16.31% from a promoter-group entity in a transaction valued at around INR 28,200 crore.
- CPP Investments committed up to INR 7,000 crore to CtrlS and a new India data-centre JV, taking an 8.2% stake in CtrlS and backing a separate platform with a 48% JV interest, a clean signal of institutional appetite for India’s digital infrastructure build-out.
For more insights and conversations about the market, connect with me on LinkedIn.
Enjoy the read.
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IPOs
- After nearly a decade of false starts, the National Stock Exchange has filed its draft prospectus with Sebi. The issue is structured entirely as an offer for sale, with shareholders led by SBI parting with roughly 6% of the exchange. Barred from listing on its own platform, NSE will trade on the BSE, with market chatter putting its value close to Rs 5 trillion.
- Ahmedabad solar EPC firm Prozeal Green Energy is lining up a Rs 700 crore listing for the second quarter of FY27, split evenly between fresh shares and an offer for sale, with Sebi clearance already in hand. The timing follows a Rs 2,000 crore order from ONGC for 250 MW of captive wind capacity, marking Prozeal’s move into utility-scale wind.
Job moves
- InCred Capital has opened its US business and named Arunava Das chief executive for North America, extending the financial services group’s reach into the world’s deepest capital market.
- Cipla has handed Shivam Puri, its consumer-health chief, the reins of a newly unified One India business, drawing the pharma major’s domestic operations under a single leader.
- Edtech firm UNIVO has appointed Nitin Golani as chief executive to steer its next phase of growth.
Fundraising
- Canada’s CPP Investments is committing up to C$1bn to Hyderabad data-centre operator CtrlS. The package splits into C$588m for an 8.2% stake and a further C$441m into a joint venture, 48% owned by CPP, to build hyperscale campuses for India’s AI and cloud demand.
- Motilal Oswal Alternates has put Rs 750 crore into JBM Ecolife, the country’s largest electric-bus maker, through its private credit fund. The money helps JBM roll out roughly 2,000 more e-buses under long-term state transport contracts, taking its fleet towards 5,000 within a year.
- Pramaana Labs, founded by three IIT Madras alumni and now based in California, has drawn $27m in seed funding led by Khosla Ventures. The startup builds a verification layer that checks AI answers against codified rules in high-stakes fields such as tax, healthcare and financial compliance, holding back a response when it cannot prove the result.
- Pet-healthcare network Vetic has pulled in $40m led by Bessemer Venture Partners, a returning backer. The Gurugram company runs more than 65 clinics across 11 cities and plans to double its veterinary capacity and take its vet-at-home service national over the next two quarters.
- Adani Green Energy is sounding out lenders for an offshore dollar loan of up to $1bn, its first overseas borrowing since the group’s US legal troubles. The five-year facility, priced over SOFR and split across two tranches, follows the Adani family’s SEC settlement and would help thaw India’s sluggish offshore loan market.
- Mumbai nutrition brand TruNativ has closed a $30m Series B led by healthcare specialist OrbiMed, blending fresh capital with secondary exits for early backers. Founded by a mother-and-son team in 2019, the clean-label company sells protein, sugar alternatives and gut-health products and will widen retail distribution and open a Mumbai research lab.
- Tata Capital’s board has cleared a plan to raise up to Rs 36,000 crore through privately placed debentures, spanning secured, unsecured, perpetual and green-bond formats. The fundraise, still subject to shareholder approval, gives the recently listed Tata lender ample headroom to fund its loan book.
- The Competition Commission has waved through Kedaara Capital’s Rs 750 crore investment in Axis Finance, the NBFC arm of Axis Bank. It is the lender’s first capital from an outside investor and, alongside a separate Rs 1,500 crore rights issue, arms it to expand retail, MSME and wholesale lending.
- Rooftop-solar installer SolarSquare has landed $53m in a Series C led by B Capital, the largest venture cheque yet written into India’s home-solar market. The Mumbai firm, which powers about 50,000 homes, pushes its total funding past $100m and will spend the round entering new cities and building out battery and financing options.
- Deep-tech investor YourNest has reached Rs 400 crore for its Continuum Fund, handing the firm fresh dry powder to back early-stage technology startups.
- Sarvam, India’s newest AI unicorn, has raised $234m in the first tranche of a $300m Series B that values the Bengaluru company at $1.5bn. HCLTech leads with $150m as strategic backer, joined by Bessemer, with Khosla Ventures and Peak XV returning. The three-year-old firm, built by former AI4Bharat researchers, will fund its next frontier model for agentic, coding and cybersecurity work.
- Solar-module maker Waaree Energies has won shareholder approval to raise up to Rs 10,000 crore through a qualified institutional placement, though its shares slipped 2% on the news.
- Electric-scooter maker Ather Energy is preparing a fund raise of up to Rs 2,500 crore for a July launch and is in talks with three investment banks to run the process.
- Hyderabad’s Equal, maker of an AI call assistant, has secured $30m in a tranched Series B co-led by Prosus Ventures and Tomales Bay Capital, both Series A backers. Founded by former venture capitalist Keshav Reddy, the company crossed a million monthly users within eight months of launching its consumer product and also runs an identity platform for banks and insurers.
- Bengaluru construction-materials marketplace Mad Over Buildings has signed a term sheet for a Rs 30 crore round at a Rs 180 crore valuation, with Hindware’s venture arm SIG Tattva returning. The platform, which lets architects and contractors source materials on credit, plans to add Mumbai to its footprint.
- ACME Solar Holdings has tapped institutional investors for Rs 28bn through a qualified institutional placement, shoring up its balance sheet as it expands renewable capacity.
- Zee Entertainment is mobilising Rs 2,300 crore ahead of a bid for FIFA broadcast rights, building a war chest as it competes for premium sports content.
- Skyroot Aerospace has crossed a $1.1bn valuation to become India’s first space-tech unicorn, after a roughly $60m round co-led by Sherpalo Ventures and GIC, with BlackRock-managed funds, the Greenko founders and others joining. The Hyderabad firm will scale Vikram-1 launches and develop the larger, cryogenic Vikram-2.
- Smart-metering firm Kimbal has raised a $22m Series B led by sustainability investor GEF Capital Partners, with early backer Niveshaay following on for a third straight round. The New Delhi company has deployed over 10 million advanced-metering endpoints and is pushing into power quality, storage and overseas markets.
- Green hydrogen platform Hygenco has signed $105m in equity co-led by IFC, Siemens Financial Services and the Fullerton Carbon Action Fund, the first direct green-hydrogen bet in India for all three. The capital funds three to four new plants in FY26-27 to supply green hydrogen and ammonia to hard-to-abate industries.
- Infrastructure financier NaBFID has raised Rs 5,000 crore in a two-part bond sale, taking Rs 2,500 crore in a 10-year note at 7.66% and the same again in a three-year note at 7.37%. The development bank tapped a reviving corporate debt market, where softer yields drew some Rs 27,000 crore of issuance over the week.
