Online discount broker Groww, beauty & fashion e-commerce company Nykaa, drone maker ideaForge, private equity major BPEA EQT and venture capital firm Matrix Partners are among the winners of the VCCircle Awards 2024.
The annual awards, now in their thirteenth year, felicitate private equity and venture capital-backed companies in key sectors as well as investment funds, law firms and investment bankers.
The winners were awarded on Friday after the conclusion of the VCCircle India Limited Partners Summit 2024, held at St. Regis Hotel in Mumbai.
The winners were chosen based on the recommendations of an eminent four-member jury. The jury comprised Navneet Munot, MD & CEO, HDFC Asset Management Company; Rishabh Mariwala, managing partner, Sharrp Ventures (Harsh Mariwala Family Office); Ambalika Banerji, former executive director - direct investments, NIIF and Amit Kakar, managing partner & head of Asia, Novo Holdings.
For the portfolio companies, the jury compared the nominees on various parameters including revenue and profit growth and the return on capital employed.
Agricultural supply chain solutions provider Ecozen, education services provider K12 Techno, Nykaa, Groww and ideaForge bagged the portfolio company awards in their respective sectors.
The jury members decided to splice the healthcare sector awards to one focussed on healthtech and another with an offline business model and picked Curefit and Chennai-based Kauvery Hospitals as two winners in the sector.
The awards also recognised top PE and VC fundraisers, as also the exit of the year based on annualised return, or the internal rate of return (IRR) and multiple on invested capital (MOIC).
Creaegis, a mid-market private equity firm floated by former PremjiInvest chief Prakash Parthasarathy, which raised $425 million mopping up the largest amount by a first time fund manager in recent years, bagged the PE fundraiser of the year award.
Matrix Partners received the VC fundraiser of the year award for scooping up over $500 million under its fourth fund.
Indeed, venture capital firm Matrix recorded a rare distinction striking a brace this year. Besides the VC fundraiser of the year, it also won the award for best exit move thanks to its multi-bagger exit activity from Five-Star Business Finance.
The jury picked Matrix Partners over Tiger Global and Accel that signed off from India’s first new-age tech champion Flipkart in a much bigger transaction as it was part of a pre-stitched well celebrated deal with Walmart years ago. Matrix also trumped Ventureast’s super multi-bagger from Zaggle.
In the meantime, the jury members had a tough time choosing the PE exit of the year given the hectic exit activity last year and several big-ticket high returns generating deals. Finally, they picked BPEA EQT for its exit from Coforge. The PE firm signed off a $2.2 billion exit from the tech company previously known as NIIT Technologies in four years flat.
Some others who were in contention include Blackstone’s exit from Sona BLW and Embassy Office Parks REIT, Brookfield’s harvest from Data Infrastructure and Warburg Pincus’ sale of its stake in CAMS.
The best intermediaries—investment banks and law firms—were honoured, too. This year, the awards categories in this set were spliced to have a separate recognition of emerging bankers and law firms that may not be always among the top tier in terms of numbers but are notching notable client wins.
Morgan Stanley was adjudged the best banker in value terms while O3 Capital emerged as the winner by deal count.
Meanwhile, Unaprime and Ymira were picked as the winners in the emerging investment banker category.
Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas and Trilegal were picked as the law firms of the year by deal value and volume, respectively. Lexygen and S&R Associates were the law firms in the emerging category.
The awards process bars winners in either the portfolio company category or advisers to be nominated for the same category for the next two years.
The nominations for the awards were powered by VCCEdge, the data research platform of Mosaic Digital, the banner behind VCCircle.
Here is the full list of winners.
Portfolio Companies:
Consumer Company of the Year: Nykaa
Education Company of the Year: K12 Techno
Financial Services Company of the Year: Groww
Healthcare Company of the Year: Kauvery Hospitals
Healthtech Company of the Year: Curefit
Agri Company of the Year: Ecozen
Industrials Company of the Year: ideaForge
Rainmakers, Legal Eagles & Investors:
Exit of the Year VC: Matrix Partners- Five-Star Business Finance
Exit of the Year PE: BPEA EQT- Coforge
Investment Bank of the Year by value (Large)– Morgan Stanley
Investment Bank of the Year by volume (Large)– O3 Capital
Investment Bank of the Year by value (Emerging)- Ymira
Investment Bank of the Year by volume (Emerging)- Unaprime
Law firm of the Year by value (Large)– Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas
Law firm of the Year by volume (Large)– Trilegal
Law firm of the Year by value (Emerging)- S&R Associates
Law firm of the Year by volume (Emerging)- Lexygen
Fundraiser of the Year – PE: Creaegis
Fundraiser of the Year – VC: Matrix Partners