India's startup investors cashed in at scale in the September quarter, realising about ₹25,000 crore through block and bulk deals across 18 listed startups in July–September, according to an ET analysis published 5 October 2026. The figure marks a record harvest season for venture and private equity backers of new-age companies — and a sign that India's public markets have become a genuine liquidity engine for the ecosystem.
The leaderboard tells the story. SoftBank realised about ₹4,538 crore from Lenskart and Meesho; Elevation Capital about ₹3,013 crore from Paytm and Meesho; and Bessemer Venture Partners about ₹170 crore from Urban Company. The sales give funds cash to return to their own backers while retaining exposure to future growth — "we are holding much more than what we are selling," said Elevation managing director Mridul Arora.
The backdrop is a market in churn: foreign portfolio investors withdrew more than ₹3.05 lakh crore from secondary markets in January–September. Bessemer's partner and India COO Nithin Kaimal noted that domestic investors were helping absorb supply from quality companies alongside foreign funds, a structural shift in who underwrites India's new-age listings.
The same ET dispatch carried a striking read on AI from Menlo Ventures, an early Anthropic backer. Partner Venky Ganesan called it "the best of times and the worst of times": companies going from zero to $1 billion in revenue in 18 months on one side, and 3-to-5-person startups commanding billion-dollar valuations on the other. Partner Matt Murphy argued the real AI constraint is compute, not a frontier-model slowdown — a view backed by Menlo's own $3 billion raise across two funds in June, the largest corpus in its 50-year history.
Why it matters for founders
A ₹25,000-crore exit quarter proves Indian VCs can now return capital at home, not just via foreign acquirers. That recycling of capital — plus domestic buyers absorbing the supply — is what keeps early-stage cheques flowing even when global LPs turn cautious.