Global private-equity firm EQT Group plans to invest about $50 billion in India over the next four years, expanding beyond large buyouts into data centres, infrastructure, mid-market companies, early-stage ventures and secondary transactions, its top executives said in a media round table on Wednesday.
The planned investment underscores EQT’s growing conviction in India as one of its key markets in Asia. The firm has already committed $10 billion through EdgeConneX, its global data-centre platform, and expects to commit another $20 billion by 2030.
“In addition to this, we will deploy about $10-15 billion through our private equity strategies and other ancillary businesses like renewables, energy storage and infrastructure,” EQT chair Jean Eric Salata said at the media round table.
India currently accounts for about 5% of EQT’s global infrastructure portfolio and 25-30% of its overall Asia portfolio, the firm said.
EQT has deployed about $26 billion in India across 30 investments since 1998, including about $7 billion in the past three years. Its portfolio includes GeBBS Healthcare Solutions, Indira IVF, Credila, Resolven, WSO2, Sagility, Hexaware and Coforge. EQT opened its Mumbai office 20 years ago in 2006.
The firm’s latest expansion follows the April close of its ninth private-equity fund at $15.6 billion, which EQT described as the largest private-equity fund ever raised in the Asia-Pacific region. India and Japan are expected to be the fund’s two key markets, with each accounting for about 20% of its allocation, Salata said.
Beyond buyouts
EQT is also broadening its private-equity strategy in India to include mid-market and early-stage investments.
“These are high-growth companies that have potential for more growth and innovation. We have already a few investments in India, but the thinking is to be an end-to-end investor at every stage of the company,” said Nicholas Macksey, partner and co-head of private capital Asia.
The mid-market strategy targets sectors including technology services and pharmaceuticals and healthcare, with cheque sizes of $100-400 million. EQT typically takes a controlling stake and is usually the first institutional investor in the company, Macksey said.
The firm has already invested in Niwas Housing Finance and Indium Software through the strategy.
Its early-stage venture strategy, which began in Europe, is also becoming more regional, with the firm looking to ramp up its presence in India alongside China and Hong Kong. It targets Series B and C companies with a proven product-market fit, with cheque sizes of $20-50 million for a 3-10% stake, Macksey said.
A deeper exit market
EQT’s India strategy is also being shaped by improving avenues to return capital to investors.
The firm returned about $40 billion in capital globally in 2025, including $14 billion from Asia, with a significant portion coming from India, said Hari Gopalakrishnan, partner and co-head of private capital Asia. He also serves as the head of India and global co-head of services for EQT.
India is also emerging as one of EQT’s strongest markets for distributions to paid-in capital, or DPI, Gopalakrishnan said.
EQT is also evaluating India's secondary private-equity market, in line with its global strategy, where it has executed several transactions to facilitate liquidity. Earlier this year, it completed the acquisition of Coller Capital, a global secondaries firm with nearly $50 billion in assets under management.
“Our thesis is that the secondary market is going to grow much faster than the overall private equity market. As the industry has matured, there is a growing need to create liquidity for investors in the asset class—both LPs investing in our funds and GPs seeking liquidity for assets they hold,” Salata said.
The firm has also leveraged evergreen structures, which allow funds to hold assets indefinitely while giving investors the ability to buy and sell shares, rather than operating on the fixed 10-year life typical of private-equity funds.
“India is probably at an earlier stage of development when it comes to the secondary market, but we still believe it will eventually become a large market for GP-led transactions or continuation funds. This is part of the evolution of the industry becoming a more mature and developed market,” Salata said.
EQT executives pointed to a deeper initial public offering (IPO) market and growing activity among financial and strategic buyers as evidence of improving exit options in India.
“The IPO market has become deeper now. There is also more sponsor activity, with buyout funds buying assets from one another, which is healthy for the industry. Global strategics are also seeking exposure to India's large population and favorable demographics,” Gopalakrishnan said.
“We are seeing more instances of strategic investors, both in India and overseas, buying the kinds of assets we would normally target. That also creates potential buyers for those assets when we eventually look to exit,” he said.
Gopalakrishnan said India's buyout market has grown sevenfold to $15 billion over the past 13 years, as more founding families seek succession solutions and investors for businesses built over generations.