Venture Capitalists invested over $777 million in 57 deals in India during the first three quarters of 2007, as per the India Venture Capital Report from Dow Jones (NYSE: DJ) VentureOne and Ernst & Young (release. This up from $158 million which was invested during the same period in 2006. Some stats:
—54% of venture deals were in IT categories, with 31 rounds of investment worth $327 million
—$113 million was invested in 17 deals in Information services, including mapping, social networks and online advertising. This is up from $27 million for the same period in 2006.
—$95 million was invested in Communications and Networks companies
—Early stage deals accounted for 63% of all deals, with $490 million invested in 42 first rounds and three seed rounds.

The Carlyle Group expects the Private Equity (PE) market to expand by 40 percent next year; however, Shankar Narayanan, MD at Carlyle India Advisors told Bloomberg that returns may come down in percentage terms. As per the story, PE companies invested over $4.2 billion in India this year.