A private Equity firm is nothing but a private group of investors, who make money through purchase and sale and ownership of private equity. As against publicly traded equities that are purchased and sold in the stock market, private equity funds deal with equities that are not available publicly. Private equity is unlike debts or loans to the company like bank loans and bonds since equities have greater potential for return and risk as compared to debt. Private Equity firms are companies that invest in private businesses by buying their shares and equities.

These are heterogeneous organizations that differ in objectives, strategies and resources and these companies frequently invest in companies under sectors like communications, biotechnology, semiconductors, software and hardware. Private equity companies can be brought under three different types being semi-captive private equity, private captive equity and independent private equity. The names of top companies in the private equity sector in India are given below:

Top Private Equity firms:

• ICICI Venture

• Chrys Capital

• Sequoia Capital

• India Value Fund

• Kotak Private Equity Group

• Baring Private Equity Partners

• Ascent Capital

• Everstone Capital

• Blackstone Group

Some of the details regarding these top companies in the private equity sector in India are given below:

ICICI Venture:

ICICI Venture Fund Management is headquartered in the city of Mumbai and this company has raised funds to about three billion US dollars in the last decade. This company is a subsidiary of the popular ICICI Bank.

Chrys Capital:

Chrys Capital came into existence in the year 1999 and it is a company based in the city of New Delhi. The company has made nearly 50 investments right from its inception and has raised nearly 2 billion US dollars in private equity funds.

Sequoia Capital:

The former name of Sequoia Capital is West Bridge Capital Partners and their main investment areas include financial services, energy and consumer goods industry. The company is operating from the city of Bangalore and they are focused on investment in any industry at a very early growth state of the industry.

India Value Fund:

This company came into existence in the year 1999 and they are operating from the city of Mumbai in the state of Maharashtra. The former name of this company is GW Capital and it boasts nearly 1.4 billion US dollars, which is divided among four funds.

Kotak Private Equity Group:

This company came into existence in the year 1997 and they have made huge investment in the health care and infrastructure industry in India since these are one among the fastest growing industries in the nation.

Baring Private Equity Partners:

This company is shortly called as BPEP and it came into existence in the year 1998. They have invested huge money in the Indian, Latin and American markets and their investment mainly focuses on sectors like information technology, pharmaceutics and manufacturing industry.

Ascent Capital:

Ascent Capital is one of the leading private equity firms in India and with more than a decade of their existence, they have built unmatched record of success in offering growth capital to develop market leader in India. They have made more than 40 entrepreneurs achieve their dream and they presently manage nearly 600 US Dollars in three funds.

Everstone Capital:

The first fund of this company was raised in the year 2006 for an amount of 425 million US dollars. They focus on investment in clothing industry and engineering firms. This company is a subsidiary of the popular Future Holdings company.

Blackstone Group:

Blackstone Group is actually based on the United States and they have made their announcement in the Indian Infrastructure Industry to a tune of US 1.5 billion dollars.

These, top players dominate the private equity industry in India.