Today is the launch of the first startup unicorn in the country and a lot more unicorns are getting created and that is fuelled by the liquidity provided by the private equity as well as the venture capitalist.

How is the entire deal street and the investment street really panning out, CNBC-TV18’s Nisha Poddar spoke to Raja Lahiri, Partner of Grant Thornton Bharat. Raja Lahiri talked about Grant Thornton Bharat’s deal tracker report and gave his insight.

Lahiri said, "This is one of the best times at least in the last decade, the kind of deal activity that one has seen is tremendous. There is so much pent-up demand that has happened. There have been 20-25 unicorns been born in this year itself, in the first half of 2021, and one expects that by end of 2021, we could see at least 50 unicorns in India."

He said that there is a significant interest to back the digital businesses. Second is obviously Zomato's IPO that has got listed and it clearly indicates that it is not just backing these unicorns but there is an exit opportunity possible.

Lahiri said the key themes are across the digital sectors, it is about edutech. Health tech, pharma tech are other growing areas. The emergence of B2B commerce is also being witnessed. Social commerce is another such area.

On the performance of traditional companies on the deal street, he said, "I would say in the traditional companies it is a word of caution because as we are going through a phase of uncertainty, so cash is very relevant and cash has to be protected. I would say it could be of caution but what we are also seeing is the big players are looking to buy niche assets."

Watch the accompanying video for more.

(Edited by : Priyanka Rathi)