Private equity investor Ambit Pragma Ventures has invested Rs 7 crore ($1.7 million) more in Pune-based contract logistics company Spear Logistics Pvt Ltd, one of its portfolio firms.
The money will be utilised to implement the company’s expansion plans, according to people with direct knowledge of the matter.
“In the second round of fundraising, the private equity investor has upped its stake in the company by investing $1.7 million or Rs 7 crore,†one of the sources said.
An e-mail query sent to Ambit Pragma spokesperson Nirmesh Prakash did not elicit any response till the time of writing this article. Gautam Dembla, director and chief executive officer of Spear Logistics did not respond to the e-mail query either.
In 2010, Ambit Pragma made its first investment in Spear Logistics through Ambit Pragma Fund I.
According to the data provided by VCCEdge, the financial research platform of VCCircle, the company had a turnover of Rs 41.11 crore as on March 31, 2011. But higher expenditure of Rs 39.34 crore made the company book a loss of Rs 2.8 crore for the same period.
Founded in 2001, Spear Logistics has a team of more than 1,800 employees and runs 75 warehouses spanning 2,000,000 sq. ft., along with supporting infrastructure. The company leases its warehouses to clients and currently operates in cities like Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Kochi, Nasik, New Delhi and Kolkata.
Ambit Pragma focuses on five major sectors including media & entertainment, healthcare, logistics, branded food and support services in infrastructure space.
According to its website, the fund has invested in two more companies – Prasanna Purple, a bus-operating company based in Pune, and Mumbai-based Beams Hospitals, a chain of minimal access surgery centres.
