India-focused Gaja Capital, a private equity firm specialising in investments in the lower end of the middle market, has pumped Rs 75 crore ($10 million) into sport education and training firm Kooh Sports Pvt. Ltd, the former's spokesperson told VCCircle.
The deal, a mix of primary and secondary components, will provide exit to some investors, the person added. Kooh counts private equity firm Faering Capital, infotech company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and home-loan firm HDFC among its investors.
Kooh will be brought under Gaja-backed SportzVillage, which offers sport management services to schools and offers sporting experiences to corporate houses.
Email to Kooh didn’t get any response till the time of publishing this report. The Economic Times had first reported the development.
Kooh (kids out of home) was launched in 2010 by the founders of Indian back-office firm Intelenet Global Services Ltd: Susir Kumar and Prabhu Srinivasan. It claims to have served over 200,000 kids in India and the UAE (United Arab Emirates) through its sports education services.
The company’s net sales rose to Rs 17 crore for 2016-17, from Rs 9 crore a year before, going by VCCEdge, the financial data platform of News Corp VCCircle. The company is yet to achieve its break-even.
Gaja Capital Partners has been an active investor in the education space, having picked up stakes in CL Educate, EuroKids International, Junior Sports and Services, SV EduSports and Educomp Solutions.
In July, Gaja backed Ahmedabad-based Educational Initiatives Pvt. Ltd, which uses machine learning and artificial intelligence.
Gaja, which had marked the final close of raising money for its second fund at $240 million last year, focuses on the consumption segment, with an emphasis on education, financial services, consumer and healthcare sectors.