Venture capital firm Gujarat Venture Finance Ltd (GVFL) has invested Rs 30 crore ($4.6 million) from Golden Gujarat Growth Fund-I in Ahmedabad-based premium homeware manufacturer Varmora Plastech Pvt. Ltd.
Golden Gujarat Growth Fund-I is a growth-stage fund that makes investments of Rs 25-50 crore in companies with an investment horizon of 3-5 years.
Varmora Plastech will use the capital to expand its product range and market reach, said a press statement.
The company, launched in 2013, sells homeware through a network of 75 distributors reaching 2,000 retail points across India. It has a presence in modern retail and online channels as well, and also exports to several countries.
“The premium homeware segment caters mainly to the urban middle-class customer, but is seeing increasing participation from semi-urban customers,†said Sanjay Randhar, managing director at GVFL.
Randhar estimated the size of the premium homeware segment at around Rs 10,000 crore, saying it was dominated by unorganised players. “But there is a shift towards organised players who have captured around Rs 2,000 crore of the market and are growing faster than the unorganised market,†he added.
Varmora Plastech is backed by Varmora Group, a leading ceramics player with diverse business interests. “GVFL's experience in enabling businesses to scale up quickly would be a strong advantage to our company,†said group chairman Bhavesh Varmora.
GVFL, considered one of the oldest venture capital firms in the country, claims to have supported over 80 companies so far.
Golden Gujarat Growth Fund-I, which is anchored by the government of Gujarat with investments from Life Insurance Corporation of India, IFCI Ltd and public sector banks, has primarily backed firms in the real estate, construction and wind energy space.
Some of its recent bets were cold storage warehousing provider Schedulers Logistics and online bus booking platform Travelyaari.
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