Value retail chain 1-India Family Mart has raised Rs 20 crore ($2.8 million) in debt funding in a transaction led by Mumbai-based APAC Financial Services Pvt. Ltd, launched by Deutsche Bank’s former Asia-Pacific chief Gunit Chadha.
The company will use the capital mainly for expansion into newer geographies, it said in a statement.
1-India Family Mart, operated by Gurugram-based Nysaa Retail Pvt. Ltd, offers affordable and fresh fashion apparels, lifestyle products and general merchandise through its retail outlets. It currently runs 90 units spread across 81 cities in eastern and northern India.
“This round is part of the larger capital raise (having a mix of debt and equity) which the company is in the process of closing and will fund the company to scale its business till it goes public within the next two years,” said Ravinder Singh, chief operating officer of Nysaa Retail.
The larger round will enable the retail firm to add up 40 stores in the current financial year and 50 stores in the next fiscal.
The company had raised its first institutional round of funding from private equity firm Carpediem Capital in 2018.
Peers
In January, IDFC Alternatives, the private equity arm of non-banking financial company IDFC Ltd, backed Citykart Retail Pvt. Ltd in its first investment in the retail sector.
In the same month, West Bengal-based Baazar Style Retail Pvt. Ltd, which operates the brand Style Baazar, raised fresh funding from ace stock-market investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala.
VCCircle had reported in November last year that value retail chain Baazar Retail, which runs the brand Baazar Kolkata, was looking to raise around Rs 400-500 crore in its maiden funding round from private equity players.
In September 2018, mid-market private equity firm Samara Capital and US-based e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc. signed an agreement to buy Aditya Birla Retail Ltd’s food and grocery retail chain More.
In May last year, Partners Group and private equity firm Kedaara Capital agreed to acquire Gurugram-based Vishal Mega Mart Pvt. Ltd from PE giant TPG.