Motilal Oswal group-backed funds India Business Excellence Fund – IV, managed and advised by MO Alternate Investment Advisors Pvt. Limited (MOPE), has invested $28 million (Rs 225 crore) in New Delhi-based Asian Footwears Pvt Ltd.
The mid-market focussed PE fund has picked up significant minority stake in the footwear maker, which markets its wide variety of sports shoes, casual shoes, school shoes and open footwear under brand name ‘Asian’, as per a press statement.
The nearly three-decade-old brand claims to be offering more than 500 varieties of shoes between a range of Rs 500-1,500 price points. The company retails its products across e-commerce platforms and through an offline network of more than 200 distributors and over 10,000 retailers.
The firm will utilise the capital for the purpose of accelerating branding and promotional activities, boost distribution and supply chain and hire more professionals.
“What also really excites us is that emerging players such as Asian with a focus on domestic manufacturing are expected to reduce India’s dependence on imports,” said Vijay Dhanuka, director and head of consumer sector at MO Alts.
Asian competes with the likes of TPG-backed Campus Activewear which made its public market debut earlier this year and ace broker Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Metro Brands which got listed in December 2021.
In the upcoming startup segment, eco-friendly footwear brand Neeman's Pvt. Ltd was earlier reported to be in discussion with several homegrown private equity funds and growth investors to raise funding at a valuation of nearly $40 million. Existing investor Sixth Sense Ventures also had already participated in this round with Rs 40 crore contribution.
MOPE has recently marked the final close of its fourth fund at Rs 4,500 crore. The fund has already made three investments—in Pathkind, a diagnostic chain promoted by the Mankind Pharma group, and Simpolo, a player in the premium tile segment and parent entity of gifting platform IGP.com.
The latest vehicle will typically invest Rs 200-500 crore in its portfolio firm and have earmarked 10-15% of the fund to invest in slightly early-stage technology enabled businesses.
The fourth fund, managed by Motilal Oswal Alternate Investment Advisors Pvt. Ltd led by Vishal Tulsyan and Raamdeo Agrawal, is much bigger than its third vehicle which marked the final close of raising capital at over Rs 2,300 crore ($320 million) in 2018.
The private equity firm, a subsidiary of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Ltd, has made 37 investments and has completed 15 exits since its inception.
Including the four growth capital funds, Motilal Oswal PE also manages five real estate funds.