Tiger Global-backed Infra.Market said Monday it has agreed to buy a majority stake in Strata Geosystems (India) Pvt Ltd, a geosynthetic manufacturing and geotechnical engineering company.
Infra.Market, a business-to-business marketplace for construction materials, will acquire Strata for Rs 910 crore ($110 million) from US-based fabric manufacturing company Glen Raven Technical Fabrics and a group of other Indian shareholders, the company said in a statement.
Strata’s India unit will buy Glen Raven’s geosynthetics business as a part of the deal.
“We are attempting to build India’s largest multi-product construction material offering not only in India but globally,” said Aaditya Sharda, co-founder of Infra.Market, which joined the unicorn club with a valuation of over $1 billion in February 2021 after raising $100 million in a round led by Tiger Global.
Infra.Market, which also counts Accel, Evolvence India, Sistema Asia Fund, Foundamental Gmbh and Nexus Venture Partners as its investors, last raised $50 million in growth capital from Liquidity Group’s MARS Unicorn Fund in June 2022.
The all-cash deal will be financed by the $150 million that Infra.market is raising from Varde Partners. The rest of the capital will be used to fuel organic growth, Souvik Sengupta, co-founder of Infra.Market, told VCCircle. He added that the acquisition will help the company scale its presence in geosynthetic materials and also grow its international presence.
Infra.market said that Strata is “uniquely positioned” to capture the opportunity for adoption of geosynthetics—man-made materials used to improve soil conditions—in road and allied construction in India and North America.
“We have been at the forefront of advancing the adoption of these products (geosynthetics) in India and have successfully developed them in several infrastructure sectors such as highways, container yards, etc,” said Narendra Dalmia, chief executive of Strata.
Narendra Dalmia, along with Gautam Dalmia, Strata’s chief development officer, will remain invested in the company and lead the global operations at Strata.
Infra.Market, last valued at $2.5 billion, offers construction materials on its marketplace. The company exports its products and services to the Middle East, Europe and Southeast Asian markets. The company has previously acquired stakes in multiple brands in different niches as part of its ‘house of brands’ approach.
It bought concrete manufacturer RDC Concrete from private equity firm True North for Rs 700 crore in 2021. The company also bought a stake in Hyderabad-based construction equipment rental service Equiphunt the same year. It picked up a stake worth Rs 270 crore in publicly traded Shalimar Paints last year.
Avendus Capital was the exclusive financial advisor to Strata and its shareholders on the transaction.
