Myntra in talks with Azim Premji's investment arm and others for fresh funding
Wipro chairman Azim Premji's investment firm PremjiInvest and British fund-of-funds CDC are in talks invest around $50 million in Bangalore-based Myntra Designs Pvt Ltd, which runs fashion and lifestyle ecom venture Myntra.com, according to The Times of India.
The report quoting sources said PremjiInvest is expected to be a co-investor in the deal which may value Myntra at around $250 million.
When contacted Mukesh Bansal, co-founder and CEO, Myntra, refused to comment on the development. An email sent to the spokesperson of PremjiInvest did not immediately elicit a response. However, Rhyddid Carter, a spokesperson of CDC Group, denied the development.
If PremjiInvest does seal the deal, it would be one of its first bet on the e-com sector even as the investment firm has previously bet on the offline retail sector.
Earlier, Myntra had secured an additional $25 million from existing investors, including Tiger Global and Accel Partners. This funding round, which was not formally announced, followed by a $20 million Series C funding round in early 2012 led by Tiger Global.
Myntra is one of the heavily funded e-commerce companies in India. Besides $45 million in two tranches last year, it had raised around $14 million from Tiger Global, IDG Ventures and Indo-US Venture Partners (now Kalaari Capital) in March 2011. It also raised $5 million in Series A funding from NEA-IndoUS Ventures, IDG Ventures and Accel Partners in November 2008.
Earlier this year in July, Techcircle.in reported that the etailer is looking to raise $100 million in another round of funding. The company claimed to be clocking gross merchandise value (GMV) of Rs 60 crore on a monthly basis as of September this year. It was looking to double sales to Rs 800 crore in FY14.
While Indian e-com sector saw multiple shutdowns this year, bigger players have managed to raise loads of cash. In October this year, the largest consumer e-commerce player Flipkart raised an additional $160 million (Rs 990 crore) in the fifth round of funding started in July this year, from new investors including Belgium-based Sofina, US-based Morgan Stanley Investment Management, Dragoneer Investment Group and Vulcan Capital (founded by Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen), along with participation from existing investor Tiger Global.
TV18 Shopping Network Ltd, the teleshopping and e-commerce arm of Network18 that runs under the HomeShop18 brand, also raised a $14 million (Rs 87 crore) follow-on funding round with existing investors GS Home Shopping (GS), funds managed by OCP Asia Ltd (OCP Asia) and Network18. Another player, Yebhi.com raised $12 million in a bridge round from its existing investors.
(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)
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