NDTV attracts potential investors for e-commerce ventures in food, automobile & gadgets

Media group NDTV Ltd said on Wednesday that it has received potential investment interest from unnamed entities for its digital media subsidiary NDTV Convergence Ltd to launch e-commerce ventures in the field of food, automobiles and gadgets.

According to the statement, it has signed non-binding term sheets.

It had said in March that its board has accorded in principle approval for setting up of online ventures including digital transactions.

The move to launch new ventures in the food, automobile and gadgets space appears to be an extension of its existing content creation around these three verticals.

NDTV, which is best known for news media properties, has dedicated web channels for food, automobiles and gadgets related content. These are themselves an extension of its dedicated television shows revolving around these domains.

Although it did not share further details on the plans for these three verticals, it is possibly to launch e-commerce sites which can draw upon the digital content created in-house to present a curated site enabling transactions or purchases.

While there are several ventures selling food (prepared or uncooked gourmet items) and a bunch of auto portals (CarDekho, CarWale among others), it may look at capitalise on lack of many dedicated ventures for gadgets.

It has previously tested its capabilities to go beyond digital content when it floated ethnic wear-focused e-commerce venture Indianroots. This is housed under NDTV Ethnic Retail Ltd and in March this unit raised $5 million in a Series A round of funding from Mumbai-based KJS Group.

Launched in July 2013, Indianroots is a curated marketplace that houses premium ethnic wear brands and designers like Sabyasachi, Raw Mangoes, Anita Dongre, Neeta Lulla, Indian Artizans and Karigari. Though the site also offers a few mass market labels like Chhabra Bros and Kurtawala, its primary value proposition is selling premium brands to Indians outside the country.