Reliance to acquire majority stake in Google-backed Fynd

Following months of media speculation, Reliance has now confirmed that it is going to acquire a majority stake in online fashion marketplace Fynd.

Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings (RIIHL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Reliance Industries (RIL)  has entered into an agreement with the Google-backed fashion marketplace to acquire an 87.6% stake, according to a filing with the stock exchanges by RIL.

The Mukesh Ambani-owned company will acquire the stake through a cash investment of  $41.8 million (Rs 295.25 crore) in Shopsense Retail Technologies, the entity that operates Fynd.

Additionally, RIIHL also has the option of investing another Rs 100 crore ($14.17 million at the current rate) in cash into Fynd, the filings showed. 

While the timeline of the formal closure of the majority stake acquisition was not disclosed, the additional investment is expected to be made by December 2021.

The official confirmation comes a little under five months after online media publication Entrackr had first reported about the acquisition.

Fynd’s co-founder Harsh Shah had dismissed the development as speculations.

Founded in 2013 by Shah, Farooq Adam and Sreeraman MG, Fynd sources products across various categories including clothing, footwear, jewellery and accessories, directly from nearby outlets and brings them online. The company claims to have over 9,000 outlets registered on its platform. It allows customers to discover fashion in real-time and to know the exact specifications of the products available.

The firm also retails brands at its own outlet Fynd Store.

In March 2018, it closed a Series C round led by tech giant Google. Its other investors include Kae Capital, IIFL, Singularity Ventures, GrowX, Tracxn Labs, Venture Catalyst, Patni family office and Hong Kong-based Axis Capital and angel investors.

Reliance, which has made no bones of its intent for full-fledged foray into ecommerce, has snapped up several companies in recent times including hyperlocal delivery platform Grab, software solutions firm C-Square, local language technology startup Reverie, Indian government schemes aggregator EasyGov and software simulation services startup SankhyaSutra Labs.