Goldman Sachs buys Purplle’s angel investor shares for Rs 60 crore: Report

New York headquartered investment bank Goldman Sachs has bought out some key early angel investors in online beauty and makeup products retailer Purplle.

In a secondary exit deal, angel investors Abhinav Sinha and Anirudha Gopalakrishnan have secured a 40X return on their investment over a nine-year period, multiple media reports said.

Goldman Sachs, which poured in $27.4 million in a Series C round in December last year, bought the share from the duo and others worth Rs 60 crore, The Economic Times said. 

According to the report, former and existing employees also sold Rs 12 crore worth holding to the Belgium-based Verlinvest which wrote a cheque of $8 million in the Series C round in January 2020. 

Sinha and Gopalakrishnan, who are former Fidelity Investments executives, invested Rs 25 lakhs and Rs 20 lakhs respectively when Purplle was launched in December 2011. Sinha made Rs 10 crore after selling his shares to Goldman Sachs, while Gopalakrishnan secured Rs 8 crores on his secondary exit, according to a report by Mint.

Responding to TechCircle queries, Purplle founder and CEO Manish Taneja said that “it’s a secondary transaction and there is no implication on company valuation.” 

"As Purplle is looking to create a multi-billion dollar digital-first beauty company over the next 7-10 years, a lot of wealth would be distributed to everyone in the organisation. The current ESOP sale by the employees is a small step in the same direction," Taneja said.

The company was founded in 2012 by Taneja and Rahul Dash. It sells makeup products and fashion accessories, as well as wellness products for men and women on its website. Its existing investors include Blume Ventures, IvyCap Ventures and JSW Ventures.