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Goldman buys Piramal loans to Lodha; Lightbox may lead $50 mn round in Dunzo

By Ankit Agarwal

  • 29 May 2019
Goldman buys Piramal loans to Lodha; Lightbox may lead $50 mn round in Dunzo
Credit: VCCircle

A Goldman Sachs unit has bought Piramal Capital & Housing Finance Ltd's loans worth Rs 2,000 crore ($286.5 million) to Lodha Developers, the Mint newspaper reported, citing two people aware of the matter.

The report also said, citing a Piramal Capital spokesperson, that the lender plans to reduce single-borrower exposure to Mumbai-based Lodha. 

Piramal Capital is the retail and wholesale lending arm of billionaire Ajay Piramal-led Piramal Enterprises Ltd. Wholesale lending comprise 63% of the company's loan book while housing finance forms 9%.

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The Piramal group, via various units, has invested in several Lodha projects over the years.  Earlier this year, for instance, a co-investment fund of Piramal Enterprises and Canadian pension fund CDPQ invested equity capital worth Rs 500 crore in Palava, a smart city being developed by Lodha.

In another report, Mint cited three people aware of the matter as saying that venture capital firm Lightbox Ventures was in talks to lead a $50 million funding round in hyperlocal on-demand delivery startup Dunzo Digital Pvt. Ltd. 

The deal is likely to close in the next month or two, the report said.

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Dunzo plans to the funds to expand to newer cities and compete with the likes of food delivery firm Swiggy. 

The startup was founded by Kabeer Biswas, Ankur Aggarwal, Mukund Jha and Dalvir Suri in 2015. Dunzo was Google’s first direct investment in India—the technology giant led a $12-million round in the startup in December 2017.

Earlier this month, Bengaluru-based Dunzo raised funding from Kalpavriksh, the private equity arm of financial services firm Centrum. 

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In February, Dunzo raised $6.5 million from new and existing investors including Deep Kalra, the chairman and group chief executive officer of online travel services provider MakeMyTrip. It is also backed by Blume Ventures and Alteria Capital.

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