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Grapevine: Promoter, two PE firms to part-exit Sahajanand; SoftBank may back Unacademy

By Ankit Agarwal

  • 14 Jul 2020
Grapevine: Promoter, two PE firms to part-exit Sahajanand; SoftBank may back Unacademy
Credit: VCCircle

The promoter of Sahajanand Medical Technologies Pvt. Ltd, India’s largest cardiac stent maker, along with two private equity firms, plan to sell 30% stake in the company for up to $150 million (Rs 1,100 crore), people aware of the development told The Economic Times.

Dhirajlal Kotadia, the promoter who owns 47% stake, Samara Capital and Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia, who own 35% and 18%, respectively, have agreed to sell part of their stakes in the company at a valuation of $300 million (Rs 2,260 crore).

The proceeds will be used for clinical trials in the US and for building a manufacturing plant in Hyderabad.

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Samara Capital invested about Rs 170 crore in 2016 at a valuation of Rs 400 crore. In 2018, Morgan Stanley PE Asia led an investment round of Rs 230 crore joined by Samara at a valuation of Rs 1,200 crore.

In another development, Japanese investment giant SoftBank is in advanced talks for an investment of up to $200 million (about Rs 1,500 crore) in online learning platform Unacademy, two people in the know told Moneycontrol.

The round may value the startup at $1.2 billion (about Rs 9,040 crore) pre-money. Although other late-stage technology funds are interested and vying for a stake, SoftBank is the frontrunner. Unacademy’s competitor Byju’s is the only other unicorn in this space.

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The deal is expected to close over the next few weeks. Existing investors like Sequoia Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Blume Ventures and Steadview Capital may also participate in the round.

Unacademy raised $110 million in February led by private equity firm General Atlantic and social media giant Facebook Inc. at a valuation of $510 million.

Post the funding round, the company has announced three acquisitions: Kreatryx in March, CodeChef in June, and Prepladder in July.

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Separately, US technology giant Google is in advanced talks to invest about $4 billion (about Rs 30,140 crore) in Reliance Industries Ltd’s digital arm Jio Platforms Ltd, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. 

Google would join Facebook Inc. and 10 private equity investors that have cumulatively agreed to invest more than $15.65 billion in Jio Platforms.

The latest funding was announced yesterday by Qualcomm Ventures. Other investors in the recent past include Mubadala, Intel Capital, TPG, Advent, Silver Lake, and General Atlantic.

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News of Google comes after it said on Monday that it plans to spend $10 billion over the next five to seven years to help accelerate the adoption of digital technologies in India.

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