Grapevine: Temasek may back CureFit; Multiples raises more money for third fund

By Narinder Kapur

  • 02 Dec 2019

Singapore state investment firm Temasek is in talks with fitness and lifestyle startup CureFit Healthcare Pvt. Ltd to invest up to $100 million (Rs 717.32 crore at current exchange rates), a media report said on Monday.

The startup, which runs divisions including Cult.fit, Mind.fit and Eat.fit, is seeking a post-money valuation of around $800 million, Mint reported, citing two people aware of the development.

It is seeking to raise the capital to expand its food- and diagnostics-based (Eat.fit and Care.fit) operations, and is expecting to close the negotiations within eight weeks, one of the people said. While Temasek refused to comment on the matter, CureFit co-founder Mukesh Bansal did not respond to queries on the matter, Mint said.

The startup was founded by Bansal and Ankit Nagori. In May, it raised $75 million (Rs 520 crore) in its Series D round of funding from existing and new investors, including Accel, Kalaari Capital and Chiratae Ventures. The fundraise came within a year of CureFit having raised $120 million in its Series C funding round.

Meanwhile, the Renuka Ramnath-led private equity firm Multiples Alternate Asset Management has raised $560 million (Rs 4,017 crore at current rates) for its third India-focussed fund, The Economic Times reported.

The fund has seen participation from the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and the Washington-headquartered International Finance Corporation. Multiples PE is looking to make the final close of the fund at up to $800 million within five months, the report said.

The development comes a little more than a year after VCCircle reported that Multiples PE had raised nearly half the target corpus for its third fund. At the time, VCCircle had reported that the fund received commitments from investors for at least $400 million and up to $500 million to the mark the first close.

VCCircle had reported in February last year that Multiples had kicked off the fundraising process, aiming to raise at least $750 million with a hard cap of up to $850 million. At the time, Multiples was also said to be raising a side-car fund of $350 million to allow its limited partners to deploy additional funds for preferred investments.

In the meantime, the firm has been actively making investments out of its $635 million second fund. Companies in Multiples PE’s overall portfolio include integrated textile company Arvind Ltd, logistics startup Delhivery and drugmaker Natco Pharma Ltd.