Billionaire Ranjan Pai to invest in beauty company Purplle

Ranjan Pai recently sold a controlling stake in Manipal Hospitals to Singapore’s Temasek in the largest deal by a private equity fund in India’s healthcare sector.

Billionaire investor Ranjan Pai is likely to invest in Purplle, an online retailer of beauty and personal care products, by buying JSW Ventures' shares in the firm for Rs 60-70 crore, sources have told Moneycontrol.

This would be the second instance of JSW Ventures offloading shares in Purplle in five months. In May, it sold a partial stake to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), scoring an 18X return on its initial investment.

As of July, JSW held a 2.8 percent stake in the beauty unicorn, as per Tracxn, a private markets data provider.

While JSW Ventures offered no comments for the story, Purplle and Pai did not reply to Moneycontrol’s emails seeking details of the round.

The previous secondary transaction was done at a valuation of $1.1 billion but the valuation for the current round wasn’t immediately clear.

This is also the latest in a series of startup investments by Pai, a seasoned entrepreneur and investor. He recently sold a controlling stake in his chain, Manipal Hospitals, to Singapore’s Temasek in the largest deal ever by a private equity fund in India’s healthcare sector. He also runs the Manipal group of educational institutions.

Over the past few months, Pai has become an active angel investor and bought stakes in startups such as edtech player Byju’s, children’s product retailer FirstCry and jewellery player BlueStone among others.

Pai paid Rs 60-70 crore to JSW Ventures to become a shareholder in the Mumbai-based company through a secondary market transaction.

In May, Purplle raised $40-$50 million. Along with the secondary market transaction with ADIA, Purplle had also raised a small primary component from South Korea's Paramark Ventures, an existing investor in the company.

Purplle said it would use the capital to expand its offline footprint by opening more stores and also strengthen its online presence.

The decision comes at a time when an increasing number of online-only startups are taking the omnichannel route as they look to increase revenue streams, lower customer acquisition costs (CACs) and sustain growth which has slowed after a steep increase during Covid.

Founded by Manish Taneja and Rahul Dash in 2012, Purplle runs a beauty and personal care e-commerce platform that competes with BSE-listed Nykaa, Walmart-owned Myntra and Flipkart, among others.

To take on the giants, Purplle has raised around $450 million from Premji Invest, Blume Ventures, homegrown private equity firm Kedaara Capital, Goldman Sachs, JSW Ventures and several others who have valued the company at $1.1 billion.