V-Mart acquires e-commerce startup LimeRoad for Rs 31 crore

(Representative Image)

Fashion retailer V-Mart Retail (V-Mart) has acquired e-commerce platform LimeRoad for a lump sum cash of around Rs 31.12 crore. It further plans to invest Rs 150 crore to scale and achieve sustained profitability, said the company in a regulatory filing.

The Gurgaon-based startup LimeRoad was founded in 2012 by Suchi Mukherjee, Ankush Mehra and Prashant Malik. The startup clocked 1.7 crore value shoppers and achieved a gross merchandise value of more than Rs 700 crore, said the company.

LimeRoad had raised over $51 million altogether and was backed by investors including Tiger Global, Matrix, and Lightspeed among others.

Suchi Mukherjee, Founder & CEO of LimeRoad said, “This partnership helps us fundamentally solve the quality conundrum at value prices online, and accelerate our vision of making the freshest of fashion accessible to our core customer through a uniquely rich online-offline experience.”

According to the filings, LimeRoad clocked net revenue of Rs 179.95 crore in 2019-2020 which dropped to Rs 69 crore in 2021-2022.

Metta Capital acted as an exclusive financial advisor and Saraf and Partners acted as legal advisor to V-Mart for this transaction.

Commenting on the transaction, Lalit Agarwal, managing director of V-Mart Retail, said, “V-Mart is one of the strongest players in the value retail segment fulfilling fashion needs of masses across India. With this acquisition, we aim to not only acquire digital-first millennials but also build our Omni-channel expertise.”