Reliance to buy 87.6% stake e-commerce startup Fynd For Rs295 cr

The company said the acquisition will be carried out through its wholly-owned subsidiary Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Ltd, adding that it has an option to further invest up to Rs100 crore by December 2021 in Fynd, a software technology company formed in September 2012.

Reliance Industries already runs retail stores and has announced plans to diversify into e-commerce.

Fynd provides technology platform and solutions to merchants to manage their inventory and sales across multiple demand channels for consumers, including e-commerce platforms.

Following the acquisition, Fynd’s ecommerce platform would be integrated with Reliance Retail and the conglomerate’s upcoming ecommerce service, which would work on an offline-to-online (O2O) model, which Fynd also operates in.

The Mukesh Ambani-led group was said to be in talks to acquire Fynd in March this year. 

According to Reliance’s BSE filing, Fynd reported a turnover of Rs4.84 crore, Rs0.70 crore and Rs0.52 crore for FY 2018, FY 2017 and FY 2016, with losses of Rs18.64 crore, Rs10.64 crore and Rs1.51 crore, respectively.

Founded in 2012 by Farooq Adam, Harsh Shah, and Sreeraman MG, Fynd functions on an O2O model and directly sources products across various categories – including clothing, footwear, jewellery, and accessories, from prominent brands in the country. The startup optimises delivery time by sourcing products from the outlets nearest to the customer. It claims to have about 8,000 outlets on board for about 500 clients. Fynd’s in-house product the ‘Fynd Store’ helps brand stores save their in-store sales data. Fynd Store helps store managers place order on behalf of walk-ins, in case the desired product is not stocked or not available in the right size in the store.

Last March, Google led a Series C funding round in Fynd, which included existing investors Kae Capital, IIFL, Singularity Ventures, GrowX, Tracxn Labs, Venture Catalyst, Patni family office and HongKong based Axis Capital among other angel investors.

In 2017 alone, the Mumbai-based startup raised about $3.4 million spread across three rounds. The startup also counts people like Anand Chandrasekaran (global director, Platform/Partnerships at Facebook), Rajiv Mehta (CEO of Arvind Sports Lifestyle Limited), and Ramakant Sharma (co-founder of Livspace) among its investors.