JM Financial's PE arm invests Rs. 45 crore in Mumbai-based Innovcare Lifescience

JM Financial Private Equity Fund, which is a PE fund managed JM Financial Group, has announced an investment of Rs 45 crore (about US$ 6.4 million) in Innovcare Lifesciences, a Mumbai-based nutraceutical firm in lieu of significant minority stake.

The company will utilise these funds for growth plans that consist of development of the current product portfolio and entering into new therapeutic areas.

According to a source, "The whole nutraceutical sector in India is relatively a young sector but has immense growth potential. This industry has been growing at double-digit figures for the last few years."

The investment was a part of JM Financial India Fund round II, a sector-agnostic growth-capital PE fund that generally invests in small- to mid-market companies. These funds mostly focuses on financial services, consumer, information technology & information technology enabled services, manufacturing and infrastructure services.

The investment in the Innovcare Lifesciences is the fifth investment fund by the company. Earlier it had invested in housing finance company India Home Loan, micro-finance institution Spandana Sphoorty Financial, vending solutions provider Vendiman Private and operator of co-living spaces Isthara Parks.

A Rs. 1,000 crore (US$ 143 million) fund had been invested by the firm from From its JM Financial India Fund I.

Innovcare Lifesciences is engaged in marketing and sales of branded nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals and functional foods. According to company's website, the company was founded in 2014 and is targeting sales of around US$ 20 million by 2020. It has earlier received investment from Sequoia Capital.

Indian nutraceutical market is estimated to reach to US$ 6.1 billion by 2020 at an annual growth rate of over 20 per cent from US$ 2.2 billion in 2015. 

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.