Mumbai: Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries' arm Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings Ltd (RIIHL) is investing Rs 295.25 crore in Mumbai-based Fynd as part of its focus on consumer businesses and mobile phone services. Fynd is an Indian technology startup funded by Google and acts as an inventory management platform. The move by Reliance adds to a list of smaller deals the conglomerate has assembled to take on Amazon.com Inc.
"RIIHL has an option to further invest an amount of up to Rs 100 crore which is likely to be completed by December 2021," Reliance said in a statement. "The total investment will translate into 87.6 per cent of equity share capital in Fynd on a fully diluted and converted basis." The investment will further enable the group's digital and new commerce initiatives, it added.
Fynd's parent company Shopsense Retail Technologies started out as an online fashion portal and has shifted its focus to helping stores boost sales by managing inventory. Ambani has said the key to his e-commerce push will be empowering mom-and-pop retailers with technology to improve their sales and better serve customers. Reliance has been increasing investments and acquisitions in the tech and Internet space as it prepares to launch services like e-commerce on the back of its huge reach through Reliance Jio Infocomm.Fynd is an early-stage company with a turnover of Rs 4.84 crore and net loss of Rs 18.64 crore in FY 2018.
