With these two deals, Paragon has deployed Rs 275 crore across four companies through its maiden fund Paragon Partners Growth Fund-I, the private equity firm said. Paragon has been founded by Siddharth Parekh, the younger son of HDFC chief Deepak Parekh, and his childhood friend and Wharton mate Sumeet Nindrajog.
The two are raising their first fund with a targeted corpus of $200 million, which is likely to announce a first close at $60 million in four to five weeks. The private equity firm’s advisory board includes Deepak Parekh and Marico chairman Harsh Mariwala.
Commenting on the transaction, Sumeet Nindrajog, Co-Founder & Senior Partner, Paragon Partners, said, “We are very happy to partner with Cravatex Brands, which is entering an exciting phase of growth. The opportunity to partner with global brands in the fast-growing sportswear and wellness industries driven by the strong Indian consumption story makes for a great investment thesis. We believe together we can significantly grow the FILA brand as well as reinforce the Company’s leadership in the wellness industry.”
Rajesh Batra, Chairman & Managing Director of Cravatex, said, “We are pleased to be associated with Paragon Partners as we embark on our next journey of growth. With the support of an actively involved investor of such high pedigree and our operational knowledge of the market we feel very confident of our future success.”
InCred is a technology-driven new age NBFC (Non-Banking Finance Company) founded by Bhupinder Singh (formerly Asia Pacific Head of Investment Banking, Deutsche Bank) and backed by Anshu Jain (formerly co-CEO of Deutsche Bank).
InCred focuses on four lending verticals: affordable housing, SME (small and medium-sized enterprises), education and consumer finance. It will use its technology platform and its partnership model for customer acquisition and credit underwriting for the under-banked and under-served segment. Incred has developed a low cost and paperless process offering a superior borrowing experience. The company has already raised over Rs 550 crore from local and overseas investors.
Siddharth Parekh, Co-Founder & Senior Partner, Paragon Partners, said “Paragon Partners is thrilled to support InCred in its goal to be a world-class lending platform. InCred has put together a very strong management team with deep domain expertise and a well-defined execution plan. We believe that the company is ideally positioned to benefit from a significant lending opportunity given the current levels of credit penetration in India”
Commenting on the transaction, Bhupinder Singh, Chief Executive Officer, InCred, said “InCred’s key objective is to further the cause of financial inclusion for India’s underserved millions, using technology to enable innovative risk management processes, along with a simple and straightforward customer experience. We welcome Paragon who are joining us on this exciting journey and we hope to benefit from their specialised domain knowledge.”
Established in August 2015, Paragon Partners Growth Fund is an AIF-Category II private equity fund investing in mid-market private companies in India. Paragon Partners will focus largely on five key sectors comprising consumer discretionary, financial services, infrastructure services (capex light), industrials and healthcare services and will look to invest in companies where it can play an active role as a shareholder. The firm targets an investment size of US$ 10-15 million as minority growth capital.
Source: Business-Standard