India Wealth Fund Drops Investment in TPG-Backed FirstCry
(Bloomberg) -- India's sovereign wealth fund has scrapped plans to invest in FirstCry.com, an e-commerce startup backed by TPG, people familiar with the matter said.
The country's National Investment & Infrastructure Fund Ltd. pulled out of a deal to buy a stake in online baby marketplace FirstCry.com being sold by an existing investor, the people said, asking not to be identified as the information is not public. PremjiInvest, the family office of Wipro Ltd.'s billionaire founder Azim Premji, is planning to step in and buy the stake, according to the people.
FirstCry, formally known as BrainBees Solutions Pvt, runs an online store featuring products for children and expecting mothers. Its investors include TPG, Japanese billionaire Masayoshi Son's SoftBank Group Corp. and local investment firm ChrysCapital.
Representatives for NIIF, FirstCry and PremjiInvest didn't immediately respond to requests for comment.
India's antitrust regulator approved NIIF's investment in FirstCry in February. Through its funds, NIIF has previously invested in companies including Hindustan Infralog, Ayana Renewable Power and Manipal Hospitals.
©2022 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
