Reliance acquires furniture retailer Urban Ladder
The Indian conglomerate is expanding its so-called new trading venture, which links neighborhood stores to Reliance for online delivery of groceries, clothing and electronics in a space currently dominated by Walmart Inc.’s Flipkart and the Indian branch of Amazon.com Inc.
The purchase “will further enable the group’s new digital and business initiatives and broaden the range of consumer products provided by the group,” Reliance said in a stock exchange statement Sunday.
Urban Ladder, which counts Steadview Capital, SAIF Partners, Sequoia and Kalaari Capital among its investors, has raised $ 114.9 million in funding, according to Crunchbase, a business news website.
Indian news site Moneycontrol reported in July that the company was looking to sell for one-sixth of its peak value reached two years ago, following the resignation of some top executives and job cuts in 2019.
Reliance Industries, controlled by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, is gathering investors in its retail unit after the conglomerate has raised more than $ 20 billion this year from global investors, including Facebook Inc, by selling stakes in its digital business Jio Platforms.
($ 1 = 74.5800 Indian rupees)
