JSW Ventures has partially exited its shareholding in Purplle, an omnichannel beauty destination, through a secondary sale to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), the company announced on Wednesday.

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The partial exit from Purplle has yielded a remarkable 18x return on the initial capital invested, showcasing the success of the partnership. As a result of this transaction, JSW Ventures has returned 2x of the corpus from its first fund to its investors.

The investment in Purplle began in 2016 when JSW Ventures participated in the company's Series A funding round. Since then, JSW Ventures has been actively involved in multiple funding rounds, supporting Purplle's growth journey to become a unicorn.

JSW Ventures, an institutional venture capital fund, primarily focuses on early-stage investments in technology companies operating in B2B and B2C platforms across sectors such as consumer, healthcare, financial services, and agriculture. The fund is also focussed on investing in emerging Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) companies from India that service the global market.

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Commenting on the investment, Gaurav Sachdeva, Founding Partner at JSW Ventures said, "It has been a privilege to partner with Manish, Rahul and Suyash on their stellar journey since 2016. In our association with Purplle, we experienced how to build an incredible scale with product selection and reach across the cross-section of our country. Their focus on investing in leadership bandwidth across various verticals is exemplary and sets the template for start-ups making a transition from an early-stage business to a mature organisation in a capital constrained environment. We wish them

success on their continued journey to become one of the most successful consumer internet companies in the country."

Founded in 2012, the Purplle is a retail platform with 1000+ listed brands, 60,000+ products, and 7 million+ monthly active users. It expanded in 2022 with 6000+ offline touchpoints and 8 exclusive stores. It became India’s 102nd unicorn, backed by investors including Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), Kedaara, Premji Invest, Sequoia Capital India, JSW Ventures, Goldman Sachs, Verlinvest, Blume Ventures, and Paramark Ventures.

Speaking about JSW Ventures, Manish Taneja, Co-founder & CEO at Purplle said, "The partnership with JSW Ventures has been extremely fulfilling, their team has added immense value since the investment. Apart from providing capital, they have been hands-on, supporting us across various aspects of the business. We enter FY 2023-24 with a significant performance by marquee brands, strong investment trajectory, and aggressively pursuing business growth."

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