India’s Reliance Industries Ltd said on Sunday it has bought a 96% stake in online furniture retailer Urban Ladder for 1,821.2 million rupees ($24.4 million), furthering its attempt to expand its presence in India’s online retail market.
The Indian conglomerate is expanding its so-called new commerce venture, which ties neighbourhood stores to Reliance for online deliveries of groceries, apparel and electronics in a space currently dominated by Walmart Inc’s Flipkart and Amazon.com Inc’s Indian arm.
The purchase “will further enable the group’s digital and new commerce initiatives and widen the bouquet of consumer products provided by the group,” Reliance said in a filing to exchanges on Sunday.
Reliance Retail Ventures Limited, a unit of Reliance Industries, has an option of buying the remaining stake, the company said, adding that it intends to invest a further 750 million rupees by December 2023.
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 information website.
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