Lighthouse announces investment in V2 Retail

Lighthouse, a middle market private equity firm focused on growth investments in India’s consumer sector has announced that funds affiliated with the firm have made an investment of Rs 760 million in V2 Retail Ltd , one of India’s fastest growing, pure play apparel value retailers. The investment will be used to accelerate V2 Retail’s store expansion plans.
V2 Retail provides a one-stop apparel shopping solution for the complete family, offering a wide, diverse range of apparel at every day affordable prices. The company caters to the aspirational, but value-focused retail consumer, who otherwise had to resort to smaller, unorganised outlets for his or her apparel needs.
For FY17, the company achieved revenue of approximately Rs 4.7 billion, representing a CAGR in excess of 60 per cent over the last five years. Currently, the company has 44 stores across 13 states in India and targets reaching a store count of 100 in the next two to three years.
Chairman and Managing Director of V2 Retail, Ram Chandra Agarwal shared, “We were highly impressed with Lighthouse’s track record of investing in and building leading branded, consumer companies, and believe their assistance will be invaluable for us going forward. We plan to further penetrate in our core markets, such as Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, due to large number of high potential Tier II and III cities, which remain significantly underpenetrated in terms of organized retail.”
“We have been witnessing a structural change in the Indian retail landscape over the past few years, and are very excited to partner with V2 Retail. We have great confidence in Ram Chandra Agarwal, the pioneer of value retailing in India, and his team, and believe that the next few years will be transformational for the company,” said Partner, Lighthouse Advisors, Sachin Bhartiya.
He added that India has added more than 400 million consumers into the middle-income bucket over the past 15 years. It is this bucket which is driving consumerism in India and V2 Retail is well positioned to cater to this aspiration which presents a strong tailwind for growth.