Amazon’s partner Samara Capital plans USD 500 mn India-focused fund: Report

Private Equity firm Samara Capital, a local partner of Amazon.com Inc., is planning to raise as much as $500 million for a new India focussed fund, news agency Bloomberg reported.




According to company founder, Sumeet Narang, Samara is planning to invest in businesses focused on retail, health care, technology and finance. The Mumbai-based firm plans to close the fund in the second half of 2022.

“We have started the roadshows and many of our existing investors across the U.S., Europe, Middle East and Asia Pacific have already signed up,” Bloomberg quoted Narang as saying.

In 2018, Samara and Amazon jointly bought Aditya Birla group’s food and grocery retail chain, More. The acquisition was through Witzig Advisory Services, a unit of Samara in which Amazon owns a minority stake. More Retail is weighing an IPO that could raise as much as $500 million at a valuation of $5 billion, Bloomberg News reported in December.

Founded in 2007, the firm has invested more than $1 billion since inception, according to its website. The platform’s investors include high quality institutional investors and family offices from across the globe.The new fund will consider investing $50 million to as high as $400 million in mid-market companies for a controlling stake, Narang said.

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Samara Capital Group is a leading mid-market growth buyout firm, with very strong presence in consumer & retail sector. Samara has backed multiple category leading brands in the consumer space over the last decade. Samara’s other food services’ investment, Sapphire Foods, completed a successful IPO in November 2021.