Tiger to sell Caratlane for $53m

Caratlane's price represents an almost flat return for Tiger on its investment in the company, which totaled around $50 million over several funding rounds since 2011. Its most recent investment was a INR1.85 billion commitment to Caratlane's Series D round in January 2015.

Titan is a subsidiary of India's Tata Group that produces jewelry under the Tanishq brand and watches under the Titan and Fastrack brands. It hopes to gain access to new customer segments and create new sales channels for Tanishq. Its purchase will give it 19.1 million shares in Caratlane, representing about a 62% stake in the company, according to a filing.

Under the new ownership, Caratlane will continue to expand its network of offline stores in addition to its online presence. The company currently operates 13 locations across the country.

Titan had agreed to buy Caratlane earlier this year, but was waiting for the completion of accounting due diligence before setting financial details. The acquisition is expected to be completed within the next three weeks.

Caratlane's competitors in the online jewelry space include Peepul Capital-backed Voylla, Kalaari-backed BlueStone, and Lightbox-supported Melorra. The company claimed revenue of INR1.4 billion for the 2015-2016 financial year, up from INR1.3 billion the year before.

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• Topics
• South Asia
• Consumer
• Technology
• Trade sale
• India
• Tiger Global Management
• TMT