Morpheus Fund acquires 8% of TVC Skyshop for Rs 42 crore

Morpheus Fund, a private equity fund led by former IMG India head Balu Nayar, has made a primary investment of Rs. 42 crore for a 8% stake in TVC Skyshop, valuing the company at Rs 500 crore.

Talking about the latest infusion of capital, Vinod Agarwal, Chairman & MD, TVC Skyshop, said, “Morpheus and TVC both believe in the value of creating brands. Balu, with his rich experience across companies like IMG, Yahoo and Hutch, will be of immense value for TVC in its next phase of growth.”

Balu Nayar, MD Morpheus Capital Advisors, said, “We have been studying the virtual retailing space closely for some years now - this includes businesses that use either the Internet, television or any other media to market and distribute brands directly to the consumer. We’d met TVC about a year back, and were impressed with their old-fashioned business model – this is the only company of any significant size in this entire sector, including e-commerce that is PAT-positive.”

Founded in 2000 by Vinod Agarwal, and funded by Samara Capital, TVC is India’s leading multi-channel direct to consumer virtual retailing platform with more than 5 million customers. TVC Skyshop is the only player which markets and distributes 100% proprietary brands products across consumer categories such as books, magazines, electronics, mobiles, accessories, apparels, home furnishing, toys & games, jewellery and home appliances offering higher margins. It has best-of-class Infrastructure with a unique distribution network and a 24x7 call centre offering end-to-end solutions. TVC has over 600 exclusive distribution partners with a pan-India home delivery covering 3,500 towns and ability to reach out to over 17,000 serviceable PIN codes (88% of PIN codes in India) compared to normal courier reach of around 6,000 PIN codes. In the previous closed quarter (Q4 FY 2013), TVC Skyshop reported revenues of Rs 69 crore, a quarterly growth of 80% over the previous year.