Mumbai: Ayurwin Pharma Pvt. Ltd, a Bengaluru-based company that makes herbal health and fitness product such as NutriSlim and NutriGain, is planning to sell 25-30% of its stake to raise funds from private equity (PE) investors, two persons close to the development said on Thursday.
The discussions with a few PE funds are at initial stages, they said on condition of anonymity.
According to the first person, Ayurwin is looking to raise about Rs.150-200 crore from PE investors.
Anand Rathi Investment Banking has been hired to find suitable buyers. The firm has an annual sales of Rs.100 crore, said the second person.
Mail sent to Ayurwin spokesperson did not elicit any response while an Anand Rathi spokesperson declined to comment.
Ayurwin, which largely operates in south India, competes with products such as Endura Mass and multinational products like Herbalife.
Weight-loss supplements such as appetite and craving suppressants have seen more demand in India in the backdrop of increasing number of obese people.
According to a 2014 report released by medical journal Lancet, India has 30 million obese people and ranks third after the US and China in highest number of overweight people in the world.
“The weight-management industry in India is a low-penetrated one and growing very fast. Hence, the well-known companies in this space are always be on radars of potential investors,” said a Mumbai-based investment banker on condition of anonymity.
Ayurwin, set up by Shivakumar P.B. in 2007, has a pharmaceutical and nutraceutical certified manufacturing plant at Peenya, Bengaluru. It has established a strong trademark in Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, the company website said.
Several online ventures in weight management industry have raised venture capital or angel funding in recent past.
LiveNutriFit HeathTech Pvt. Ltd, an online preventive healthcare start-up that provides weight loss-related coaching, raised an undisclosed amount in seed funding from Omaxe CEO Mohit Goel, Magppie Retail managing director Vinod Jain and a clutch of angel investors, VCCircle reported in February.
The Hyderabad-based tech start-up had raised Series A funding from venture capital firm Kalaari Capital last year.
