Kotak Alternate Asset Managers Limited (KAAML) has bought Affirma Capital’s stake in nutraceuticals contract manufacturer Tirupati Medicare for Rs 1,050 crore ($122.6 million), giving the Singapore-based private equity firm a full exit, according to an announcement on Wednesday.
Managed by the former senior leadership of Standard Chartered Private Equity, Affirma invested $50 million in Tirupati’s Series B round in 2019.
Founded in 2005, Tirupati has partnered with companies including Herbalife, Glanbia, Abbott, Haleon, Cipla, Dr. Reddy’s, Torrent, Macleods, Pfizer, Lupin, and Dabur, and manufactures brands including Optimum Nutrition, PediaSure, Centrum, Endura Mass, Montair LC, Azee, and Softovac.
The company claims to have the largest installed capacity for oral solids and powders among Indian nutraceutical contract manufacturers.
“Our investment in Tirupati comes at a pivotal moment as the company is poised for substantial growth in the domestic market and plans to foray into exports,” Rahul Shah, partner at Kotak Alts, said, adding that the fund will support Tirupati’s expansion plans and its IPO preparation.
Affirma manages over $4 billion of assets across markets such as India, Southeast Asia, Korea, China, Africa, and the Middle East, according to its website.
In November, DealStreetAsia reported that Affirma is looking to raise an India-dedicated fund with a target of about $350 million—its first vehicle focused solely on the country since its inception in 2019.
Its exit from Tirupati follows its recent partial exit from TBO Tek, which debuted on the Indian stock exchanges in May last year at a valuation that delivered approximately 11x multiple on invested capital. The firm had earlier divested a 15% stake to General Atlantic.
For KAAML, the alternative assets arm of Kotak Mahindra Group, Tirupati adds to the growing list of companies in the healthcare and pharmaceutical space. Most recently, KAAML backed India’s IPO-bound Neuberg Diagnostics with Rs 940 crore ($109.4 million), while in June the fund invested Rs 1,445 crore ($173 million) to part-finance Matrix Pharma’s acquisition of the active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) business of Viatris.
The investment in Tirupati also comes as India witnesses an unprecedented demand for healthcare amid an ageing population and rising disposable incomes. Last year, a cumulative $5.67 billion flowed into Indian healthcare firms, from traditional hospitals to medical robotics startups and healthcare financing companies.
The lion’s share of the healthcare investments in India last year came from PE firms — around $5.27 billion across 50 deals. While this is only a fraction of the overall $27.7 billion invested by PE firms in the country in 2024, healthcare was their top target sector, according to Venture Intelligence data.
