India’s Multiples Alternate Asset Management, led by former ICICI Venture veteran Renuka Ramnath, on Thursday, said it signed an agreement, along with its co-investors, to buy a controlling stake in QBurst, a full-service software development company, for $200 million.
Headquartered in the US with a significant presence in India, QBurst was founded by Prathapan Sethu, Binu Dasappan, and Ansar Shihabudeen, and caters to several industries, including healthcare, retail, automotive, and manufacturing. Its clients include Dell, Adani Group, Airtel, Mercedes-Benz, Bharat Petroleum, and Malabar Gold & Diamonds.
The deal announcement comes months after DealStreetAsia reported about QBurst being in talks to raise funds. According to the report, the company had also been in talks with BPEA EQT, which has rebranded as EQT Private Capital Asia, for an investment.
“While Multiples holds a controlling stake, the founders will continue to have a meaningful stake, ensuring the continuity of the best practices and values that have shaped the company’s growth,” Ramnath said.
For QBurst, the investment represents its first-ever round of institutional funding, while for Multiples, it stands as the firm’s largest controlling investment in the technology services sector.
QBurst is part of Multiples’ portfolio of technology companies such as AI and data services player Quantiphi, HR tech business PeopleStrong, customer engagement SaaS business MoEngage, and other tech-centric businesses such as Delhivery, Dream Sports, Acko, Licious and India Energy Exchange.
Manish Gaur, Managing Director and Head of Enterprise Technology at Multiples, said that enterprise tech is a priority sector for the firm and it intends to deploy close to $2 billion in the space over the next 5 years.
Multiples made headlines early last year when it closed its fourth fund at around $800 million, roping in both foreign and domestic LPs including prominent names such as The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), International Finance Corporation (IFC), and State Bank of India (SBI).
Before that, Multiples raised $560 million for its third India-dedicated PE fund in 2019.
According to a report by Mint, Multiples is eyeing a continuation fund with a target corpus of $300-400 million.
Since its inception in 2009, Multiples has invested in diverse sectors such as financial services, consumer, healthcare and IT services, and textiles, among others. It closed its second fund at $700 million in 2017, which included a $150-million co-investment pool. Its first fund was launched in 2011 with a corpus of $405 million. Multiples PE currently manages assets worth around $3 billion across 29 companies in three funds.
