1-India Family Mart raises Rs 20 crore in debt funding

Value retail chain 1-India Family Mart Thursday said it has raised Rs 20 crore in a debt funding led by APAC Financial Service Pvt Ltd. The fund will be leveraged by the company for expanding to new geographies as well as for its working capital requirements, 1-India Family Mart, which is owned by Nysaa Retail said in a statement. Commenting on the development, 1-India Family Mart CFO Deepak Sharma said, "This round of external funding reflects our commitment towards maintaining a healthy growth rate and profitability on the financial books".

He further said this round is part of the larger capital raise, which the company is in the process of closing, that will fund its scaling up of business till it goes public within the next two years. "This growth capital will give us the resources and flexibility to further expand aggressively to new territories and geographies to accelerate the brand's attempts to meeting fashion expectations of diverse customer groups...," Sharma added.

Following this latest round of funds, the company is planning to add up 40 stores in the current year and 50 stores by 2020 primarily targetting tier-II, tier-III, and tier IV cities. At present, 1-India Family Mart said it has 90 stores across 81 cities of eastern and northern parts of India, generating revenue over Rs 400 crore. The company had raised its first external funding worth USD 7 million from Carpediem Advisors Pvt Ltd in 2018.