By P. Sarojini
MUMBAI, India (CWBN)_ Reliance Industries has set its foot on online retail market. The Indian conglomerate announced on Sunday that it has spent INR 1821.2 million ($24.4 million) to purchase a 96 per cent stake of online furniture retailer Urban Ladder. It was said that the company was in discussion with the eight-year-old online furniture retailer Urban Ladder for buying the majority stakes. This massive attempt of the company is to occupy a place in India’s online retail market which is currently dominated by Flipkart and Amazon. This new business venture will partner with neighborhood stores in delivering groceries, apparel and electronics online and will also compete with the current dominants of the online market.
The company said that this investment will further enhance the digital commerce initiatives of the group. Reliance said, “The aforesaid investment will further enable the group’s digital and new commerce initiatives and widen the bouquet of consumer products provided by the group.”
Reliance Retail Ventures Limited shared its future plans of buying the remaining stakes to make the shareholding to 100 per cent and that plans to invest another 750 million rupees by the end of 2023. Reliance Industries is owned and controlled by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, and the company is lining up investors in its retail unit after it raised over $20 billion this year from global investors by selling stakes in its Jio Platforms digital business.
Edited by Elishya Perera
