Also in the letter:
■ Slice Bank’s $250 million raise
■ Explained: DeepSeek, OpenAI’s new rival
■ India to see GCC growth
Exclusive: Advent set to acquire jewellery retailer Orra at nearly Rs 1,750 crore: sources
Advent International, the US-based buyout fund, is in advanced discussions to acquire a controlling interest in Orra Fine Jewellery, owned by the Rosy Blue group, among India’s leading diamond manufacturers and retailers, according to people in the know.
Driving the news: Sources told ET that the proposed deal could value Orra at around Rs 1,500- 1,750 crore, driven by increased interest from risk investors in the jewellery retail sector.
Quote, unquote: “Advent has been in exclusive discussions with Orra for more than a few months and is expected to take a controlling 51-75% stake while Dipu Mehta, the company’s managing director, will retain a small stake,” a person familiar with the talks told ET.
Details: According to sources, Orra has been looking for partners to invest capital and expand its business in India and internationally as new-age brands and lab-grown diamonds disrupt the market. The company has undergone several management transitions since 2015-16.
Also Read: Bluestone likely to launch IPO at Rs 12,000-13,000 crore valuation; up 50% from last funding
Meesho closes $500 million round; moves NCLT to shift domicile
Vidit Aatrey, CEO, Meesho
Ecommerce company Meesho has secured an additional $250-$270 million in funding.
Deal details: The fresh funding has come from new investors including Tiger Global, Think Investments and Mars Growth Global in a $500-$550 million funding round alongside existing backers such as Peak XV Partners and WestBridge Capital. According to sources, this concludes Meesho’s pre-initial public offering (IPO) fundraising exercise, in which a majority of the capital is secondary.
What’s more: The ecommerce player has also filed an application at the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) in Bengaluru for a reverse merger of its Indian unit, Fashnear Technologies, with its US parent company, Meesho Inc., as part of its preparations for a planned public offering.
Also Read: Exclusive: Groww’s valuation cut in domicile shift to India; Razorpay may follow
IPO details:
- Meesho plans to file its IPO papers in the second half of 2025, targeting a potential listing in 2026, depending on the pace of the NCLT approval.
- Most of the primary capital it raised will cover tax liabilities resulting from the reverse merger of its US and Indian entities.
- Sources added that the transaction is thought to have closed at a valuation of around $3.9-$4 billion—a modest discount from its $5 billion.
Recap: ET first reported on Meesho’s funding plans in March last year. The round began at $250-$300 million but grew much bigger.
Slice Bank in talks to raise $250 million to expand digital banking ops
Rajan Bajaj, founder and CEO, Slice
Slice Bank, a fintech small finance bank, is considering raising $250-$300 million from financial investors and family offices.
What’s happening: This comes after the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) approval of its merger with North East Small Finance Bank. The bank outlined this plan in its recently approved extraordinary general meeting (EGM) resolution notice, which sources familiar with its plans confirmed to ET.
Recent updates:
- Slice Bank has briefed the RBI on its fundraising plans for 2025.
- In October 2024, it finalised the acquisition of the Guwahati-headquartered small finance bank, following which it secured regulatory approval to operate as Slice Bank.
- Slice has also started rolling out its banking services and is set to launch merchant lending through a separate app.
Also Read: Slice launches its UPI-first account for all users
ETtech Explainer: What is DeepSeek, China’s competitor to OpenAI?
After two years of US tech giants such as OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Amazon dominating the global artificial intelligence (AI) discourse, a relatively obscure and scrappy Chinese AI lab—DeepSeek—has entered the chat.
Driving the news: Chinese AI startup DeepSeek has made waves with its open-source large language model (LLM), DeepSeek V3. Launched in December 2024, the model outperformed industry giants such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Meta on key benchmarks. Its standout features include exceptional coding, advanced mathematical problem-solving, and precise pinpointing of code errors.
Cost difference: DeepSeek has stunned Silicon Valley with its cost efficiency. It claims to have built DeepSeek V3 in just two months for a training cost of $5.58 million—a fraction of the $100 million reportedly spent on OpenAI’s GPT-4.
Other Top Stories By Our Reporters
India may see a 15-20% surge in non-US GCCs: India is likely to see a 15-20% surge in non-US companies establishing global capability centres (GCC) in the next 24 months. Companies in countries such as the UK, Germany, Japan, and some in the Nordics are poised to drive this.
Mega deals may halve at IT majors on client business rejig: The contribution of mega deals to the overall new revenue of India’s leading information technology firms may further decline in FY26 as clients’ focus undergoes a structural change.
Swiggy allocates Esops worth Rs 1,171 crore to staff: Food delivery company Swiggy said on Thursday that it had allotted 2.61 crore shares under various employee stock ownership plan (Esop) schemes.
Global Picks We Are Reading
■ AI leaders clash over safety and $100bn Stargate project (FT)
■ Why Mark Zuckerberg is ditching human fact-checkers (Wired)
■ The secret sauce of Chinese social media apps (Rest of World)
