ITC Limited, a tobacco-to-food consumer conglomerate, is vying with Nestle India to acquire Bengaluru-based Yoga Bar, an 8-year-old health snack firm, while the latter is seeking growth equity, according to persons with knowledge of the situation.
Dabur, a company located in Delhi, and the venture capital firm A91 Capital were among others who considered the chance but decided against it. The parent company of Yoga Bar, Sproutlife, has been seeking to raise Rs 150 crore from financial and strategic investors.
Suhasini and Anindita Sampath’s business received its first investment from Fireside Ventures in 2015. According to VCCEdge, the data and analytics platform of VCCircle, the venture capital company, co-founded by former Helion Venture co-founder Kanwaljit Singh, invested $3.3 million in the startup between 2015 and 2018. In August 2020, Elevation joined Fireside in Yoga Bar’s last equity fundraising effort, the series C round. The Sampath sisters are the company’s major shareholders with a combined 49% ownership position.