Samara Capital.
Indian mid-market PE's cleanest full-cycle close, at sub-scale: Fund II (2014, $210M) wrapped in Feb 2026 with all ten investments realised positive at a ~25% gross IRR, engineered largely through two GP-led continuation vehicles rather than trade sales — while Fund III's ~$500M raise, flagged since 2022, still has no announced close as of September 2026.
GW GP Score
Samara is the case for judging Indian PE on completed cycles, not marks. Fund II, a $210M 2014-vintage fund, is now fully realised: all ten portfolio companies exited positive, a clean sweep rare in Indian mid-market PE, for a ~25% gross IRR and roughly ₹7,500 Cr of value against a ~₹3,000 Cr cost base over a 5.5-year average hold. Much of that DPI came not from trade sales but from GP-led continuation vehicles: a 2021 single-asset CV that let Goldman Sachs and CX Partners exit Sapphire Foods ahead of its IPO lock-up, and a $150M three-asset CV in January 2023 (Sahajanand Medical Technologies, FirstMeridian, Paradise Food Court) that pushed Fund II's DPI toward 2.0x while the IPO market stayed shut. Sapphire itself converts again in the Devyani International merger announced January 2026, handing the 2021 CV's investors a reported 2x-plus return at 20%-plus IRR while Samara rolls its remaining stake into the combined QSR platform. The franchise risk sits one level up: Fund III, flagged at a $500M target since 2022 and reported to be 'gearing up for final close' as of March 2025, has produced no close announcement on Samara's own newsroom eighteen months later — a slow raise for a manager whose prior fund just proved the model works.
Re-up candidate: the realised-cash evidence is doing more work than the brand story.
Portfolio quality depends on a narrow theme; the right comp is concentration risk, not headline unicorn count.
No named analyst override yet; current view is generated from the scored dossier and should be refreshed when the next primary source lands.
Fund III final close: ~$500M target flagged since 2022, 'gearing up for final close' reported Mar 2025 — recheck for a close announcement each quarter.
FirstMeridian IPO: ₹740 Cr DRHP filed Jan 2023, no listing confirmed as of Sep 2026 — verify whether it has lapsed and been refiled.
Fund III's ~$500M target has been 'nearing final close' since March 2025 without a confirmed close as of September 2026 — a manager that just proved its model with Fund II needs fresh capital to repeat it, and the raise is the franchise's open question.
Computed from current dossier sources; analyst override pending.
A genuinely clean, fully realised Fund II (ten-for-ten, ~25% IRR) sits underneath a Fund III raise that has taken longer to close than the fund it succeeds took to return capital — graded Stable because the franchise's proof point is real but its next chapter isn't funded yet.
Graded underPrivate equity rubric v1.0→Sapphire (merging into Devyani), More Retail (767+ stores, IPO-track) and SMT (SEBI-cleared ₹2,000 Cr OFS) are earnings-quality-verified by IPO-grade disclosure; Blue Heaven/Nature's Essence and the stalled FirstMeridian IPO are the softer end
Fund II's ten-for-ten record (~25% gross IRR, ~2.0x DPI via two GP-led CVs plus five trade sales) is a clean full-cycle close, built on breadth rather than one outsized strategic print
Platform-building is the house style: the Yum roll-up into Sapphire, the Convergent-JV packaged-foods consolidation at Sundrop, professional CEOs installed from HUL/Cadbury/Piramal rather than leverage alone
Fund III's ~$500M target has been 'nearing final close' since Mar 2025 without an announced close — a four-year raise despite Fund II's clean record; two GP-led CVs show liquidity sophistication in the meantime
Narang and Gode intact as founders since 2007; a ten-MD bench plus an Aug 2024 fundraising-IR hire and a banking-veteran Chairman (Shome) point to institution-building, not succession stress
Asset quality & control 25% · Exit realisation 30% · Value creation 15% · Capital discipline 15% · Franchise stability 15% — the five contributions above sum to 73. Raw scores compare within private equity; across cohorts compare the tier. See the full GP Score methodology · compare this firm →
Positive catalysts and/or re-up evidence exceed the visible risks, but the score should move only after the named proof lands.
More Retail liquidity clears with credible OFS/block-sale evidence.
FirstMeridian IPO: ₹740 Cr DRHP filed Jan 2023, no listing confirmed as of Sep 2026 — verify whether it has lapsed and been refiled.
Fund III final close: ~$500M target flagged since 2022, 'gearing up for final close' reported Mar 2025 — recheck for a close announcement each quarter.
Fund II's clean sweep is a rare complete data point in Indian mid-market PE: ten investments, ten positive outcomes, delivered through five trade sales and two GP-led CVs rather than one hero exit. The diligence question for Fund III is why a manager who just proved the model needs four years and counting to close a $500M raise.
Fund III's ~$500M target has been 'nearing final close' since March 2025 without a confirmed close as of September 2026 — a manager that just proved its model with Fund II needs fresh capital to repeat it, and the raise is the franchise's open question.
Fund III final close: ~$500M target flagged since 2022, 'gearing up for final close' reported Mar 2025 — recheck for a close announcement each quarter.
Coverage initiated: inaugural GW GP Score.
Catalyst exposure · latest source pressure
Recent public evidence mapped to this GP. Read this before reading the position table: it is where the score can move next.
Keep the file warm; current events cut both ways or are not yet material enough to move score.
Attribution0 positive catalyst(s), 0 pressure catalyst(s); top driver: monthly refresh only.
The funds
~$2bn cumulative capital deployed since inception (self-reported) across 5 tracked vehicles.
| Vehicle | Vintage | Size | Stage | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fund III (Samara Alternate Investment Fund III India) | raising | ~$500M target (E) | Control mid-market | SEBI AIF registered 7 Mar 2023; reported 'gearing up for final close' as of Mar 2025; no close announced on Samara's own newsroom as of Sep 2026 |
| Fund II | 2014First boom | $210M (~₹3,000 Cr invested, per firm) | Control mid-market | Fully realised Feb 2026: 10/10 investments positive, ~25% gross IRR, ~₹7,500 Cr value generated, 5.5-yr avg hold — the ₹/$ gap vs the raised size reflects co-investment capital the firm doesn't itemise |
| Sapphire Foods CV | 2021Peak frenzy | ~$155M primary + secondary | GP-led continuation (single-asset) | TR Capital, TPG NewQuest and Creador bought out Goldman Sachs and CX Partners ahead of Sapphire's IPO lock-up; Samara retained control |
| Fund II continuation vehicle | 2023Trough window | $150M | GP-led continuation (3-asset) | TR Capital-led with Axiom Asia, StepStone Group, Unigestion; SMT, FirstMeridian, Paradise Food Court; pushed Fund II DPI toward 2.0x |
| Fund I | 2007Foundation era | ~$125-165M (reported range) | SME buyout | Inaugural fund; wound down, little further detail public |
Fund analytics · LP underwriting screen
Computed from the public dossier: vehicle cadence, realised exits, mark drift, concentration and franchise stability. All computed signals are GW estimates.
Latest vehicle is still in market or not publicly closed.
Next liquidityMore Retail · Sahajanand Medical Technologies (SMT) · FirstMeridian Business Services
2 visible exit events since Jul 2024.
Latest vehicle is still in market or not publicly closed.
7 up / 2 flat / 0 down tracked signals.
No senior departure flagged in key people.
7 up / 2 flat / 0 down
2 events since Jul 2024
Largest tracked active exposure
Higher spread = less balanced franchise
Unicorn discovery; pricing still forming
Cycle-top entry marks; the vintage still being digested
Best entry conditions of the cycle
Pre-unicorn pricing; discovery-cost entries
Bought from Aditya Birla Retail (540+ stores); 767+ stores by Mar 2025; ₹607 Cr FY26 infusion w/ Amazon ahead of a targeted ~₹2,000 Cr IPO
Cardiovascular stent maker; SEBI cleared a ~₹2,000 Cr pure-OFS IPO (Nov 2025) naming Samara among selling shareholders
Forced mapping: a staffing/workforce-services platform has no clean slot in the 8-category taxonomy. Filed a ₹740 Cr IPO (DRHP, Jan 2023); no listing confirmed as of Sep 2026 — moved into the Jan 2023 CV, still Samara-managed
At least one cited source is dated 2026.
8 visible events tracked.
9 representative positions tracked.
No departure signal structured.
Fund-level DPI/TVPI is usually not public; proxy remains estimated.
Peer median 3 · -1
Peer median 2 · +1
Peer median 89 · -7
Peer median 38 · +40
Peer median 0 · +0
Diligence agenda · how this view can change
The live research question, the proof required, and the source standard. This prevents a GP score from becoming a stale label.
The latest vehicle is raising, unclosed or stale against the current deployment cycle.
Current · At least one cited source is dated 2026.
FirstMeridian IPO: ₹740 Cr DRHP filed Jan 2023, no listing confirmed as of Sep 2026 — verify whether it has lapsed and been refiled.
Track first/final close, LP quality, target-vs-close delta and mandate shift.
FirstMeridian IPO: ₹740 Cr DRHP filed Jan 2023, no listing confirmed as of Sep 2026 — verify whether it has lapsed and been refiled.
More Retail: next public-market or secondary print
Evidence quality · source file health
How hard the public record is beneath this view: source mix, freshness, low-confidence fields and the next source action.
No major evidence gap flagged.
15 total sources · 33% primary
At least one cited source is dated 2026.
Samara Capital: Fund II final-exit press release (Feb 2026)
Maintain monthly source check; escalate on fund close, DRHP, OFS, block sale or senior-partner change.
Source tiering follows Gravitywell policy: primary = filing/regulator/company disclosure, secondary = reputable media or research, E = Gravitywell estimate. Evidence score is a GW control metric, not an external rating.
The position book
34 companies backed, 22 exits since 2007 (self-reported); 9 tracked below.
| Company | Sector | Entered | Entry stage | Status | 12-mo signal | Latest read |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sapphire Foods | Consumer & Commerce | 2015 | Platform formation (consortium w/ Goldman Sachs, CX Partners, IDI Emerging Markets) | Public | ▲ | KFC/Pizza Hut/Taco Bell franchisee, India/Sri Lanka/Maldives; listed Nov 2021; merging into Devyani International (announced Jan 2026) — 2021 CV investors realise 2x-plus/20%-plus IRR, Samara rolls remaining stake into the combined entity |
| More Retail | Consumer & Commerce | 2018 | 51% control (₹4,200 Cr EV, w/ Amazon 48-49%) | Private | ▲ | Bought from Aditya Birla Retail (540+ stores); 767+ stores by Mar 2025; ₹607 Cr FY26 infusion w/ Amazon ahead of a targeted ~₹2,000 Cr IPO |
| Paradise Biryani (Paradise Food Court) | Consumer & Commerce | 2014 | 35% (₹70 Cr, 2014); full buyout of remaining 65% for ₹400 Cr (2022) | Private | ▲ | ₹250-330 Cr FY26 revenue run-rate off 57 outlets; raising ~₹100 Cr to add 100 outlets toward a ₹500-550 Cr revenue target by FY29 |
| Sundrop Brands | Consumer & Commerce | 2024 | Control via CAG-Tech (JV w/ Convergent Finance) | Public | ▲ | Ex-Agro Tech Foods, renamed after the Del Monte Foods India roll-up (Nov 2024); CAG-Tech raised its stake to 38.91% (Dec 2025), option on a further 4.99% |
| Sahajanand Medical Technologies (SMT) | Healthcare | 2016 | Significant stake ($25M, 2016; increased 2018) | Private | ▲ | Cardiovascular stent maker; SEBI cleared a ~₹2,000 Cr pure-OFS IPO (Nov 2025) naming Samara among selling shareholders |
| Marengo Asia Healthcare | Healthcare | 2020 | Platform formation (w/ Havells & Godrej family offices) | Private | ▲ | Multispecialty hospital platform; ~₹1,200 Cr FY25-26 revenue; raising ~₹500 Cr at a ~₹5,000 Cr valuation |
| Edme Insurance Brokers | Fintech | 2024 | Platform buyout of Aditya Birla Insurance Brokers (₹252 Cr) | Private | ▲ | 100% acquired from Aditya Birla Capital, Aug 2024; renamed Edme Insurance Brokers |
| FirstMeridian Business Services | Logistics & Infra | 2018 | Platform formation (w/ Janchor Partners, Emerald Strategic, Goldman Sachs) | Private | → | Forced mapping: a staffing/workforce-services platform has no clean slot in the 8-category taxonomy. Filed a ₹740 Cr IPO (DRHP, Jan 2023); no listing confirmed as of Sep 2026 — moved into the Jan 2023 CV, still Samara-managed |
| Blue Heaven Cosmetics / Nature's Essence (Esme Consumer) | Consumer & Commerce | 2019 | Majority buyouts (Nature's Essence ~₹200 Cr; Blue Heaven, 2019) | Private | → | Personal-care platform now run as Esme Consumer; least newsflow of the tracked book since the 2019 buyouts |
Representative tracked positions reconstructed from public disclosures: not the full book. 12-mo signal is a GW estimate of mark direction from round/exit prints (E). Ownership stakes are not shown: not reliably public.
Sector exposure · where the book leans
Share of the tracked active book by normalized sector (GW estimate): read against our sector dossiers for crowding.
New cheques · 2025-26
Every 2024-26 cheque is a bolt-on or stake increase inside a platform Samara already controls — Sundrop, Edme/ABIBL, More Retail, Paradise — not a new-platform buyout. The firm is compounding what Fund II already built while Fund III's dry powder waits on a close.
Raises CAG-Tech's holding to 38.91%; option on a further 4.99% after Apr 2026
Follows a ₹678 Cr FY25 infusion; funds debt paydown ahead of the targeted IPO
Funds 100 new outlets toward 160 by FY29
100% buyout from Aditya Birla Capital
Agro Tech Foods renamed Sundrop Brands after the Del Monte acquisition
Realisation · are LPs getting paid?
Fund II is now a fully closed loop: ten investments, ten positive outcomes, no write-offs, realised through five trade sales and two GP-led secondaries rather than one outsized print. That is a genuinely rare clean sweep for a 2014-vintage mid-market fund — but no single exit here carries a headline multiple like True North's 10x Infinity Fincorp or Kedaara's ₹18,000 Cr-plus VMM programme; the realisation is broad, not spiked.
Sold to Norwest-backed SILA Solutions: Fund II's tenth and final exit, closing the fund with all ten investments realised positive.
Merger into Devyani International announced: the 2021 CV's investors (TR Capital, TPG NewQuest, Creador) realise a reported 2x-plus return at 20%-plus IRR in cash and shares; Samara rolls its remaining stake into the combined entity.
$150M three-asset continuation vehicle, TR Capital-led with Axiom Asia, StepStone Group and Unigestion, pushed Fund II's DPI toward 2.0x while the IPO window stayed shut.
Entire stake sold to Tube Investments of India (67%) and Premji Invest (33%).
Sold to Eris Lifesciences for ₹650 Cr, funded via ₹300 Cr accruals and ₹350 Cr debt.
100% sale (with Xponentia Capital) to Delhivery.
~$155M primary-plus-secondary CV: TR Capital, TPG NewQuest and new investor Creador bought out Goldman Sachs and CX Partners ahead of Sapphire's IPO lock-up.
Controlling stake sold to Quadria Capital.
Firm-reported at the Feb 2026 wrap, across all 10 investments; no write-offs
TR Capital's release put it 'toward 2.0x' at the Jan 2023 CV close, before the Feb 2026 SMS IFS cash exit added to it
$500M target flagged since 2022; 'gearing up for final close' reported Mar 2025; no close release on Samara's own newsroom as of Sep 2026
Single-asset (Sapphire, 2021) and three-asset (SMT/FirstMeridian/Paradise, Jan 2023): sophisticated liquidity management, not yet matched by a fresh primary close
No independently audited fund-level DPI is public, but the pieces triangulate: TR Capital's own release put Fund II's DPI 'toward 2.0x' at the January 2023 CV close, before the final SMS IFS cash exit in February 2026 added to it. GW read: a genuinely clean realised record at sub-True-North scale, undercut by a flagship raise that has now taken longer than the fund it is meant to succeed took to return capital. E.
What they're doing
Control-buyout mid-market model refined since 2012: platform consolidation in consumer/retail (Sapphire's Yum roll-up, Sundrop's packaged-foods licences, Paradise's biryani chain) over minority growth cheques.
GP-led secondaries as the realisation engine of choice: two CVs since 2021 have moved more of Fund II's DPI than any single trade sale, ahead of an IPO market that stayed shut through 2022-23.
Family-office co-investment for scale plays outside the fund structure (Marengo, w/ Havells and Godrej), extending reach beyond the ~$500M Fund III envelope.
Operating bench over financial engineering: professional CEOs installed from HUL/Colgate (More Retail), Cadbury/Levi's (Sapphire) and Piramal (Sundrop).
What can break
Fund III's ~$500M target has been 'nearing final close' since March 2025 without a confirmed close as of September 2026 — a manager that just proved its model with Fund II needs fresh capital to repeat it, and the raise is the franchise's open question.
FirstMeridian's ₹740 Cr IPO (DRHP filed Jan 2023) has no confirmed listing more than three years on — a second stalled capital-markets process alongside Fund III's raise.
The active book concentrates over three-quarters of tracked exposure in consumer/retail plus one adjacent healthcare vertical; a consumption slowdown or QSR margin compression would hit most of the portfolio together.
Several core positions (Paradise since 2014, the Sundrop-predecessor licences since the early 2010s) are 10+-year holds: the compounding works, but Fund III will need to turn assets faster than Fund II did to match its IRR.
Fund III final close: ~$500M target flagged since 2022, 'gearing up for final close' reported Mar 2025 — recheck for a close announcement each quarter.
FirstMeridian IPO: ₹740 Cr DRHP filed Jan 2023, no listing confirmed as of Sep 2026 — verify whether it has lapsed and been refiled.
Sahajanand Medical Technologies IPO: SEBI approved the OFS in Nov 2025 — verify pricing, listing date and Samara's exact offer-for-sale quantum.
Sapphire Foods-Devyani merger completion: full integration guided at 15-18 months from the Jan 2026 effective date — verify the final swap ratio execution and Samara's resulting stake in the combined entity.
Point-in-time discipline: these are the open items we could not verify at the current vintage. They get resolved: confirmed, corrected or dropped, at the next monthly refresh, never silently.
The takes · one screen, three readers
Fund II's clean sweep is a rare complete data point in Indian mid-market PE: ten investments, ten positive outcomes, delivered through five trade sales and two GP-led CVs rather than one hero exit. The diligence question for Fund III is why a manager who just proved the model needs four years and counting to close a $500M raise.
Samara's two-CV playbook on Fund II — Sapphire alone in 2021, a three-asset basket in 2023 — is the template for carrying a 2014-vintage book through a closed IPO window. Expect more mid-market GPs to copy the multi-asset CV structure rather than wait on strategic buyers.
The book is a bet on organised consumption compounding slowly rather than one breakout: Paradise Biryani's ₹250-330 Cr run-rate and More Retail's ~₹2,000 Cr IPO plan are multi-year builds, not 2026 catalysts.
Sourcing. Every figure is sourced and dated. We tier provenance: Primary (official, regulatory, exchange or company filings), Secondary (tier-1 industry research and reputable media), and GW estimate (our own reconstruction or opinion, labelled, never presented as external fact). We prefer primary where it exists, reconcile divergent prints to cited ranges, and hold every number point-in-time: dated, and never silently restated; revisions publish as dated changes.
Fact vs opinion. Facts vs opinion: market sizes, official prints, prices, named deals and agency ratings are sourced facts (Primary/Secondary). Scores, grades, purity weights, scenario paths and indicative sparkline points are Gravitywell's analytical opinion (GW estimate): labelled, not presented as external data.
GW GP Scores are research opinions, not investment advice, not a solicitation, and not an assessment under any SEBI regulation. Dossiers are compiled from public sources believed reliable; firms named did not participate and figures marked E are Gravitywell estimates. Point-in-time: dated to the vintage shown and never silently restated.