New Delhi, May 28 -- Venture capital firms A91 Partners and Sixth Sense Ventures are set to partially harvest their investments in a spices manufacturer that is gearing up for an initial public offering.

The two VC firms intend to offload a bulk of their respective stakes in the branded packaged spices and food company Pushp India (Brand) Ltd through its proposed IPO.

The company, which sells under the Pushp and Munimji brands, has filed a draft red herring prospectus with the Securities and Exchange Board of India for the IPO. The IPO comprises only an offer for sale of up to 7.4 million shares by Pushp India promoters Surendra Kumar Surana and Mahendra Kumar Surana, and by the two VC firms.

A91 Partners holds a 20.14% stake in Pushp India and intends to sell almost three-fourths of its holding. Sixth Sense holds a 7.81% stake in the company and will sell nearly 70% of this holding, the draft prospectus showed.

Pushp India will decide its IPO pricing and target valuation only after receiving regulatory approval. However, a look at its peer group companies does indicate the valuation it could target in the IPO. That, in turn, offers a peek into the returns that the two VC firms could generate by liquidating most of their holdings.

Valuation and returns estimate

A91 Partners first invested Rs 75 crore in Pushp India in mid-2020. It invested another Rs 50 crore in the company in late 2020, taking its total exposure to Rs 125 crore. It sold part of its stake to Sixth Sense in December 2023 for almost Rs 100 crore. Sixth Sense spent another Rs 1 crore to buy some more shares of the company from two other shareholders. This secondary transaction valued Pushp India around Rs 1,288 crore, according to VCCircle estimates.

The partial exit helped A91 Partners generate a multiple on invested capital (MOIC) of almost 3x and an internal rate of return (IRR) of around 35% in rupee terms, VCCircle estimates show. That's above the minimum 20% that private market investors chase in local currency at the fund level.

Pushp India could now target a valuation of around Rs 1,700-2,000 crore in the IPO, VCCircle estimates based on its peer group's valuation ratios show.

The company counts Tata Consumer Products Ltd and Orkla India Ltd among its listed peers. However, Tata Consumer is much bigger in size and more diversified.

Orkla India, which owns brands such as MTR and Eastern, listed on stock exchanges in October 2025 and commanded a price-to-earnings ratio of a tad more than 31x based on its FY26 financials.

According to an analyst tracking Pushp India, the company could be valued at a slight premium to Orkla, driven by steady revenue growth. Pushp India posted a net profit of almost Rs 59 crore for FY26. This means it could fetch a valuation of around 1,950-2,000 crore at a price-to-earnings ratio of 33-34x.

Based on these calculations, A91 Partners' stake is likely to be valued around Rs 390-400 crore while Sixth Sense's stake is likely to be valued around Rs 150-155 crore. This, in turn, indicates that A91 would mop up around Rs 300 crore from the IPO exit and generate an IRR of 26-28% via the partial exit if Pushp India goes public before December this year, according to VCCircle estimates based on the first-in, first-out methodology. Its overall realised IRR from the partial exit in 2023 and in the IPO would then be around 28-29%, the estimates show.

As for Sixth Sense, the Nikhil Vora-led VC firm could take out around Rs 110 crore, or more than its principal investment, via the IPO and generate an IRR of 15-17% through the partial exit, per VCCircle estimates. That means it would miss the 20% returns benchmark.

Pushp India business, financials

Pushp India was founded in 1974 in Indore by the late Kishanlal Surana as a small local outlet retailing spices. The company derives over 90% of its revenue from pure and blended spices, followed by soya and tea products. It has a large presence in the central and western parts of India. In Madhya Pradesh alone, it enjoys a 21% market share.

As per disclosures made in the draft IPO papers, Pushp India's FY26 revenue was Rs 481.9 crore, up from Rs 404.6 crore the previous year. Its profit after tax margins improved to 12.01% in FY26 from 11.13% in FY24. Pushp's margins were better than its unlisted peers with revenues of under Rs 1,000 crores, such as Rakesh Masala (6.9%), Ramdev Food Products (6.4%), Empire Spices and Foods (5.0%), and Badshah Masala (8.4%).

The spices segment in India is highly fragmented and remains largely unorganised. The packaged spices market constituted 41% of the total spices market, valued at Rs 37,430 crore in FY25, and showed deep regional brand concentration. Large FMCG firms such as ITC, DS Group and Tata Consumer sell spices and condiments as part of a large portfolio of products. Several smaller firms, such as Madhusudan Masala, Jetmall Spices & Masala, and Srivari Spices and Foods, are listed on the SME exchange.

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.