New Delhi, Aug. 14 -- Fashion and apparel behemoth Aditya Birla Fashion Retail Ltd's (ABFRL) new-age digital-first brands platform bagged its first investment from a venture capital firm, ServiceNow Ventures, based in the US Silicon Valley.
The decade-old ServiceNow Ventures, the VC arm of Santa Clara-based US technology firm ServiceNow, will invest Rs 437 crores ($50 million) in TMRW, the retail major said in a press statement.
"TMRW gets [its] first investment in its current round of external fund raise (Rs 437 Cr.) from ServiceNow Ventures," ABFRL's statement said.
Some of the new-age brands that TMRW houses include cricketer Virat Kohli's men's apparel range Wrogn, The Indian Garage Company, Bewakoof, JuneBerry, Nautinati, Nobero, Urbano, and Veirdo.
ServiceNow Ventures has a $150 million commitment to invest in mid-to late-stage companies with innovative technologies across enterprise software. Its Indian portfolio also includes Chennai-headquartered digital and network transformation provider Prodapt and Noida-based business digital transformation firm Inmorphis. It also counts the Aravind Srinivas-co-founded Perplexity AI among its investments.
The TMRW investment comes a few months after ABFRL spun off Madura Fashion & Lifestyle, which contributed around 88% to the topline of ABFRL into a separate publicly-listed company called Aditya Birla Lifestyle Brands Ltd, almost 25 years after it had acquired the company.
In January, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd had planned to raise $500 million (about Rs 4,300 crore) through preference shares and qualified institutional placement ahead of the proposed demerger of its key revenue platform.
From the total preference share issuance, promoters of ABFRL infused $150 million, while Fidelity Investments put in $125 million through its funds.
Financial results
ABFRL's Apr-Jun net revenues grew 9% on year to Rs 1,674 crore, led by the growth in its ethnic segments and TMRW. Its ethnic businesses grew 25% led by the designer-led brand portfolio, which grew 79% on year. TMRW's portfolio grew 38% on year in the first quarter of the current financial year, the company said. However, Pantaloons registered a decline of 1% due to store closures and a shift in the Eid festival, the statement said. While earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation grew 38% to Rs 169 crore, net loss remained steady around Rs 234 crores due to depreciation costs. As of June 30, 2025, the company had a retail presence across 1,168 stores across its brands. Shares of ABFRL were trading up 1.1% on the Bombay Stock Exchange today at 75.52 rupees.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from VC Circle.