Motilal Oswal PE invests in the maker of Cycle Pure agarbathies

Motilal Oswal Private Equity has invested an undisclosed amount for a minority stake in N. Ranga Rao & Sons Pvt Ltd, the maker of Cycle Pure brand of incense sticks.

The investment was made in the Mysuru-based company, which is engaged in the business of manufacturing agarbathies, puja products, lifestyle and functional air-care products, through Motilal Oswal Private Equity’s third private equity fund, India Business Excellence Fund III.

This is the first time the largest agarbathi company in India has raised private equity capital.

“Building on our strengths in fragrance creation and distribution, we have now become a multi-product company by foraying into air care and puja products,” said Arjun Ranga, managing director of NRRS, in a statement.

MOPE Investment Advisors Private Limited (MOPE), which is a subsidiary of Motilal Oswal Financial Services Limited (MOFSL), currently manages three growth capital funds – India Business Excellence Fund (IBEF), India Business Excellence Fund II (IBEF II) and India Business Excellence Fund III (IBEF III), which are focused on providing growth capital to mid-market companies, typically in the range of Rs100 crore to Rs300 Crore, across sectors.

“Our economy is seeing a paradigm shift from unorganized to organized sector leading to a booming economy of $5 trillion in the coming years. Agarbathi as a product touches almost every Indian household and the brand “Cycle” has increasingly been synonymous with agarbathies for the past seven decades,” said Vishal Tulsyan, managing director and chief executive of MOPE.