JM Financial Private Equity Fund, a PE fund managed JM Financial Group, has invested ₹45 crore (about $6.4 million) in Mumbai-based nutraceutical firm Innovcare Lifesciences in lieu of a significant minority stake.

The company will use the funds for its growth plans that include expansion of the current product portfolio and foraying into new therapeutic areas.

“The whole nutraceutical sector in India is relatively a young sector, but has immense growth potential. This industry has been growing at double-digit figures for the last few years,” a source close to the development told BusinessLine .

The investment was made from JM Financial India Fund II, a sector-agnostic growth-capital PE fund that generally invests in small- to mid-market companies. This fund focusses on financial services, consumer, information technology and information technology-enabled services, manufacturing and infrastructure services.

Fifth investment

This is the fifth investment by the fund. It had earlier invested in housing finance company India Home Loan, micro-finance institution Spandana Sphoorty Financial, vending solutions provider Vendiman Private and operator of co-living spaces Isthara Parks.

From its JM Financial India Fund I, a ₹1,000-crore fund, the firm had invested in about 14 companies.

Innovcare Lifesciences is involved in marketing and sales of branded nutraceuticals, cosmeceuticals and functional foods. The company, founded in 2014, is targeting sales of about $20 million by 2020, according to its website.

Sequoia Capital had earlier invested in Innovcare.

Indian nutraceutical market is expected to grow to $6.1 billion by 2020 at an annual growth rate of over 20 per cent from $2.2 billion in 2015, Innovcare Lifesciences’ website said.

When contacted both JM Financial and Innovcare Lifesciences declined to comment.