Moneycontrol Bureau

Matrimony.com, the Chennai-based match-making portal, has tapped the capital market to raise Rs 350 crore (fresh issue) through initial public offering on Wednesday.

"The issue is comprising of fresh issue of Rs 350 crore and an offer for sale of up to 16,60,603 equity shares by Bessemer India Capital Holdings II (14,61,006 equity shares) and Draper Investment Company LLC (93,394 shares), Hartenbaum Revocable Trust (23,369 shares) and Indrani Janakiraman (82,834 shares)," said the company in its prospectus.

The owner of portals like BharatMatrimony.com and CommunityMatrimony.com has filed draft red herring prospectus with capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India for public offer.

It is backed by big investors like Mayfield Fund, Bessemer Venture Partners and JP Morgan Asset Management Private Equity Group, as per the data available on its website. It competes with other matrimonial portals like Jeevansaathi (of Info Edge), SimplyMarry (owned by Times Group) and People Group's Shaadi.

Murugavel Janakiraman, who graduated in statistics from the Presidency College, Chennai and did MCA from the University of Madras, is the Founder and CEO of Matrimony.com. He initially launched this portal with the name of Consim Info in 1997 and then changed name to Matrimony.com.

He has 79.63 percent stake (at the time of filing DRHP). Bessemer India Capital Holdings II and Indrani Janakiraman (the mother of founder and CEO) will be exiting the company through offer for sale route while Draper Investment Company LLC will reduce its stake.

Matrimony.com intends to use issue proceeds (fresh issue money) for advertising & business promotion activities; purchase & development of office premises in Chennai for use by product development team; repayment of overdraft facilities; procurement of hardware & software requirements for a centrally controlled contact centre; and general corporate purposes.

It is the second Indian internet company tapping capital market after Just Dial successfully listed in June 2013.

Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, Citigroup Global Markets India and Deutsche Equities India are book running lead managers to the issue.



Posted by Sunil Shankar Matkar