Samara Capital closes second fund with SMS Facility’s sale to Norwest-backed SILA Solutions
The exit yields a gross internal rate of return of approximately 25% and is from 2014. ₹7,500 crore to investors. This underlines the track record of Samara, which aims to close its third fund in the coming months and is leveraging domestic capital for the first time.
Second fund raised in 2014 ₹The firm said it has made ten investments of Rs 3,000 crore, including joint investments by limited partners, and all of them have yielded positive returns.
“We could have waited longer to achieve significantly higher value, but it is equally important to return capital to our investors in a timely manner while optimizing value,” Anchit Gupta, the firm’s managing director, said in an interview. he said. “The EBITDA multiple we achieve is on par with or slightly higher than our publicly traded peers and similar business-to-business companies,” he explained.
fundraising effort
The timing of the exit is important as Samara looks to close its third fund within the next two months. Historically, the firm has raised its capital largely from overseas investors, but Fund III has also attracted interest from domestic institutions.
“About three years ago, the window for domestic investors in private equity opened in a meaningful way to high-quality funds,” he said. “We saw this as a strategic opportunity. These investors, often large family households with operating businesses, create a powerful lever for us in terms of deal flow, idea generation and effort.”
While Samara’s global fund completes its final closing, the domestic arm of Fund III is expected to close in March or April. “We have been actively investing from both capital pools for the last few years,” Gupta said.
Some of Samara’s notable exits from the second fund include the sale of Spoton Logistics to Delhivery; sale of shares in AIG Hospital to Quadria Capital; Sale of Lotus Surgicals to Tube Investments and Premji Invest; and the sale of shares in Oaknet Healthcare to Eris Lifesciences.
The firm also transferred its shares in Sahajanand Medical Technologies (SMT) Ltd, First Meridian Business Services Pvt. Ltd and Paradise Food Court Pvt. Ltd. in 2023 through a $150 million follow-on fund led by TR Capital.
Samara invested in the facilities management space in 2017, banking on the formalization of a fragmented sector dominated by family-run businesses. The firm has also seen headwinds from increased office penetration, increased outsourcing and entry of multinational companies, as well as the digitalization of labor laws.
On the operational front, Samara initially pursued an aggressive consolidation strategy. “Our goal was to aggressively acquire companies in the first 18 months and build one of the largest facility management platforms in India,” Gupta said. “We diligently reviewed almost a dozen assets, but the industry was largely unorganized and family-run. In many cases, business quality and earnings were not aligned, so we chose not to proceed with acquisitions where standards did not meet our threshold.”
This discipline was tested during the pandemic period.
Operational turnaround
In the middle of the investment period, the covid-19 pandemic caused serious adverse effects as customers turned to remote working and facility management operations remained dependent on on-site activities. “During Covid, our primary focus has shifted to remaining resilient,” Gupta said. “We were facing an almost 30% decline in revenues, and successfully navigating this period laid the foundation for the recovery and exit we eventually achieved.”
As part of the transformation, Samara appointed Tarun Ramrakhiani as chief executive in 2021 and repositioned SMS as an engineering-focused, technology-enabled platform, introducing new offerings in safety, sustainability, energy management and facility operations. The firm also hired younger talent and realigned leadership.
SMS now offers cleaning, security, accommodation and select technical and value-added services. The acquisition of Awfis Care, the facilities management arm of Awfis Space Solutions, further supported revenue growth. The company competes with players like Quest Corp, ISS Facility Services, UDS (Updater Services), BVG India Ltd and Compass Group.
Gupta said Samara ran a broad and competitive sales drive for SMS, but strategic buyers emerged as the strongest competitors given the synergies of the business and scale.
The firm acquired just over 90% of SMS in 2017 and scaled the business to roughly 2.5x its entry level; EBITDA tripled in the same period. The company is following ₹700 crore revenue generated in the current financial year after reporting ₹522.5 crore revenue and profit ₹10 crore in FY25.
SILA, which acquired SMS, was founded in 2009 by brothers Sahil Vora and Rushabh Vora and provides facilities management, project management and general contracting services in the corporate, industrial, residential and hospitality segments.
The company operates in more than 125 cities and employs more than 22,000 people. ₹913.9 crore as of March 2025, according to the enforcement report. Historically, SILA has financed acquisitions through backer capital and equity from Norwest Venture Partners, which owns a significant stake in the company.
