Aditya Birla’s fashion and retail company TMRW on Monday acquired a majority stake in e-commerce startup Bewakoof Brands for a total of £200 million in cash.

The apparel retailer will acquire 73-80% of the shares in Bewakoof through a combination of primary equity and debt infusion along with a secondary equity acquisition through a stock subscription agreement, loan agreement and stock purchase agreement, respectively, Aditya Birla Fashion said in an IPO filing.

TMRW, which aims to create a technology-led “House of Brands” business over the next few years, also announced a partnership with seven other digital-first lifestyle brands. D2C brands include Berrylush, Natilene, Juneberry, Nauti Nati, Nobero, Urbano and Veirdo.

These partnerships with the New Age founders were formed within months of the company’s launch, the company said.

Some of these transactions are subject to customary closing conditions and the signing of definitive documents.

With these eight brands on board, TMRW claims it has achieved a sales rate of £700m and is on track to achieve an annual sales rate of over £1,500m over the next 12 months.

These offers come nine months after The Aditya Birla Group company has established a new subsidiary to build a portfolio of digital new age brands across all categories in fashion, beauty and other related lifestyle segments.

“Investing in these 8 D2C brands creates a strong foundation with a diversified portfolio across multiple fashion subcategories. With this portfolio, TMRW has established a presence in a wide range of apparel segments, ranging from casual wear to children’s wear and western wear. ‘ says the clothing retailer.

“TMRW’s vision is to partner with New Age founders by bringing strategic, operational and technology capabilities in addition to growth capital. With synergistic investments driving multiple brands, TMRW will enable lightning scaling and brand building,” it adds.

Ashish Dikshit, Managing Director, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd said of the investment: “By leveraging ABFRL’s fashion capabilities and category know-how, TMRW is on track to build digital-first success to the next generation of memorable brands that will drive India’s e-commerce growth.”

The company also plans to expand into related lifestyle categories, including beauty and personal care.

“With our investment and deep value creation, we are confident of scaling existing leading brands to become category leaders and category creators in multiple emerging categories,” said Prashanth Aluru, CEO and co-founder of TMRW.

Earlier this month, the retail and fashion division of Aditya Birla Group signed a pact with Galeries Lafayette, a French department store chain, to open luxury department stores and a dedicated e-commerce platform in India. Galeries Lafayette is known worldwide for its flagship location on Boulevard Haussmann in Paris.

With brands such as Louis Philippe, Van Heusen, Allen Solly, Peter England and Pantaloons, as of March 31, 2022, Aditya Birla Fashion has a network of 3,468 stores, around 28,585 multi-brand outlets with 6,515 points of sale in department stores across India.

In January, ABFRL acquired a 51% stake in the ‘Masaba’ brand, promoted by designer Masaba Gupta, for ₹90 crore. In 2021, it had announced the acquisition of a 51 percent stake in designer brand Sabyasachi. In 2019, the company acquired ethnic clothing and lifestyle retailer Jaypore for £110m.