Ranjan Pai, the Chairman of Manipal Group, is reportedly in advanced discussions to invest INR 250 crore in the mom and babycare brand, FirstCry. This investment is part of a secondary share sale that values FirstCry at $3 billion. The secondary share sale is expected to surpass INR 500 crore, and additional institutional investors are also considering acquiring a secondary stake in the Pune-based company from existing shareholders.

In a secondary share sale, current shareholders sell a portion or the entirety of their stakes to new investors. FirstCry, which had previously postponed its initial public offering (IPO) plans due to market volatility and challenges faced by IPOs, is now on track to go public next year. Earlier in April, reports indicated that FirstCry was engaged in discussions with sovereign funds to facilitate a stake sale by some of its shareholders at an approximate valuation of $3 billion.

Established in 2015 by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha, FirstCry has secured more than $960 million in funding thus far from prominent investors like SoftBank Vision Fund, Temasek, Chiratae Ventures, Vertex Ventures, and Elevation Capital, as per data from market research firm Tracxn.