Private equity firm Samara Capital, along with partners Goldman Sachs and Hong Kong-based investment firm Janchor Partners, has acquired HR firms Innovsource and V5 Global Services for about INR 350 Cr as per an ET report. 

The three partners have formed an investment platform called First Meridian to buy stakes in the HR and staffing companies. As per the report, a third acquisition is likely to be announced soon. 

Samara confirmed the acquisitions to ET without disclosing the amount invested. 

Managing director Manish Mehta stated, “India has one of the world’s largest working populations. We will look to add both synergistic and non-synergistic firms to this mix. Other than these two companies, we are looking at many other acquisitions in the HR space.” 

The acquisitions come as Samara is furthering its strategy of creating a large, scalable platform in business services with a focus on HR and leveraging technology. Mehta added the idea was to build companies of the future. 

There are a lot of firms in the mid- to late stages in the technology space in human resources and First Meridian is looking at them too. First Meridian, which will now have a national footprint in the staffing industry, will invest in the HR technology, staffing, recruitment process outsourcing, compliance management and managed-services areas. 

Samara Capital was founded in late 2006 by former top Citigroup India executives Sumeet Narang and Gautam Gode. Samara is currently investing out of its second fund wherein it raised $300 Mn.

Coming to the two firms, staffing firm InInnovsource founded in 2004 had a reported a turnover of Rs 870.2 Cr during the fiscal year 2016, compared to Rs 743.3 crore in the previous year. The Mumbai-based company with about 55,000 associates has a presence in more than 30 cities and caters to clients in the retail, ecommerce, manufacturing, BFSI and logistics sectors. 

Meanwhile, New Delhi-headquartered V5 Global, which was set up in 2005, is a business process consulting and restructuring organization that provides services in the sales and marketing domain to businesses. The company registered net sales of Rs 187.9 Cr for the year through March 2016.