When Nishant Sharma’s TPlusA Move was reported in August 2025, it marked an unusual step for the co-founder of Kedaara Capital, a private-equity leader known for large institutional bets. The investment signalled growing interest among mainstream investors in India’s home-improvement and furniture-fittings industry — a space long considered too fragmented for high-value investment.
TPlusA, founded in 2023 by A K Goel, the former managing director of Hettich India, is a young furniture-fittings company aiming to build an Indian-owned, design-led hardware brand. Less than two years old and yet to set up a full-scale manufacturing facility, it has already drawn attention for its ambitious vision and seasoned leadership.
For Sharma, his TPlusA move — a personal investment outside Kedaara’s mandate — reflects both conviction and curiosity. It represents his willingness to test a high-potential manufacturing play at an early stage, led by a founder who has already built a market leader once before.
Sharma had earlier invested personally in moEVing, a tech-enabled electric-fleet startup, in 2021. Interestingly, Kedaara Capital, which he co-founded in 2012, recently invested in Porter, a tech-driven goods-transport platform that is building a sustainable e-mobility network. Seen together, these moves show Nishant Sharma’s TPlusA move expanding his investment canvas — from logistics and mobility to the hardware backbone of India’s built environment.
Sharma is among the youngest investment leaders to have fronted several marquee transactions across sectors such as healthcare, consumer, and finance as part of Kedaara. The IIT-Delhi alumnus has nearly two decades of experience in private equity and serves on the boards of Oasis, AMI, and Vishal Megamart. His entry into the furniture industry, therefore, is being read as a signal of rising investor confidence in India’s home-improvement economy.
EBCO Assessment
While Kedaara has so far stayed away from direct investments in the home-improvement industry, it has evaluated multiple categories including tiles, sanitary fittings, and furniture hardware. One of the companies on Kedaara’s radar was EBCO, but the deal did not go through. Later, in 2024, global private-equity firm Warburg Pincus bought a majority stake in EBCO for over ₹3,000 crore.
Sharma observed that this valuation was “fairly rich.” More importantly, Kedaara was wary of the transition risk that arises when founders exit. “At Kedaara, it matters who we are backing. In EBCO’s case, the promoters were exiting, and we had to be convinced that the new person who would take over would build on the legacy of the founders. Sometimes it is easier said than done,” he explained.
Kedaara anticipated a two- to three-year gestation period for the business to stabilise under new leadership and was reluctant to pay upfront for that uncertainty. The episode reinforced a guiding principle in Sharma’s investment philosophy: conviction in leadership continuity matters as much as market potential.
Why TPlusA
In contrast, the TPlusA opportunity offered the reverse combination — entrepreneurial continuity with fresh capital. The credibility of the founder, A K Goel, who had earlier created a market leader, became the decisive factor. A mutual friend introduced Sharma to Goel, and the investor saw in him a rare combination of vision, operational experience, and execution clarity.
“As an investor, my competence is not in backing early-stage businesses, but in this case, he is an experienced operator,” Sharma said, describing this as “one of the rare instances” where he made a personal bet outside his institutional fund.
What impressed Sharma most was Goel’s sequenced growth plan — beginning with global collaborations, moving into assembly, and gradually setting up manufacturing capacity. This stepwise approach, Sharma noted, was a way to de-risk execution while conserving capital. “It’s not about whether manufacturing will happen, but when,” he remarked, signalling confidence in the venture’s disciplined roadmap.
How Sharma Prices Risk
TPlusA also reflects how Sharma defines and prices risk. He distinguishes between input and output metrics. “First get the inputs right — people, plant, network. The outputs like revenue and margins will follow,” he says.
This structured approach — prioritising fundamentals before financial outcomes — explains his comfort with Goel’s pace. While Kedaara typically writes cheques in the ₹800–1,600 crore range, Sharma’s investment in TPlusA is understood to be a modest personal bet, likely in the single-digit-crore range. The cheque may be small, but its signalling value is large. It underscores that conviction — not capital size — drove the decision.
By committing his own funds to an early-stage, manufacturing-heavy business, Nishant Sharma’s TPlusA move effectively tests the next frontier for private-equity interest: backing proven operators at formative stages, before institutional capital steps in.
A Maturing Sector
Sharma believes that India’s home-improvement and furniture-fittings ecosystem is poised for a long runway. He points out that real estate, though moderated, continues to fuel both new construction and renovation markets. “This is a long-term story,” he says, “and it will remain active even if growth flattens temporarily.”
TPlusA may be an early-stage company today, but with Goel’s leadership and the industry’s tailwinds, Sharma expects it to evolve into a formidable market force within five years.
In the broader context, Sharma’s entry can be viewed as a signal that private-equity interest is expanding from tech and consumption to manufacturing and materials — especially where Indian entrepreneurs with proven experience are reclaiming value from imported brands.
As India’s building products ecosystem formalises and design-led manufacturing gains momentum, investors are beginning to see furniture and furniture fittings as more than a commodity play. It is now a strategic manufacturing story, linking real estate, retail, and design.
Nishant Sharma’s TPlusA move therefore embodies the new PE thesis: back seasoned operators, respect capital discipline, and participate early in the next phase of India’s home-improvement growth curve.
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