Celebration-Focussed ‘House Of Brands’ Join Ventures Raises $10 Mn; To Expand Dark Stores Network

Mumbai-based House of Celebration-focussed D2C Brands Join Ventures has raised $10 Mn (INR 75 Cr) in its Series A round from DSG Consumer Partners, Rajiv Dadlani Group, 9Unicorns and Venture Catalysts.

Join Ventures plans to use the funds to ensure the expansion of its dark stores network, product development via tech advancements and logistics improvements.

Founded in 2020 by Tarun Joshi, Join Venture’s portfolio currently includes IGP (D2C gifting store), Interflora (D2C florist brand for premium flowers), IGP for Business-(B2B2C partner for reward management and corporate gifting) and Masqa (indulgent foods brand).

The roll-up brand claims to be generating over 3 Mn orders per year from 100+ countries. Join Ventures, which owns three warehouses and 24 dark stores, recently expanded its large-scale (50,000 sq ft) warehousing facility at Jaipur to strengthen the fulfillment infrastructure.

Join Ventures also plans to use the fresh funds to bolster its logistic infrastructure through warehouse expansions with a vision of 1 Mn sq ft by 2024, to support 120+ new dark stores across India.

“All trends show that consumers are bullish on the celebration landscape. It is defined by the 140 Mn online buyers who are currently generating 4 Bn+ occasion-led searches in India. We aim to capture a large share of this underserved market with our design-to-delivery consumer experience, robust supply chain and proprietary distribution network. The latest influx of funds will enable us to accelerate our growth and inch closer to our vision,” Tarun Joshi said in a statement.

“We aim to launch new brands based on insights gathered from our existing portfolio to better serve the needs of flourishing Indian households who consider occasions as rituals, happiness, a moment to bond and celebrate, and are increasingly turning online for quality products, personalisation and convenience,” he added.

The ‘House Of Brands’ approach is gaining momentum, alongside the ‘Thrasio-style’, ‘D2C roll-up’ monikers and there are estimates that the D2C market size will reach $100 Bn by 2025.

Most recently, foodtech ‘house of brands’ startup Ovenstory, Behrouz Biryani and Fassos-owner Rebel Foods joined the unicorn club in October 2021. Hyderabad-based TTSF Cloud One, a multi-brand cloud kitchen chain from the creators of The ThickShake Factory, had raised $5.3 Mn in a seed funding round led by Brand Capital in September 2021. While Curefood raised $62 Mn in January 2022.