SUMMARY
The development comes when Firstcry’s early investors are looking to partially exit the company
Firstcry, which entered the unicorn club last year, is planning to go public in three years
The ecommerce platform cuts its losses by 83% in FY20, in the run up to going public
Pune-based baby products marketplace Firstcry has raised INR 95 Cr ($13 Mn) in an equity funding round from pi Ventures through its opportunity fund I, at a valuation of $1.9 Bn or INR 14K Cr.
According to ministry of corporate affairs filings accessed by Inc42, Firstcry’s parent company Brainbees Solutions Private Limited has allocated 13,58,930 shares at a premium amount of INR 697.17 per share and a nominal amount at INR 5. The company has not disclosed the use of this capital in its regulatory filings.
The development comes when the company’s early backers like Chiratae Ventures, Vertex Ventures and Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners) are reportedly looking to sell about 7%-9% of their stakes in the company for $180 Mn (about INR 1,307 Cr) in secondary transition ahead of the company’s planned initial public offerings (IPO) in the next two-three years. As per media reports, the fundraise is expected to value FirstCry at around $2.1 Bn, which is almost double of its previous funding round.
Firstcry had entered the unicorn club last year, after raising $296 Mn (INR 2,120 Cr) in a Series E round from Japan-based Softbank’s Vision Fund in February 2020. The investment was the first tranche of a $400 Mn (INR 2,905 Cr) funding committed by Softbank. The remaining INR 703 Cr ($100 Mn) had been reserved by Softbank to be invested on the second anniversary of the transaction in January 2021.
The company, founded in 2010 by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha, offers different categories of baby and kids products from clothing to other essentials. It has expanded its user base to over 4 Mn and has a retail footprint of over 300 stores spread across 125 cities. The Pune-based startup claims to offer 200K baby and kids products across 2,000 brands.
In the online baby care segment, FirstCry competes with Hopscotch and Kids Stop Press. However, companies operating private labels such as MamaEarth have proven to be more successful in the segment, with a 6X spike in its revenue in the financial year 2020 to INR 112 Cr from INR 17.9 Cr in FY2019. The Gurugram-based startup’s expenses also grew at the same rate to INR 118 Cr, leading to an increase of losses to INR 5.9 Cr.
Firstcry has reported a 68% increase in its revenue in the financial year 2020, from INR 535 Cr in FY2019 to INR 897 Cr. The company’s expenses fell 26%, from INR 1,468 Cr to INR 1,088 Cr in the same time period. As a result, it witnessed a 83% drop in its net losses, from INR 933 Cr in FY2019 to INR 191 Cr in FY2020.
