Firstcry Gets $296 Mn From Softbank To Enter Unicorn Club

Pune-based baby products marketplace Firstcry has raised $296 Mn (INR 2120 Cr) Series E funding from Japan-based marquee investor Softbank’s Vision Fund.

According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) filings accessed by Inc42, SVF Frog, a Cayman Island-based subsidiary of Softbank, invested INR 2120 Cr ($296 Mn) in Brainbees Solutions Pvt Ltd, the parent company of Firstcry.

The recent investment is the first tranche of the total $400 Mn funding which has been committed by Softbank, according to the filings. The additional INR 703 Cr ($100 Mn) has been reserved by Softbank to be invested on the second anniversary of the transaction in January 2021. As part of this deal, Firstcry has issued 7,31,66,665 Series E equity shares to SVF Frog at INR 381 per share with a nominal value of INR 5.

As per a report in Entrackr, the transaction has taken Firstcry’s valuation to $1.2 Bn which means the company is the latest to enter India’s unicorn club. It must be noted that the estimated value is based on projections made by Firstcry and there is no new valuation report corroborating the unicorn claims. However, given that the company was valued at roughly $850 Mn in January 2019.

Last month, Hyderabad and Houston-headquartered SaaS company HighRadius had raised $125 Mn Series B funding which helped the company’s valuation to go over $1 Bn and join the unicorn club.

Founded in 2010 by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha, Firstcry offers different categories of baby and kids products from clothing to school essentials. The company has expanded its user base to over 4 Mn and has a retail footprint of over 300 stores spread across 125 cities. It claims to offer 2 Lakh baby and kids products across 2,000 brands.

In FY 2019, Firstcry reported a revenue of INR 535 Cr. In the regulatory filings, the company has said that it is expecting a revenue of INR 2033 Cr in FY20.

SoftBank had committed $395.7 Mn (INR 2,824 Cr) in Firstcry last year. In January 2019, SoftBank invested $149.2 Mn (INR 1,064.9 Cr) in the company. The rest $246.49 Mn (INR 1,759.2 Cr) fund was kept for investing as and when called for in the next two years.

Prior to this funding round, the startup has raised over $100 Mn and from investors such as IDG Ventures India, SAIF, Valiant Capital, Ratan Tata, Vertex Venture, and NEA. At the time of raising last funding in October’17, FirstCry also acquired BabyOye’s franchise business from Mahindra for $54 Mn.