Mensa Brands Raises $40 Mn In Debt Funding From EvolutionX

House of brands unicorn Mensa Brands has bagged $40 Mn in growth capital from EvolutionX Debt Capital through a combination of debt facility and convertible investment.

With its fresh fund infusion, Mensa Brands plans to continue investing in brand building. 

“In the last 2 years, we have profitably scaled more than 20 brands across beauty and FMCG, fashion, home and consumer electronics. We plan to use this new funding to continue building consumer-loved brands for the next-generation of India,” said Ananth Narayanan, founder and CEO of Mensa Brands.

Founded in 2021 by former Myntra CEO Narayanan, Mensa Brands currently owns and operates several brands including Pebble, MyFitness, Dennis Lingo, and Villain. The company has raised $200 Mn so far in equity alone and counts marquee global investors including Accel Partners, Falcon Edge Capital, Prosus, and Tiger Global Management as its investors.

The company has also raised debt funding from the likes of Alteria Capital, InnoVen Capital, Stride Ventures, and TradeCred earlier.

In November 2021, Mensa Brands raised $135 Mn, which then valued the company at over $1 Bn.

Rahul Shah, partner of EvolutionX Debt Capital showed his confidence in Mensa being able to scale revenues and margins of digital-first consumer brands by leveraging technology and brand-building activities.

“Mensa has proven its execution capabilities with successful acquisition of multiple brands, and we look forward to supporting the company’s journey as it continues to grow its brands both in domestic and international markets,” said Shah.

Mensa Brands recently entered the UAE market and introduced three brands of its brands – Villain, Pebble, and Folkulture – on Amazon and the Saudi ecommerce platform Noon.

Meanwhile, we must note that its recent fundraise comes months after the company laid off around 30 employees from India Lifestyle Network (ILN) – a brand it acquired in December last year.

In its first year of operations, FY22, Mensa Brands posted a net loss of INR 96.62 Cr while registering a total income of INR 217.89 Cr.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.