SoftBank Backed Ecommerce Rollup Unicorn GlobalBees Backs Three D2C Brands

Continuing its portfolio expansion, rollup ecommerce unicorn, GlobalBees, has backed three new direct-to-customer (D2C) brands. These include — healthy-snack food brand – The Butternut Company; sustainable clothing company – Mush; and sports fitness equipment brand – Strauss.

With this, the total tally of brands under its portfolio now stands at 11. The unicorn was founded in May last year by Nitin Agarwal and Deepak Khetan and is valued at well over $1.1 Bn. GlobalBees aggregates and invests in ecommerce brands with the goal of accelerating their growth and increasing their scale.

The Butternut Company, founded in 2016 by Ankita Kukreja, Sahil Kukreja and Suhail Pansare, focuses on healthy snack food options for all age groups. The startup claims to have served over 1 Mn customers to date. 

Strauss, too, was founded in the year 2016 by Deepak Sachdeva and deals in sports and fitness equipment on ecommerce platforms. 

Meanwhile, Mush sells eco-friendly bamboo textiles. Founded by Ayush Agarwal and Nihar Gosalia in 2018, the startup has expanded to more than 50 stock keeping units (SKUs) recently.

Commenting on the acquisition, GlobalBees CEO, Nitin Agarwal, said, “These brands have a great growth trajectory and come with a deep purpose to build meaningful products across categories that address unique consumer needs. We plan to collaborate closely with the founders to make these brands household names.”

Last month, Inc42 had exclusively reported about GlobalBees entry into the unicorn club after it raised $111.5 Mn as part of its Series B funding. It has, so far, raised a total of $290.7 Mn. The unicorn is backed by big names such as SoftBank with PremjiInvest and FirstCry joining the bandwagon during the last funding round.

GlobalBees became one of the youngest unicorns in the country and the second Indian rollup ecommerce startup to join the club after Mensa Brands.

Its portfolio now includes 11 D2C brands including The Better Home, andMe, Prolixr, Absorbia, Yellow Chimes, HealthyHey among others.

With more and more people buying online, the online retail market is slated to grow to a Gross Merchandise Value (GMV) of about $350 Bn by 2030 and the fight has just about begun. 

10Club, founded in 2020, raised about $40 Mn last year, in one of the largest seed funding rounds in India. It was led by Fireside Ventures, HeyDay among others. 

Goat Brand Labs, a Thrasio-style venture founded by Rishi Vasudev, also raised $36 Mn from Tiger Global in July last year. 

In August of 2021, Upscalio also raised $42.5 Mn in Series A funding led by Presight Capital. All these startups are vying for a piece of the competitive rollup ecommerce market, which is expected to grow manifold over the coming years.