Tharsio-Style Startup Powerhouse91 Raises Funds From FJ Labs, Others

SUMMARY

The investment marks FJ Labs entry into the Indian roll-up space'

Powerhouse91 is a Thrasio style startup that acquires high-potential consumer brands to scale them through deep ecommerce focused optimisations and product innovation

The startup's early investors include firms such as Titan Capital, Coventure, and Crossbeam Venture Partners

Thrasio-style startup Powerhouse91 has announced raising an undisclosed amount of capital and onboarding multiple marquee global investors, including US-based venture capital firm FJ Labs.

With this investment, FJ labs has marked its entry into the Indian roll-up space. Prior to this, the VC firm has made investments in other Thrasio style businesses in various geographies, such as Razor Group (global player), Elevate Brands (US) and Valoreo (Mexico).

Others backing the startup include Elevate Brands’ cofounder Ryan Gnesin and Merama’s cofounder Sujay Tyle, who have successfully built and scaled roll-up ventures in the US and Latin America. In addition, Mamaearth’s founder Varun Alagh has also decided to join Gnesin and Tyle.

The funding round also saw participation from OYO’s Global Chief Strategy Officer Maninder Gulati and Haresh Chawla, Partner at True North Co.

Cofounded by Aqib Mohammed, Nikhil Agrawal, and Shashwat Diesh in 2020, the Thrasio style startup acquires high-potential consumer brands to scale them through deep ecommerce focused optimisation and product innovation.

Powerhouse91’s early investors include firms such as Titan Capital, Coventure, and Crossbeam Venture Partners.

“We see this as a significant addition to our knowledge and expertise pool and consequently our ability to scale the acquired brands multifold over the course of next few years. Our shared vision towards creating an efficient ecommerce growth engine that helps us scale while maintaining healthy profitability is what brought us together in the first place,” said Mohammed.

India’s ecommerce space is expected to touch $200 Bn by 2026 and has been witnessing a rush of startups offering the Thrasio model services to the ecommerce segment. Another Thrasio style startup Upscalio recently garnered funding of $42.5 Mn in its Series A round.

Besides, startups such as Global Bees, Mensa Brands, GOAT Brand Labs, Evenflow, 10 Club, and several others are also competing for a piece of this fast-growing market space.

Powerhouse91 had recently announced its entry across multiple categories through brand acquisitions. It plans on acquiring at least 20-25 brands by the end of 2021 and has an ARR of INR 100 Cr in topline.