Mumbai-based online retailer of baby care and children’s products, Hopscotch, has raised $13 Mn (INR 90 Cr) from Facebook’s co-founder Eduardo Saverin. With this, the company has gained a total investment of $28 Mn till date.
Hopscotch was founded in 2011 by Harvard Business School alumni, Rahul Anand and Lisa Kennedy. The startup is an online shop that stocks international brands of products like clothes, shoes, accessories, toys, maternity wear, among other products for babies, kids and moms.
The startup plans to utilise the raised capital to augment the customer base by adding products and features. The company, which has expanded its technology team to 50 over the past nine months, expects to break even by the end of 2016.
Saverin said, “Hopscotch’s steadfast focus on this vision has paid off, resulting in an exponential growth of over 700% year on year. The market opportunity is massive and Hopscotch is still in its nascent stage. The team is frugal, cost conscious, and persistently focused on continuing to deliver strong unit economics while investing in scaling the business.”
Hopscotch Funding
In 2014, the startup raised $2 Mn from a group of investors including Godrej family scion Nisaba Godrej, Singapore-based family office LionRock Capital, Skype co-founder Toivo Annus and Diapers.com co-founder and CTO Wei Yan.
In 2015, it raised $11 Mn in series B round of funding led by Facebook co-founder Eduardo Saverin, and Velos Partners.
The company also acquired SkoolShop, an online school supplies retailer.
Although the children’s apparel market in the country is pegged at $13.8 Bn (INR 95,000 Cr) and expanding at a CAGR of about 20%, it is still largely controlled by unbranded units. Hopscotch faces tough competition from FirstCry and BabyOye, who follow inventory and catalogue model to reach customers. While Hopscotch has a flash sales model, sourcing nearly 3,000 brands. A third of its sales is said to come from private-label brands.
Last year, FirstCry raised additional $10 Mn in its Series D round of funding from New Enterprise Associates (NEA) and San Francisco-based Valiant Capital. On the other hand, BabyOye has raised $12 Mn from Helion Venture Partners, Accel Partners, and Tiger Global.
Unlike other online companies, such as Amazon and Flipkart, that get the bulk of their segment revenue from diapers and baby accessories, Hopscotch focuses on lifestyle products that offer significantly higher margins and a bigger basket size.
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