Bombay Shaving Company (BSC) has raised Rs 45 crore in a new financing round, led by Sixth Sense Ventures with participation from existing investor Colgate Palmolive Asia Pacific.
After this fundraise, a clutch of angels and early employees have exited the men’s consumer products brand, which has picked up Rs 80 crore till date.
Close to 30 angels, including 16 partners from McKinsey including Noshir Kaka and Gautam Kumra, as well as S Ramadorai, former managing director of TCS; Kiran Deshpande, former CEO of Tech Mahindra, and Maninder Gulati, who heads strategy for Oyo, had backed the company in 2016, according to regulatory filings.
Early employees and angels have cashed out in a Rs 20 crore secondary round, racking up as much as six times their investment return in about three to three-and-a-half years. “The primary infusion of the current financing is more than ten times the first round,” said Shantanu Deshpande, founder, and CEO of BSC, declining to share specifics.
Secondary exits are critical for the early stage start-up ecosystem as they encourage more seed-level investments and establish the liquidity of stock options, a huge financial motivation for employees.
BSC, launched in 2016, started out as a direct to consumer premium experiential shaving regimen which then expanded into the skin, beard and bath segments with over 45 products across categories.
The brand aims to achieve an annualized turnover of Rs 100 crore by next year, and use the cash raised to invest in brand building, product development, and expansion.
“As an omnichannel brand, BSC will focus on expanding its current offline footprint of 3,000 stores to 10,000 stores in the coming months,” Deshpande said.
Consumer brands continue to be an exciting investment bet for investors, given that it takes far less capital to build a scalable business with the rise of online channels to market and increase the user base.
“Today, skincare and personal care are amongst the lowest per capita spend in India, at Rs 500-Rs 1,000 … Given the rising internet adoption and increasing intent from customers to spend on the category, we believe the trajectory to follow fashion and electronics…being digital-first is an exciting way of creating a market before exploiting the physical distribution model,” said Nikhil Vora, founder at Sixth Sense Venture Partners.
In the last two years, 70 consumer brand companies have been funded by venture capitalists to the tune of more than $300 million, data from Tracxn indicate.
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