E-commerce gave a major benefit of getting anything at the convenience of your click. Every segment of customers is set to exercise their choice and get the desired product.
But; little did we know that there would be a specific segment catered by the first cry which is kids. It is a whole-sole community that exists to serve the needs of the parents who find it difficult to get requisite clothes for their kids.
Monday; was quite a good day as the company is about to reach the $ 2 billion valuation due to the recent funding. The details are given in the article; let’s get into it.
BACKGROUND OF FIRST CRY
The company is popularly known as firstcry.com started in the year 2010 in the month of September. It was founded by Supam Maheshwari & Amitava Saha. It is Asia’s favorite baby & kids shopping platform that has more than 2 lakh products from 6000 different brands. It has close to more than 400 stores in the country. It is by far the largest community for parents.
13 million new parents engage every month
92 million monthly engagement
10 million app downloads
More than 20 million families attached
The company has product portfolio that consists of categories like footwear, boy fashion, girl fashion, toys, diapers, feeding, bath & skin and nursery.
The company has a unmatchable timeline that states it’s presence across all the country. In 2016 it acquired Mahindra brand Baby Oye and the next year they received a funding of $ 400 million from Soft Bank. In 2019; the company started its operations in UAE.
INSIGHTS INTO FUNDING
The company is looking forward to raise Rs. 95 crore that is $ 13 million in an equity fund round. The amount would be raised by Pi ventures. The parent company of firstcry.com which is Brainbees Solutions Private Limited has made allocation of shares at premium. The details disclosed in the regulatory filings are as follows:
| Number Of shares | 13, 58, 930 |
| Premium Amount | Rs. 697.17 per share |
| Nominal Amount | Rs. 5 |
The interesting part of the funding is it’s timing. The already & existing investors Chiratae Ventures, Vertex Ventures and Elevation Capital are making up their minds to sell their stakes of 7-9% for an amount of $ 180 million in their coming initial public offer in the coming 2-3 years. The company’s competitors majorly kids stop press & mama earth had a revenue which in the year 2020 has seen a huge growth from Rs. 17.9 crore to Rs. 112 crore.
Firstcry has also seen a rise of about 68% which was about Rs. 897 crore as it witnessed a systematic cut in its losses.This raise would make company touch the valuation of $ 2.1 billion.
Pandemic brought various hurdles; but the major advantage that cannot be ignored is that a lot of e-commerce ventures saw a growth in their revenue in sync with a cut in their losses. This has led to a lot of funding in this sector making it very easy to combat the competition.
Firstcry is ready to make its first step in the $ 2 billion club. It is a unicorn which makes it even more important the success falls on its cards.
