India’s first tech-based House of Brands, Mensa Brands, has collaborated with ten digital-first consumer brands across the fashion, home, and beauty sectors. Mensa proposes to scale digital-first brands by investing in them. It plans to acquire 50+ brands across different categories over the next three years, including home, garden, apparel, personal care, and cosmetics.
The founders of the ten brands, as well as their teams, will join Mensa as a result of this partnership. Priyaasi, a traditional and contemporary jewelry brand; Anubhutee, a women’s ethnic wear brand; Ishin, a women’s ethnic wear brand; Karagiri, a designer sarees brand; Hubberholme, an affordable men’s casualwear brand; Dennis, a men’s casual wear brand; Helea, a smart home-device company; and Villain, a men’s personal care company, are among the brands joining The other two brands were kept under wraps by the company.
The company is likely to be in discussions with new investors for fresh funding after securing around $88 million from Accel Partners, Falcon Edge Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, among others. Mensa Brands also raised $50 million in equity and debt round in May this year.
It also plans to invest in profitable new-age consumer brands with revenue ranging from $1 million to $10 million. Although the company’s founder Ananth Narayanan declined to disclose the details of the deal, he told media outlets that Mensa acquires a majority stake (50-60 percent) in the brand for 5-7x the company’s EBITDA.
Mensa claims that e-commerce in India has surpassed its breaking level of non-linear growth and that it can build global brands in India. Mensa has offices in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Gurugram and wants to expand its workforce by hiring in domains such as growth, product, and finance.
Mensa, a Thrasio-style startup founded in April 2021, is among countless such ventures flourishing throughout the country. Thrasio is a digital consumer goods firm based in the United States that owns private label Amazon FBA businesses as well as direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands. Moreover, Thrasio is rumored to make its first foray into the Indian market with the acquisition of Gurugram based home appliances startup Lifelong Online.
Mensa currently works under the leadership of Founder and CEO, Ananth Narayanan, former CEO of Flipkart owned Myntra and Medlife (acquired by PharmEasy), and a Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company. The company is backed by renowned investors which include Tiger Global Management, Falcon Edge Capital, Accel Partners, and Norwest Venture Partners.
