Mensa Brands, an Indian startup that acquires direct-to-client manufacturers and helps them scale throughout the house market and abroad, has turn out to be a unicorn just six months after launching its enterprise.
Falcon Edge Capital led Mensa Brands’ $135 million Series B financing spherical that values the Indian startup at over $1 billion, the 2 mentioned Tuesday.
Prosus Ventures, in addition to all present traders together with Tiger Global, Norwest Venture Partners, and Accel additionally participated in the brand new spherical, pushing Mensa’s all-time elevate to over $300 million in fairness and debt.
Mensa Brands — based by Ananth Narayanan, who beforehand served because the chief govt of vogue e-commerce large Myntra that was finally scooped by Flipkart — operates in the identical house as Thrasio, the Boston-based startup broadly credited with the success of this mannequin.
But Narayanan believes that what Mensa is trying to do is totally different. Mensa, which suggests constellation in Greek, is trying to construct a new age client model just like the Indian conglomerate Unilever or Bed Bath & Beyond, he mentioned.
“Brands today are getting built very differently. The distribution has completely been democratized. I think you can do brand building very differently and interestingly with a lot more virality and personalization,” he mentioned in an interview with TechCrunch.
Ananth Narayanan based Mensa Brands. The startup has turn out to be the quickest Indian agency to turn out to be a unicorn. (Image credit: Mensa Brands)
Mensa Brands at present homes 12 manufacturers, 80% of that are run by girls, mentioned Narayanan. The startup operates in three classes — attire, magnificence and private care, and residential. “In all of these categories, we are not trying to build a brand for India, but a brand for the globe,” he mentioned, including that 30% of the startup’s income already comes from abroad markets.
The startup buys a majority stake in every model it companions with with plans to amass absolutely purchase them in 5 years. All of these manufacturers are worthwhile and their founding workforce joins Mensa Brands to work with the bigger agency, mentioned Narayanan. Mensa itself can also be worthwhile, he mentioned.
Mensa helps these manufacturers arrange and optimize their inventories throughout all in style marketplaces and their official web sites. On the demand facet, the startup performs “tech-led marketing,” and likewise optimizes the costs of merchandise, he mentioned. “We also do a lot of tech-led product developments such as identifying the products consumers are looking for, and help the brands launch new line of products,” he mentioned.
Villain, a main males’s perfume and equipment model that’s half of Mensa now, grew by over 250% in October, the startup mentioned. Another companion model, Karagiri, a excessive-finish designer sarees model grew by 140% final month, it mentioned. Narayanan mentioned the overwhelming majority of manufacturers Mensa has acquired to date have grown by over 100%.
“We are excited to continue backing Ananth Narayanan as he executes a best-in-class playbook of brand aggregation and acceleration focused on Indian and global e-commerce brands,” mentioned Navroz Udwadia, co-founder and companion at Falcon Edge Capital, in a assertion.
“Mensa demonstrates a tangible uplift through a combination of product and pricing optimization, technology-led process improvement, distribution and marketing augmentation and fine-tuning the supply chain. These levers meaningfully accelerate the growth and margin trajectory of the brands and make them well-poised to become category leaders. We believe Mensa is well on track to cement its reputation as the partner of choice for well-performing e-commerce brands.”
Mensa plans to companion with as many as 30 extra manufacturers in the following one yr, mentioned Narayanan.
Scores of entrepreneurs are searching for higher e-commerce fashions throughout the globe. Many traders consider that Amazons and Flipkarts of the world have laid the railroads for digital commerce, however smarter and extra worthwhile companies might be constructed atop of them. Other startups working in the house in India embrace Global Bees, EvenFlow Brands, 10membership, Powerhouse91 and Goat Brands Labs.
“We are excited to support Mensa Brands in their journey to build digital-first global brands from India. Their team brings superior execution focus and technology chops to help emerging brands scale digitally. This is an incredible time for made-in-India businesses, and we look forward to helping to fuel their future success,” mentioned Ashutosh Sharma, Head of Investments for Prosus Ventures in India, in a assertion.
