Pune, Maharashtra headquartered FirstCry.com, which claims to be Asia’s Largest Online Portal for Baby Products and Toys, is currently in the midst of raising equity financing of about Rs 665.27 crore ($100 million) from multiple investors including Temasek Holdings, a state-owned holding company that can be characterized as a national wealth fund owned by the Government of Singapore.
According to a report in the Economic Times, two sources close to the company have confirmed the publication that FirstCry’s parent company Brainbees Solutions is hoping to be valued at $400-500 million after this fundraise goes through. The company was earlier estimated at $300-350 million when it last raised funding in October last year.
The sources further revealed that the investment is most likely to include secondary transactions to purchase stockholdings in the 2010 founded firm from its existing investors.
Neither FirstCry and Temasek have confirmed the news yet. Temasek is an investment company headquartered in Singapore with a multinational staff of 630 people and a portfolio of $275 billion globally, which is mainly in Asia and Singapore and covers a broad spectrum of industries. In the past, the company has backed online marketplace Snapdeal, automobile classified portal CarTrade, and online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar, among other companies.
An online shopping store offering a range of baby care products and toys, FirstCry has over 20000+ items from 250+ top International and Indian brands like Mattel, Ben10, Pigeon, Funskool, Hotwheels, Nuby, Farlin, Medela, Pampers, Disney, Barbie, Gerber, Zapak, Mee Mee and so on.
FirstCry has risen as a market leader in the Indian online baby products retail segment, especially after the company acquired Mahindra Retail for a whopping Rs. 362 crore last year in a deal that garnered a lot of publicity and is still considered a landmark deal in Indian retail.
For the uninitiated, Mahindra Retail, which was a subsidiary of software-to-automobile conglomerate Mahindra Group was the owner of Babyoye brand, which was at that time FirstCry's closest competition in the market.
According to a Euromonitor report published in May, India's baby and child-specific product market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8 per cent, and reach Rs 2,940 crore by 2021.
When the Mahindra Retail deal was being executed last year, the Pune-based company had risen Rs. 226 crore in fresh funding from Switzerland's Adveq and Mahindra Group. The funding round also saw the participation of its existing investors including IDG Ventures India, SAIF Partners, New Enterprise Asso ciates and Vertex Ventures, the venture capital arm of Temasek. Overall, the company has raised about Rs. 820 crore ($125 million) in funding so far.
According to a report in the Economic Times, two sources close to the company have confirmed the publication that FirstCry’s parent company Brainbees Solutions is hoping to be valued at $400-500 million after this fundraise goes through. The company was earlier estimated at $300-350 million when it last raised funding in October last year.
The sources further revealed that the investment is most likely to include secondary transactions to purchase stockholdings in the 2010 founded firm from its existing investors.
Neither FirstCry and Temasek have confirmed the news yet. Temasek is an investment company headquartered in Singapore with a multinational staff of 630 people and a portfolio of $275 billion globally, which is mainly in Asia and Singapore and covers a broad spectrum of industries. In the past, the company has backed online marketplace Snapdeal, automobile classified portal CarTrade, and online insurance aggregator PolicyBazaar, among other companies.
An online shopping store offering a range of baby care products and toys, FirstCry has over 20000+ items from 250+ top International and Indian brands like Mattel, Ben10, Pigeon, Funskool, Hotwheels, Nuby, Farlin, Medela, Pampers, Disney, Barbie, Gerber, Zapak, Mee Mee and so on.
FirstCry has risen as a market leader in the Indian online baby products retail segment, especially after the company acquired Mahindra Retail for a whopping Rs. 362 crore last year in a deal that garnered a lot of publicity and is still considered a landmark deal in Indian retail.
For the uninitiated, Mahindra Retail, which was a subsidiary of software-to-automobile conglomerate Mahindra Group was the owner of Babyoye brand, which was at that time FirstCry's closest competition in the market.
According to a Euromonitor report published in May, India's baby and child-specific product market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8 per cent, and reach Rs 2,940 crore by 2021.
When the Mahindra Retail deal was being executed last year, the Pune-based company had risen Rs. 226 crore in fresh funding from Switzerland's Adveq and Mahindra Group. The funding round also saw the participation of its existing investors including IDG Ventures India, SAIF Partners, New Enterprise Asso ciates and Vertex Ventures, the venture capital arm of Temasek. Overall, the company has raised about Rs. 820 crore ($125 million) in funding so far.
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