Manipal Group Chair Ranjan Pai Reportedly Picking Up Stake in Firstcry with ₹250 Crore Investment

Manipal Group chairman Ranjan Pai is in advanced stage talks to pick up a stake in FirstCry, as part of a secondary share sale, by investing ₹250 crore investment in the Pune based e-commerce firm. With this, Firstcry could have a valuation of about $3 billion reported Economic Times.

The total secondary share sale would be around $50-60 million, or close to ₹500 crore (as per current USD exchange rates) and Pai is likely to invest ₹250 crore.

Around $100 million worth of secondary share sale is likely to be formalised. Other institutional investors are also in the process of picking up a secondary stake in the Pune-based Firstcry, an Omnichannel retailer.

The funding is being primed as a pre-IPO round for Firstcry, which counts Masayoshi Son-led SoftBank as its largest Shareholder with 29% stake.

Earlier reports suggest that SoftBank is likely to sell a part of its 29% holding if the deal happens.

Premji Invest owns about 9-11% stake in FirstCry while Mahindra Retail holds 12-13% and TPG has a 6-7% stake.

According to Traxn, FirstCry has raised a total funding of $965 million in over 10 rounds. It last raised $315 million in Series E, in March 2021.

Early this month, it was reported that Firstcry spin-off, Xpressbees, may raise $100 million as an investment by Canada's Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, one of the largest pension plans in the world. This fundraise could value the logistics company at about $1.4 billion.

SoftBank Commits $400 Mn in FirstCry with First Tranche of $150 Mn Already In

Japanese internet and telecom giant SoftBank's $100-billion Vision Fund is investing $400 million in India's largest online baby-care store FirstCry and out of this total $400 million, $150 million has already been infused into Firstcry. according to various media reports.

The resolution for the same was passed on January 18, regulatory documents show. After this investment, the company is estimated to be valued at around $850 million according to initial calculations by business intelligence platform Paper.vc.

It is to be noted that, as of now there is no official confirmation about fund raise from either Softbank or Firstcry.

If this funding materialize, FirstCry would then have raised a total of $268.4 million in funding over 7 rounds from multiple investors including Chiratae Ventures (formerly known as IDG Ventures India), SAIF Partners and Vertex Ventures are some of the existing investors. For SoftBank, the investment comes at a time when it is seeking Competition Commission of India (CCI) approval for an investment in logistics player Delhivery. Last year, it invested $1 billion in Gurugram-based hotel brand Oyo.

In October, it was reported that Firstcry was in talks to raise $100-150 million from China's Alibaba oand Softbank. Prior to this, in September last year, it was reported that the startup was raising equity financing of about $100 million from multiple investors including Temasek Holdings but eventully this too did not materialize.

According to Times of India, a company official privy to the developemt said that FirstCry plans to use the new capital to expand its online and offline presence as well as to strengthen its technology platform. At the end of 2018, FirstCry had 330-350 offline stores. The company, one of the largest in its space, sells just about everything a child and a new mother needs - apparel, footwear, toys, books, feeding & nursing products, soaps, oils, powders, baby monitors, strollers and baby bedding.

In 2016, it bought Mahindra group's babycare business BabyOye for over Rs 360 crore in a mixed cash-and-equity transaction. Hopscotch, The Moms Co and TinyStep are some of the other companies operating in the space. Started in 2010, the company is said to have one of the largest parent communities in the country. "They are looking to leverage that community in a big way this year. There will be lot of content that will be created to target this base of parents," a person aware of the plans said.

FirstCry in Early Talks to Raise upto $150 Mn from Alibaba and SoftBank

India's largest online baby care store FirstCry, which hasn't raised funding in last two years, is in early talks with China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp., among others, to raise at least $100-$150 million, reported LiveMint.

According the report, both Alibaba and SoftBank may participate in the proposed funding round only if the latest talks progress to the next stage.

In last couple of year, the funding speculations of FirstCry is being made several times by different media outlets and yet the startup hasn't made it to grabbing any fundraise so far. In June, it was reported that Firstcry was in talks to raise $100-150 million from Singapore-based Temasek Holdings, Chinese internet giant Tencent and an unidentified Chinese investment firm. Prior to this, in September last year, it was reported that the startup was raising equity financing of about $100 million from multiple investors including Temasek Holdings but eventully this too did not materialize.

The LiveMint report further said that while Temasek and Tencent have held talks with FirstCry, they may not invest in the upcoming funding round.

If FirstCry manage to seal the latest discussions with investors, it will mark yet another fairly significant funding this year for India’s startup ecosystem, which is witnessing a massive funding boom that has already been compared to the 2014-15 funding bubble.

According to Tracxn data, this year there were more than two dozen startup fundings amounting to the size of $100 million or more, compared to 22 in last year.

FirstCry had raised a total of $119 million in funding over six rounds. The last funding of $34 million came from a Series D round led by Vertex Vetures, in October, 2016. FirstCry's investors include Mahindra, IDG Ventures India (now Chiratae Ventures), New Enterprise Associates and SAIF Partners, among others.

Founded by serial entrepreneur Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha in 2010, FirstCry has offline stores with an omni-channel approach to increase its sales and presence. The company acquired Mahindra Group’s kids retail brand BabyOye for ₹362 crore in a cash and stock deal in 2016..

BrainBees Solutions, the parent company of FirstCry, has reported narrowing of losses at its online retailing business. In September this year, the Pune-based company reported a loss of Rs 54 crore for the year ended March 2018, as per its financial documents filed with the Registrar of Companies.

Recntly, Gurgaon-based mother and baby care startup MamaEarth raised about $4 million (₹27.5 crore) in a Series A round of funding led by early-stage technology-focussed venture capital (VC) firm Stellaris Ventures.

In September, Mumbai-based BabyChakra raised funding of an undisclosed amount in its pre-Series-B round from several investors, including Mark Mobius, Equanimity Ventures Fund, Facebook director Anand Chandrasekaran and OYO’s Chief Strategy Officer Maninder Gulati.

FirstCry in Early Talks to Raise upto $150 Mn from Alibaba and SoftBank

India's largest online baby care store FirstCry, which hasn't raised funding in last two years, is in early talks with China’s Alibaba Group Holding Ltd and Japan’s SoftBank Group Corp., among others, to raise at least $100-$150 million, reported LiveMint.

According the report, both Alibaba and SoftBank may participate in the proposed funding round only if the latest talks progress to the next stage.

In last couple of year, the funding speculations of FirstCry is being made several times by different media outlets and yet the startup hasn't made it to grabbing any fundraise so far. In June, it was reported that Firstcry was in talks to raise $100-150 million from Singapore-based Temasek Holdings, Chinese internet giant Tencent and an unidentified Chinese investment firm. Prior to this, in September last year, it was reported that the startup was raising equity financing of about $100 million from multiple investors including Temasek Holdings but eventully this too did not materialize.

The LiveMint report further said that while Temasek and Tencent have held talks with FirstCry, they may not invest in the upcoming funding round.

If FirstCry manage to seal the latest discussions with investors, it will mark yet another fairly significant funding this year for India’s startup ecosystem, which is witnessing a massive funding boom that has already been compared to the 2014-15 funding bubble.

According to Tracxn data, this year there were more than two dozen startup fundings amounting to the size of $100 million or more, compared to 22 in last year.

FirstCry had raised a total of $119 million in funding over six rounds. The last funding of $34 million came from a Series D round led by Vertex Vetures, in October, 2016. FirstCry's investors include Mahindra, IDG Ventures India (now Chiratae Ventures), New Enterprise Associates and SAIF Partners, among others.

Founded by serial entrepreneur Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha in 2010, FirstCry has offline stores with an omni-channel approach to increase its sales and presence. The company acquired Mahindra Group’s kids retail brand BabyOye for ₹362 crore in a cash and stock deal in 2016..

BrainBees Solutions, the parent company of FirstCry, has reported narrowing of losses at its online retailing business. In September this year, the Pune-based company reported a loss of Rs 54 crore for the year ended March 2018, as per its financial documents filed with the Registrar of Companies.

Recntly, Gurgaon-based mother and baby care startup MamaEarth raised about $4 million (₹27.5 crore) in a Series A round of funding led by early-stage technology-focussed venture capital (VC) firm Stellaris Ventures.

In September, Mumbai-based BabyChakra raised funding of an undisclosed amount in its pre-Series-B round from several investors, including Mark Mobius, Equanimity Ventures Fund, Facebook director Anand Chandrasekaran and OYO’s Chief Strategy Officer Maninder Gulati.

FirstCry May Raise Fresh $150 Mn Funds from Temasek, Tencent Holdings and A Chinese Investor

Mahindra-owned baby products startup Firstcry is reportedly in talks to raise $100-150 million from new and existing investors as it seeks to increase its lead in the market.

According to the LiveMint report, citing three people privy to the matter, Firstcry has fortifed talks with Singapore-based Temasek Holdings, with whom it was in funding talks last year but cooled-off later. The startup is also in talks with Chinese internet giant Tencent and an unidentified Chinese investment firm to raise its next round.

Firstcry held funding talks with Temasek last year but then nothing happened in the end because of two's differences over valuation. The companies revived talks this year and has appointed Morgan Stanley as its investment bank for the deal.

Temasek, which has recently led the $125 million funding of Noida-based PoS deploying company Pine Labs, is a minority investor in companies such as Flipkart, Ola, Byju’s, Practo and Hike.

Founded in 2010 by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha, Firstcry (Brainbees Solutions Pvt. Ltd) is now poised to called as India’s largest baby products retailer and has raised more than $100 million from high profile investors including Ratan Tata, Mahindra, IDG Ventures India, New Enterprise Associates, SAIF Partners, Vertex Ventures and others.

In October 2016, Firstcry bought Mahindra’s struggling babycare business BabyOye Retail Pvt. Ltd for ₹362 crore in a cash-and-stock deal.

Headquartered in Pune, FIrstCry is one of the very few e-commerce startups that has flourished in the past three years despite competition from giants like Flipkart and Amazon India.

For financial year 2016-17, Firstcry reported a loss of ₹393 crore on revenue of ₹239 crore.

It may also be recalled that, e-commerce logistics startup Xpressbees, which is founded by Firstcry founders Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha, had raised funding of $35 million from China's Alibaba, in January this year. Launched in 2015 as 'Busybees', Xpressbees is the logistics business offshooted from FirstCry

FirstCry May Raise Fresh $150 Mn Funds from Temasek, Tencent Holdings and A Chinese Investor

Mahindra-owned baby products startup Firstcry is reportedly in talks to raise $100-150 million from new and existing investors as it seeks to increase its lead in the market.

According to the LiveMint report, citing three people privy to the matter, Firstcry has fortifed talks with Singapore-based Temasek Holdings, with whom it was in funding talks last year but cooled-off later. The startup is also in talks with Chinese internet giant Tencent and an unidentified Chinese investment firm to raise its next round.

Firstcry held funding talks with Temasek last year but then nothing happened in the end because of two's differences over valuation. The companies revived talks this year and has appointed Morgan Stanley as its investment bank for the deal.

Temasek, which has recently led the $125 million funding of Noida-based PoS deploying company Pine Labs, is a minority investor in companies such as Flipkart, Ola, Byju’s, Practo and Hike.

Founded in 2010 by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha, Firstcry (Brainbees Solutions Pvt. Ltd) is now poised to called as India’s largest baby products retailer and has raised more than $100 million from high profile investors including Ratan Tata, Mahindra, IDG Ventures India, New Enterprise Associates, SAIF Partners, Vertex Ventures and others.

In October 2016, Firstcry bought Mahindra’s struggling babycare business BabyOye Retail Pvt. Ltd for ₹362 crore in a cash-and-stock deal.

Headquartered in Pune, FIrstCry is one of the very few e-commerce startups that has flourished in the past three years despite competition from giants like Flipkart and Amazon India.

For financial year 2016-17, Firstcry reported a loss of ₹393 crore on revenue of ₹239 crore.

It may also be recalled that, e-commerce logistics startup Xpressbees, which is founded by Firstcry founders Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha, had raised funding of $35 million from China's Alibaba, in January this year. Launched in 2015 as 'Busybees', Xpressbees is the logistics business offshooted from FirstCry

Firstcry Founders' Startup To Raise Whopping $100 Mn From Alibaba

Pune-based e-commerce logistics startup Xpressbees, which is founded by Firstcry founders Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha, is on verge of raising record funding of $100 million from China's Alibaba.

According to a report, Alibaba holding group will invest around $100 million in Xpressbees and pick up minority stake in the startup. The deal, which according to the sources finalize in next two to three weeks, would be Alibaba's sixth investment in Indian startup ecosystem. Alibaba had already invested in Paytm, Paytm Mall, Bigbasket and Ticketnew.

If Alibaba's Xpressbees investment materialize then the total investment of the China firm in India would go over $1.5 billion. Additionally, Alibaba is also in talks to invest about $200 million in Zomato, an India's restaurant discovery and meal ordering platform.

Launched in 2015 as 'Busybees', Xpressbees is the logistics business offshooted from FirstCry, an online baby & maternity products retailer. It demerged from Firstcry when both the co-founders of Firstcry -- Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha -- also separated where Saha has been leading the logistics business as CEO while Maheshwari has been heading FirstCry.

In 2016, Xpressbees claimed to have scaled to over 100,000 deliveries a day on just $5 million in funding.

XpressBees has till date raised about $200 million in two rounds and its existing investors include SAIF Partners, IDG Ventures India, NEA, Vertex Ventures and Valiant Capital, some of which may sell a part of their stake in the plausible deal involving Alibaba as investor.

In contrast to its competitors like Delhivery and Ecom Express, XpressBees has built the business on about Rs120 crore of capital till now whereas Delhivery has raised Rs 1,600 crore, and Ecom Express, which has racked up around Rs1,000 crore in capital.

If Xpressbees gets funding from Alibaba then it will help later to to build what founder Jack Ma calls the "iron triangle" of businesses in ecommerce (Paytm Mall, Bigbasket), payments (Paytm) and logistics, which can feed off each other.

Firstcry Founders' Startup To Raise Whopping $100 Mn From Alibaba

Pune-based e-commerce logistics startup Xpressbees, which is founded by Firstcry founders Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha, is on verge of raising record funding of $100 million from China's Alibaba.

According to a report, Alibaba holding group will invest around $100 million in Xpressbees and pick up minority stake in the startup. The deal, which according to the sources finalize in next two to three weeks, would be Alibaba's sixth investment in Indian startup ecosystem. Alibaba had already invested in Paytm, Paytm Mall, Bigbasket and Ticketnew.

If Alibaba's Xpressbees investment materialize then the total investment of the China firm in India would go over $1.5 billion. Additionally, Alibaba is also in talks to invest about $200 million in Zomato, an India's restaurant discovery and meal ordering platform.

Launched in 2015 as 'Busybees', Xpressbees is the logistics business offshooted from FirstCry, an online baby & maternity products retailer. It demerged from Firstcry when both the co-founders of Firstcry -- Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha -- also separated where Saha has been leading the logistics business as CEO while Maheshwari has been heading FirstCry.

In 2016, Xpressbees claimed to have scaled to over 100,000 deliveries a day on just $5 million in funding.

XpressBees has till date raised about $200 million in two rounds and its existing investors include SAIF Partners, IDG Ventures India, NEA, Vertex Ventures and Valiant Capital, some of which may sell a part of their stake in the plausible deal involving Alibaba as investor.

In contrast to its competitors like Delhivery and Ecom Express, XpressBees has built the business on about Rs120 crore of capital till now whereas Delhivery has raised Rs 1,600 crore, and Ecom Express, which has racked up around Rs1,000 crore in capital.

If Xpressbees gets funding from Alibaba then it will help later to to build what founder Jack Ma calls the "iron triangle" of businesses in ecommerce (Paytm Mall, Bigbasket), payments (Paytm) and logistics, which can feed off each other.

FirstCry in Talks To Raise Rs 666 Crore

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.

Ratan Tata Invests In Firstcry

Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, has invested an undisclosed amount in FirstCry.com, an e-commerce platform for baby and maternity products.

"A positive nod from a business leader of Tata’s stature is a great vote of confidence in the way we have created the ecosystem and validation of the business approach leading to definitive path to profitability," said Supam Maheshwari, founder and CEO of FirstCry.

Ratan Tata has made more than a dozen startup investment since 2015 and Firstcry is the fourth investment in 2016 for Ratan Tata after he backed pet portal DogSpot, data analytic startup Tracxn, and cashback and coupons site CashKaro - in his personal capacity.

Founded in 2010 by Maheshwari and Amitava Saha, FirstCry was initially an exclusive online retailer which now operates a hybrid online-offline model for retailing kids products. FirstCry has now morphed into a multi-channel retailer with presence across the web, mobile and offline segments. It has about 100 FirstCry-branded franchisee stores across 85 cities besides its e-commerce site.

Firstcry competitors are Babyoye, which was acquired by the Mahindra group, and Hopscotch backed by Facebook's co-founder Eduardo Saverin, early-stage investor Velos Capital and LionRock Capital, among others.

FirstCry has raised $69 million of funding in total so far from investors including IDG Ventures India, SAIF Partners, Vertex Ventures, Valiant Capital and NEA.

Ratan Tata Invests In Firstcry

Ratan Tata, chairman emeritus of Tata Sons, has invested an undisclosed amount in FirstCry.com, an e-commerce platform for baby and maternity products.

"A positive nod from a business leader of Tata’s stature is a great vote of confidence in the way we have created the ecosystem and validation of the business approach leading to definitive path to profitability," said Supam Maheshwari, founder and CEO of FirstCry.

Ratan Tata has made more than a dozen startup investment since 2015 and Firstcry is the fourth investment in 2016 for Ratan Tata after he backed pet portal DogSpot, data analytic startup Tracxn, and cashback and coupons site CashKaro - in his personal capacity.

Founded in 2010 by Maheshwari and Amitava Saha, FirstCry was initially an exclusive online retailer which now operates a hybrid online-offline model for retailing kids products. FirstCry has now morphed into a multi-channel retailer with presence across the web, mobile and offline segments. It has about 100 FirstCry-branded franchisee stores across 85 cities besides its e-commerce site.

Firstcry competitors are Babyoye, which was acquired by the Mahindra group, and Hopscotch backed by Facebook's co-founder Eduardo Saverin, early-stage investor Velos Capital and LionRock Capital, among others.

FirstCry has raised $69 million of funding in total so far from investors including IDG Ventures India, SAIF Partners, Vertex Ventures, Valiant Capital and NEA.