Online Personal Care Platform Purplle.com Raises $8 Mn in Funding from Belgium-based Verlinvest

Global investor Goldman Sachs-backed online beauty and personal care platform Purplle.com on Monday said it has raised USD 8 million (around Rs 56 crore) from Belgium-based investment firm Verlinvest in series-C funding round.

This new fundraising follows the USD 30 million capital infused by few investors including the US-based Goldman Sachs, IvyCap Ventures, Blume Ventures and JSW Ventures in December 2019.

"The funding from Verlinvest will be utilised to further strengthen Purplle's supply chain, innovation and technology capabilities as well as for brand building," Purplle.com said in a statement.

Verlinvest has over 1.6 billion euro of assets under management and its Indian portfolio includes brands such as BYJU'S, Sula Wines, Epigamia, Veeba Foods and Future Consumer.

"This investment aligns with our intent of creating a sustainable multi-decade enterprise," Purplle.com co-founder and CEO Manish Taneja said.

Launched in 2012, the company had raised USD 10 million over the past six years.

Verlinvest India Head of Investments Arjun Anand said, "We believe consumer preferences are changing rapidly with online penetration in this space and Purplle has great momentum to delight Indian consumers."

IndigoEdge acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Purplle.com in the fund raise, the release said. PTI PSK

Epigamia Raises Series B Funding of 90 Cr from Verlinvest, DSG Consumer Partners and InnoVen Capital

Drums Food International, the parent company of Epigamia Greek yogurt, announced a Rs 90 Crore Series B financing. The round was led by Verlinvest, a Belgium-based consumer focused private equity group created by the founding families of Anheuser-Busch InBev, and DSG Consumer Partners (DSGCP), an early stage venture capital firm run by consumer industry veteran Deepak Shahdadpuri, and also included venture debt participation from InnoVen Capital, India’s largest venture debt provider backed by Temasek Holdings. The company plans to innovate & launch new flavours, initiate brand-building activities and increase production capacity through the new capital.

Rohan Mirchandani, Co-Founder & CEO, Drums Food International said, “It has been such a pleasure to work with Verlinvest and DSGCP, they have been true value-added partners and helped us grow the business with full support and assistance. We have been able to see firsthand why their global track record is so successful! Partnering again in this round was a no brainer and with their support we plan to continue expanding our product lines, categories, and geographies. With the recent additions to our leadership, including Siddarth Menon, Francis Vidhayathil and Dharmesh Joshi, the missing pieces to our dream team are now in place and the sky is the limit for this amazing team I am proud to be a part of.”

Epigamia is India’s first branded and leading premium Greek yogurt which has rapidly gained traction with the Indian consumer. Made with all-natural ingredients and no preservatives, Epigamia is popular across a wide consumer demographic, positioning it as the snack of choice for India’s health-conscious millennials.

Since raising its Series A round last year from Verlinvest & DSGCP, the company has expanded distribution by over five times and launched the Epigamia Snack Pack, the first of its kind in Asia combining dry snacks to be mixed with Greek yogurt through innovative packaging.

Nicholas Cator, Executive Director, Verlinvest said, “We are very happy with our fantastic partnership with Epigamia and Rohan. We believe there is great growth potential to offer premium dairy products to Indian consumers and Epigamia addresses this with a compelling proposition. Verlinvest prides itself on being a daring investor in the consumer world and enabling entrepreneurs through inspiring journeys. Epigamia fits well within this vision.”

Talking about the developments in the FMCG market and growing relevance of Greek yogurt, Deepak Shahdadpuri, Managing Director, DSG Consumer Partners said, “DSGCP is pleased to continue our relationship with Rohan and the amazing team at Epigamia with this new round of investment. Along with our partners Verlinvest, we have seen the team launch India’s first Greek yogurt and more recently, the first yogurt snack pack a few months ago. Core to Epigamia’s success is its unrelenting focus on innovation and always delighting the customer. With this new round of funding, we will see exciting new products coming to the market focused on healthy and functional benefits. Indian consumers are increasingly looking for exciting new products that taste delicious.”

The Company also announced that Arjun Anand, from Verlinvest’s Singapore office, and Prashant Chhaya, former Executive Director at Cadbury (Mondelez International), will join the Company’s Board of Directors.

“We are happy to continue to back a talented team that has set out to build the leading premium dairy brand in India. Greek yogurt has great health and wellness benefits and we believe that Greek yogurt and premium dairy in general will become large categories in India. This increased investment in Epigamia alongside DSGCP fits well within our partnership to be a long-term supporter of young brands and talented entrepreneurs in growing categories in India. Rohan has put together a great Board of Directors with talent across strategic areas and I look forward to joining them soon,” said Arjun Anand.

"The value added dairy market in India is predicted to grow at double digit rate over the next few years. With rising popularity of probiotic products, superior offering, higher level of brand recall & awareness & increased market penetration, Epigamia is well placed to lead the Greek yogurt market in India," said Prashant Chhaya.

Launched in June 2015, Epigamia is currently available in 8 unique flavours across 4000+ retail stores such as Reliance Fresh, Godrej Nature’s Basket, Future Group Foodhall & Big Bazaar, Hypercity, e-commerce platforms such as Big Basket, and numerous general trade retailers spread across Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad.

The company is positioned to become a formidable FMCG player in the fast emerging "GLocal" space –global quality and locally made in India.

Edtech Startup BYJU’S Raises $30M from Verlinvest

Verlinvest, a large Belgian family-owned, consumer-focused, diversification investment holding company announced its investment in BYJU’S, India’s largest ed-tech company today. This new round will help boost BYJU’S international expansion & acquisition plans.

Creator of the largest K-12 learning app, 8 million students are learning from the BYJU’S app today. With close to 4,00,000 paid annual subscriptions till date, the newly launched version of the app has taken learning to the next level through personalized learning journeys and access to quality content and top teachers for students across classes 4-12.

Commenting on this investment, Frederic de Mevius, Chairman of the Board, Verlinvest said, “We are excited to join hands with Byju Raveendran on his inspiring journey to bring effective learning online. We believe online learning has great potential globally and the BYJU’S product addresses this with an innovative and compelling proposition. Verlinvest prides itself on being a daring investor in the consumer world and enabling entrepreneurs through inspiring journeys. Byju fits well within this vision.”

Nicholas Cator, Executive Director, Verlinvest added, “We are very happy to partner with the talented team at BYJU’S to expand in India and abroad. A 1:1 learning experience is a dream ratio, and it is very encouraging to see that an Indian company has created a product which closely addresses this need by offering engaging and personalized learning experiences enabled by technology. We have seen a lot of edtech companies, but BYJU’S offers personalized learning to an extent which we haven’t seen in any product across the globe. We look forward to supporting the management team to expand to new markets and to further build the brand.”

Byju Raveendran, Founder & CEO, BYJU’S said, “Our partnership with Verlinvest will further boost our aspiration to change the way students learn across the globe. In the last 18 months, we have witnessed exponential growth in India. While these numbers are very exciting, there is a long way to go before we can call it a revolution. The fact that we are still reaching to less than 1% of the student population, shows the immense potential and the impact we can create. In fact, our teams are continuously working towards creating learning products that will enable our efforts to make learning more accessible, engaging and personalized for students.”

From test prep classes to a world class learning app –brand BYJU’S is redefining learning by using technology as an enabler; in fact, all the products are completely made in-house. Offering personalized learning experiences based on pace and style of learning of every student through technology, BYJU’S is creating new learning experiences for students across grades. The learning app has seen a high annual renewal rate of 90%, which is a big validation of its effectiveness.