India’s largest Thrasio-style investment venture, GlobalBees on Monday said it has raised USD 150 million (about Rs 1,123 crore) in funding from FirstCry and some of its investors. The funding – a mix of equity and debt – also saw participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, a statement said. With this round, Vikas Agnihotri of Softbank, Harsha Kumar of Lightspeed, Atul Gupta of Premji Invest, Sudhir Sethi of Chiratae Ventures, and Kshitij Sheth of Chrys Capital will join the GlobalBees board, it added.
Thrasio is a digital consumer goods company that acquires third-party private label Amazon FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) businesses and direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands. “With a focus on capital efficiency, GlobalBees looks to partner with digitally native brands across categories like Beauty, Personal Care, Home, Kitchen, Food, Nutrition, Sports, lifestyle etc with a revenue rate of USD 1-20 million, which as per the company, is proof of a great product-market fit,” the statement said. Nitin Agarwal, co-founder, and Chief Executive Officer of GlobalBees, said the organisation aims to unleash the power of product innovation by Indian entrepreneurs and strategically partner with them to help them realise the full potential of their brand and products.
“Apart from capital, GlobalBees brings in strategic capabilities across Marketing and Growth, Technology, Distribution, Sourcing, Branding, Warehousing, Logistics, R&D, Product Development and Operations- all things essential to rapidly scale the brands in the digital space,” he added. The funds raised will play a crucial role in helping GlobalBees scale these brands globally, Agarwal said. GlobalBees is already in the process of integrating over 10 digitally native brands in the country, the statement said.
“India is at the cusp of a D2C revolution with an estimated market size of USD 200 billion in the next 5 years. Indian brands have shown great promise in recent years, and we believe that GlobalBees is building great assets to accelerate the growth of digitally native brands in the country, Vikas Agnihotri, Operating Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, said.
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