After exiting from Flipkart in May this year, SoftBank had invested in two entities Oyo and Policybazaar. However, the investment giant has been engaged in conversation with niche e-commerce firms – FirstCry, Nykaa, and e-commerce focused logistics company Delhivery together for pouring about $900 million.
While Nykaa and Delhivery are yet in the negotiation phase, online baby products retailer Firstcry has received around $150 million as a part of $400 million round from Softbank, reveals RoC filings with MCA.
The financing round has been executed on a valuation of $850 million, as per TechCircle estimate.
It’s a decent 1.9X jump from its pre-money valuation which was $450 million. An ET report highlights that SoftBank is picking up 42 per cent stake in BrainBees Solutions, which owns and operates FirstCry.
Last year, many reports surfaced in media about Firstcry in talks to raise $150-200 million in fresh capital. The latest round of funding will take total capital raised by the firm to around $500 million.
The Pune-based firm has investors including Ratan Tata, IDG Ventures, Valiant Capital Partners, New Enterprise Associates, and SAIF Partners.
The nine-year-old firm claims to offer more than two lakh baby and kids products across categories that include diapering, feeding, nursing, skin and health care, and fashion accessories among others. It has about 183 offline stores in 29 states in India.
In the last few years, the firm has shown improved financial performance. In FY18, the company had significantly reduced its losses from Rs 393.24 crore to Rs 54.55 crore, while the revenue recorded 48.03 per cent growth from Rs 240 crore in FY17 to Rs 355.2 crore.
FirstCry competes with Hopscotch, Toonz, and Forever Kids along with marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart.
