Exclusive: Trell set to raise $40 Mn led by Mirae Asset and H&M

Lifestyle video and commerce platform Trell is in the last leg to bag a $40 million round from new and existing investors, according to two sources aware of the deal.

“Trell has finalised a $40 million Series B round that will be led by Mirae Asset and H&M Group, '' said one of the sources on the condition of anonymity. “The term sheet has been signed and the transaction is likely to be completed in a week,” the person added. 

The fresh round is coming within a year after its previous fundraise. In August 2020, Trell had scooped up $11.4 million from KTBN Ventures and Samsung Ventures.

“The investment will push Trell’s valuation in the range of $140-160 million. This is H&M’s first investment in an Indian startup,” said another source. The person also requested anonymity as talks are private.

H&M is a Stockholm-based multinational clothing retail company. Previously, it has invested in Worn Again, Ivyrevel and Wrapp.

This will be an almost four-fold jump in Trell’s valuation in a matter of 10 months. According to Fintrackr’s estimates, the Pulkit Agrawal-led company was valued at around $43 million during its Series A round in August 2020.

Queries sent to Trell, Mirae and H&M did not elicit an immediate response. We’ll update the story in case they do.

It’s worth noting that Trell pivoted itself from a community-based platform to a lifestyle-centric short video app and recently forayed into commerce through a marketplace model. The company would directly compete with InMobi’s Roposo-Glance-Shop101 ecosystem. 

InMobi had recently bought Shop101 to bring commerce layer to Glance and Roposo. Entrackr had exclusively reported the acquisition on June 1.

Importantly, Trell had also launched a separate B2B2C e-commerce app Bharat Dukaan, which offers FMCG products to retailers. According to sources, the new app would help Trell to build a hyperlocal ecosystem around retailers, influencers and consumers.

The fresh investment will be crucial for Trell, which has witnessed a slow growth in terms of the number of downloads of its short video app. According to Sensor Tower data, Trell has registered 814K or 0.8 million downloads in the past 30 days and 2.3 million in 2021 so far.

In comparison, the company’s closest rivals Chingari and Roposo have recorded 2 million and 6 million downloads in the past 30 days, respectively. Their download numbers between January 1 and June 19, 2021, were recorded at 5.3 million and 20 million, respectively. 

The market leaders in the short video sharing space—MX TakaTak, ShareChat’s Moj and Dailyhunt’s Josh—have recorded 98 million, 85 million and 81 million downloads, respectively.

Among the funded and notable short video apps, Mitron Tv has recorded the lowest number of downloads with 69K in the past 30 days and 680K since the beginning of the year.