GlobalBees, an e-commerce roll up company based on the Thrasio model, has appointed former boAt executive Daman Soni as Chief Business Officer, said two people aware of the development. This comes soon after the startup raised $150 million in a round led by e-commerce firm FirstCry.
“Daman will work closely with all the GlobalBees partner brands to drive growth where he will be responsible for scaling up the business operations and marketing of the portfolio companies,” said one of the sources aware of the development, requesting anonymity.
Soni is joining GlobalBees as a founding team member, said sources.
Before joining GlobalBees, Soni was the vice president or VP of consumer electronics brand boAt. According to his LinkedIn profile, he held leadership positions for leading companies including LINE, MilkBasket and Mobikwik in the past.
“Soni was serving notice period until last month after putting in his papers,” said the second person who also wished not to be named.
It’s worth noting that Soni had worked with GlobalBees’ co-founder Nitin Agarwal in the past at WeCash for a year. China-based WeCash shut shop without a formal launch in India in early 2019.
Queries sent to GlobalBees, Soni and boAt did not elicit an immediate response. We’ll update the post as and when we hear from them.
Soni will be driving growth for GlobalBees and will be responsible for scaling up the company’s business operations and marketing of its portfolio companies.
GlobalBees raised the largest Series A round by any Indian startup ever. The company invests, acquires, and grows direct-to-consumer or D2C brands across marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart. The company would partner with D2C brands across categories like beauty, personal care, home and kitchen, food, nutrition and sports with a revenue rate of $1-$20 million.
According to Entrackr’s sources, GlobalBees will leverage the presence of FirstCry in the international markets for both sourcing and distribution.
GlobalBees competes with the likes of Mensa Brands, GOAT Brand Labs, 10club, Evenflow and Powerhouse91. While the first four have raised big money in their maiden funding round, the latter two have also raised their seed financing and are in talks to raise a new round.
