Purplle raises $75 Mn in a new round led by Kedaara Capital

Women-focused online beauty and grooming marketplace Purplle has scooped up $75 million in its Series E round led by private equity firm Kedaara Capital. This is the second funding round for the Mumbai-based startup in 2021 which raised $45 million in its Series D round in March.

Purplle has raised the new round at a valuation of $600 million, as per industry sources. The company was valued at around $300 million during the last round. According to Purplle, the fresh infusion will be utilised for the company’s growth as well as investments in other beauty tech players.

Purplle sells beauty, personal care products and gadgets for grooming. Besides aggregating products of different brands, it also sells its private label on the platform.

The nine-year-old company claims to have over 1,000 brands and more than seven million monthly active users on the beauty marketplace.

During the last round, Purplle’s early invested Ivy Cap Ventures also took a partial exit with 22-fold gains. According to the company, IvyCap bought a 30% stake in Purplle for Rs 15 crore in 2015, when the company was valued at Rs 50 crore.

Purplle, which was close to hitting profitability in FY19 saw its operating revenue drop by around 14% to Rs 86.8 crore during FY20. Its losses surged by 512.3% to Rs 24.92 crore during FY20 from Rs 4.07 crore in FY19.

The Manish Taneja-led company competes with Nykaa and other horizontal majors such as Amazon and Flipkart. Apart from accelerating growth, Purplle is likely to use the proceeds from the new fund to make investments in emerging D2C companies. 

In March, it had made its maiden investment in Coimbatore-based Juicy Chemistry. Women-focused beauty brands and marketplaces have been on a roll for the past two years. While Sugar Cosmetic, MamaEarth, Plum and Wow Skin have raised fresh funds in 2021, Nykaa had made its debut on the stock exchange on Thursday.