With Premji Invest’s participation, Purplle latest round crosses $100 Mn

Online beauty and grooming products marketplace Purplle, which recently announced raising $75 million in a new round led by Kedaara Capital, has scooped up another $50 million from a new investor: Premji Invest.

Purplle has allotted 8,623 Series D preference shares at an issue price of Rs 4,27,015 to raise Rs 368.2 crore or $49.5 million from Premji Invest, regulatory filings show. 

In the same round, Kedaara had already pumped in Rs 368.2 crore [$49.5 million] along with Sequoia Capital and Blume Ventures which invested Rs 46.4 crore and Rs 10.7 crore, respectively. This takes the total fundraise in this round to $106.7 million.

As per Fintrackr’s estimates, Purplle has been valued at $600 million after this round.

Following the fresh allotment of shares, both new investors -- Kedaara and Premji Invest -- have acquired 8.43% stake each in Purplle. Maveric and Verlinvest are the largest stakeholders in the Mumbai-based company with 16.21% and 15.71% stake respectively. Apart from the duo, all other investors hold stake in a single digit.

Purplle’s founders Manish Taneja and Rahul Dash hold 7.64% and 5.41% stake respectively in the company they founded nine years ago. The complete shareholding can be seen below:

Queries sent to Taneja did not elicit an immediate response. We’ll update the post, in case he responds.

Purplle is the second-highest valued startup in this category. The company’s direct competitor Nykaa had a spectacular stock market debut earlier this month. It also competes with other horizontal majors such as Amazon and Flipkart. 

Purplle sells beauty, personal care products and gadgets for grooming. Besides aggregating products of different brands, it also sells its own labels on the platform. Last month, it claimed to have over 1,000 brands and more than seven million monthly active users on the platform.

Amidst back to back fundraising in 2021, Purplle had also made its maiden investment through women-focused D2C brand Juicy Chemistry. It’s worth noting that Juicy Chemistry had recorded a notable growth in its operating revenue in FY21 which surged over 5X surge to Rs 18.8 crore from Rs 3.72 crore in FY20. 

Significantly, the Coimbatore-based company posted a profit of Rs 17 lakh in FY21 as compared to Rs 22 lakh loss in FY20. According to Entrackr’s sources, the company is likely to make similar investments in several beauty-focused D2C brands in the ongoing and next fiscal years.