Decoding GlobalBees’ unicorn funding round

E-commerce roll-up firm GlobalBees has raised $111.5 million in its Series B  round led by Premji Invest at unicorn valuation. Steadview Capital and existing investors Lightspeed, SoftBank and FirstCry also participated in the financing round.

This is the second round of funding for the Bengaluru-based startup in 2021. It had raised a record $150 million in its Series A round in July.

While GlobalBees has not offered much in terms of details about this round, Fintrackr has sifted through the company’s regulatory filings to decode round break-up, valuation and shareholding structure.

GlobalBees has approved the allotment of 7,906 equity shares at an issue price of Rs 507,488.3 per share to FirstCry to raise Rs 401.22 crore, regulatory filings show. 

The company has also approved the allotment of 8,502 Series C preference shares at the same price to further raise Rs 431.5 crore from SoftBank, Steadview, Pratithi Investment Trust, Chiratae, Lightspeed India Partners and others.

According to Fintrackr’s estimates, GlobalBees has raised the fresh funds at a post-money valuation of $1.12 billion. That makes it the second startup from the marketplace roll up space to turn unicorn this year. 

In November, Mensa Brands became a unicorn within six months of inception.

Following the allotment of fresh shares, Premji Invest has increased its stake to 6.95% in GlobalBees. FirstCry remains the largest stakeholder in the company controlling a 50.23% stake followed by Chimetech Holding, Lightspeed and Chiratae with 12.80%, 6.57% and 5% stake respectively.

GlobalBees founders Nitin Agarwal and Supam Maheshwari have retained 6.04% and 5.44% stake respectively. While the founders’ stake seems very low, Maheshwari also holds some stake in the company via FirstCry. The complete shareholding structure can be seen below:

In August, GlobalBees had appointed former boAt executive Daman Soni as its Chief Business Officer. As per Entrackr’s sources, Soni had joined GlobalBees as a founding team member.

Based on the model of US-based firms like Thrasio and Perch, GloBalBees invests, acquires, and grows direct-to-consumer or D2C brands across marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart. It targets brands having a  revenue rate of $1 to 20 million across categories such as beauty, personal care, home, kitchen, food, and lifestyle.

GlobalBees has already made over half a dozen acquisitions including  Yellow Chimes, Absorbia, The Better Home, &ME, Prolixr, HealthyHey and Rey Naturals. As per media reports, the company is in talks with over a dozen brands for deals within this financial year.

GlobalBees competes with the likes of Mensa Brands, GOAT Brand Labs, Upscalio, 10club, Evenflow and Powerhouse91.