D2C brand Plum raises $35 Mn Series C; revenue crosses Rs 90 Cr in FY21

Direct-to-consumer brand Plum has raised $35 million in a Series C round led by A91 Partners with participation from existing investors Unilever Ventures and Faering Capital. 

The company had raised $15 million in Series B round in November 2020. As per the company, the fresh proceeds has been raised at a valuation of $250 million. 

The new round will be used to increase its omnichannel presence, accelerate expansion in categories beyond skincare, foray into new geographies and in marketing and technology, said the company in a release.

Nine-year-old Plum has a portfolio of vegan, cruelty-free and toxin-free beauty products across skincare, haircare, personal care, and makeup. The company claims that it does 40% sales through offline channels and a quarter of sales on its own platform whereas the rest is from e-commerce marketplaces like Nykaa and Amazon India. Around 60% of Plum’s product offerings are in the skincare range which is the core business.

According to Plum, its offline presence spans 250 towns and cities through nearly 1,000 assisted outlets and over 10,000 unassisted outlets. The company has also three exclusive outlets in Mumbai and Chennai and plans to scale it to 12-15 outlets in the next 2-3 months.

In the D2C beauty space, Plum competes with Juicy Chemistry, Wow Skin, MamaEarth, Sugar Cosmetics and MyGlamm. 

The company claims to have achieved annual recurring revenue of more than Rs 225 crore and aims to double that number over the next 12 months. For the fiscal year ending on March 31, 2021, its revenue from the operations saw an increase of 73% to Rs. 90.56 crore from Rs 52.31 crore in FY20. 

Meanwhile, the company had managed to control its losses and saw a little increment to Rs 3.18 crore in FY21 from Rs 1.27 crore in FY20.