Purplle turns unicorn with $33 Mn Series E round

Online beauty and grooming products marketplace Purplle has raised $33 million in its Series E round from South Korea’s Paramark Ventures as well as existing backers Blume Ventures, Kedaara and billionaire Azim Premji’s Premji Invest.

According to the Mumbai-based company, it has raised the fresh funds at a valuation of $1.1 billion and entered the unicorn club.

Purplle’s valuation has jumped over 50% in this round. According to Fintrackr, the company was valued at $728 million when it raised $38 million as a part of Series D round in January this year.

Its close competitor Nykaa, which is now a public company, has a current market cap of $8.8 billion.

Purplle claims to have 7 million monthly active users with over 1,000 brands and more than 60,000 products on the platform. The company also said that it has scaled annualized gross merchandising volume (GMV) to $180 million (around Rs 1,380 crore) in FY22.

Purplle is the second company to achieve unicorn status this week. Edtech startup PhysicsWallah checked into the coveted club after raising its maiden round from Westbridge and GSV Ventures. Entrackr was first to report about PhysicWallah’s unicorn round in March.

The Manish Taneja-led company is majorly a marketplace but it also sells its own labels such as Good Vibes which contribute almost one-third of its volume. The company primarily competes with Nykaa whereas its indirect competition counts horizontal marketplaces: Amazon, Flipkart, Good Glamm Group among others.

Purplle had recently expanded its employee stock options (ESOPs) pool which is now worth $140 million. While the company is yet to file annual financial statement for FY22, its revenue from operations grew by 40.2% to Rs 128.2 crore during FY21 from  Rs 91.4 crore in FY20. During the period, its annual losses surged by 114% to Rs 52.2 crore in the fiscal year ending March 2021.