Gifting focused house of brands Join Ventures bags $23.5 Mn

Join Ventures, a gifting solution company which houses D2C brands such as IGP.com, Interflora India, IGP for Business and Masqa, has raised $23.5 million in a Series B round led by MO Alternate Investment Advisors Private Limited. The round also saw participation by Convivialité Ventures and existing investors DSG Consumer Partners, Venture Catalysts, ZNL Growth and HNI investors.

This is the second round for the Mumbai-based startup in 2022. It scooped up $10 million in a series A round in February. The company did not disclose its current valuation.

Funds raised will be deployed by the company to strengthen technology and expand its captive dark stores' network to drive the growth of brands on its platform, said Join Ventures in a press release.

Led by Tarun Joshi, Join Ventures owns and operates a portfolio of digital-first brands offering handmade, personalised and curated products across fresh food, home and fashion categories. It houses brands in the gifting and reward management space.

According to the company, it also plans to launch new products and categories in the next 18 months and currently services customers in more than 100 countries with three warehouses and over 40 dark stores.

The company further claims that its business grew by 3X in the last two years and hit Rs 250 crore annualised revenue run-rate. While Join Ventures is yet to disclose its FY22 financials, the company posted operating revenue of Rs 11.36 crore with a loss of Rs 94 lakh in the fiscal year ending March 2021, according to Join Ventures’ annual financial statement with the Registrar of Companies (RoC).

Join Ventures doesn’t seem to have any direct competition in the marketplace roll up space but to some extent, its offerings overlap with Mensa and Upscalio. In the past year,  the Thrasio famed house of brands in India have managed to raise a significant amount of capital. In November 2021, Mensa turned unicorn with a $135 million round while EvenFlow cornered pre-Series A round in May this year.