Amazon leads $20 Mn round in kids' fashion brand Hopscotch

Kids' fashion brand Hopscotch has raised $20 million in a funding round led by Amazon. The financing round also included participation from Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Facebook, as well as other existing investors, including Lionrock, IIFL Seed Venture Fund, RPG Ventures, and Techpro Ventures.

The funding will enable Hopscotch to expand its offerings and serve even more customers with the latest styles in kids' fashion, the company said in a statement. Previously, the firm had raised $25 million from EE Capital, Lionrock Capital, Rise Capital and others in September 2022 and $13 million in a Series C round led by Eduardo Saverin in February 2016.

Founded by Rahul Anand, Hopscotch focuses on kids-focused lifestyle products that offer significantly higher margins and bigger basket and ticket sizes. According to the company, it identifies top fashion trends and delivers the latest styles before other retailers.

Hopscotch is one of the oldest players in the kid's fashion space and competes with deep-pocketed  FirstCry, Lilliput, Gini & Jony among others.  The company’s revenue from operations grew 15.7% to Rs 235.7 crore during FY22 in comparison to Rs 203.7 crore in FY21. As per the standalone financial statement of Hopscotch, its losses jumped 3.7X to Rs 17.75 crore in FY22 from Rs 4.86 crore in FY21.

On the other hand, its biggest competitor FirstCry recently reported 49.8% growth in revenue to Rs 2,401 crore in FY22. The SoftBank-backed company slipped into losses in the fiscal year (FY22) from Rs 79 crore profit in FY21.

Over the past two-three years, Amazon has increased its investments in Indian startups. The e-commerce giant has backed several startups including Shuttl, Acko, Axio (formerly Capital Float), ToneTag, MyGlamm, Smallcase, and Cashify, and acquired a couple of companies such as Perpule in 2021 and GlowRoad in 2022.

In 2021, Amazon announced $250 million worth Amazon Smbhav Venture Fund for Indian startups and made its first investment in Gurugram-based MSME-focused fintech startup M1xchange. In the ongoing calendar year, it has backed FreshToHome and XYXX through the newly launched fund.