Even as the New Year is beckoning to us, the Indian startup sector continues to produce new additions to the unicorn family. A record number of unicorns have already been produced (aided by the billions they have gobbled up from investors) and two days before 2021 ends, GlobalBees makes its way into the coveted unicorn club (which has seen over 40 additions from the Indian startup sector alone this year).
You may remember that the direct-to-consumer (D2C) venture had raised $150 million in a mix of debt and equity in its Series A financing round. Well the company is back to fundraising and has now raised over $110 million led by Premji Invest. GlobalBees runs a Thrasio-like model wherein it houses several small, ecommerce ready brands and scales them up individually.
Steadview Capital participated as a new investor, as did existing investors SoftBank, FirstCry, and others. Trifecta Capital also invested $30 million as debt in the new round. With this, GlobalBees is valued at $1.1 billion, becoming the second Thrasio-style venture to become a unicorn, following the footsteps of Ananth Narayanan’s Mensa Brands. Mensa became a unicorn after raising $135 million as part of its Series B funding round led by Falcon Edge Capital’s growth stage platform, Alpha Wave Ventures.
The young GlobalBees, founded by Nitin Agarwal and Supam Maheshwari, is known to acquire and invest in digitally native e-commerce brands across a variety of categories (including beauty, personal care, home and kitchen, and food and nutrition), and helping them scale and sell to marketplaces, providing marketing expertise. It has made eight acquisitions to date.
The proceeds from GlobalBees’ current funding round will be utilized towards further strengthening its product portfolio and driving further innovation into its products, enhancing customer experience, hiring talent to add to its employee base of 100, and scaling the companies it already owns. Already in talks with over 20 companies to strengthen its portfolio of digital-first brands, GlobalBees plans to invest in over 100 brands across verticals in the next three years, including fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), sports, home organization, and lifestyle.
