Let us talk about unicorn startups. A unicorn startup is a startup with a value of more than USD 1 billion. It is like a Golden Startup Club, where very few startups get an entry. Investors keep an eye on the startups where they find the potential in a few and then invest accordingly.
If we talk about the first unicorn startup of India, it was InMobi, which is a private mobile ad-tech startup. It happened in the year 2011. The founder of Mindtickle remembers that day when the startup’s value, InMobi, crossed USD 1 billion and said it was like, “wow”.
The year 2020, we all know, was relatively slow because of the COVID 19 and the lockdown imposed. But the year 2021 has been doing amazingly well. The lockdown restrictions have been removed, and people are now somewhat free to move outside their homes.
The economy is gaining back its pace, and the businesses have started operating. We are in November, and we have seen 35 beginning to turn into unicorns. It shows the beauty of the startup culture of our country, how good it is performing, indicating an upward trend.
Let us now discuss the 35th Indian startup, which has turned into a unicorn in 2021.
Announcement of the 35th unicorn startup
Good Galmm Group‘s startup has raised a funding of USD 150 million, as announced on November 09, 2021. This round was the Series D round of funding and was led by Warburg Pincus and Proses Ventures.
The other participants were Alteria Capital, and many existing investors were also a part of it. The current investors included- L’Occitane, Bessemer Venture Partners, Amazon, Ascent Capital, and Mankekar Family Office. This deal consists of both primary and secondary sales.
It plans to use the funds raised to invest in product development and support data science and technology research. It is also planning to increase its offline expansion, work and fund its working capital requirements. The unicorn startup also has plans to expand the content creation capability and digital reach of its brands like POPxo, Plixxo, BabyChakra, and ScoopWhoop.
The startup raised INR 255 crore, equivalent to USD 30.4 million, just two months ago. The startup’s value has increased to USD 1.2 billion after the current round of funding, thus earning the golden ticket and entering the famous Unicorn Club. The startup’s valuation is 12x more than the previous valuation when it was valued at USD 100 million in March 2021 and USD 300 million in July. The startup in July had witnessed a Series C round of funding.
The newly turned unicorn startup has plans to make more investments in beauty and personal care brands. The startup said it is looking to acquire six more brands in the personal care and beauty segment. Out of these six acquisitions, one of them has been done, wherein The startup has developed the Moms Co for USD 65 million. It is in talks with the following five companies it can acquire, and it is expected that the deals will be closed by the end of this year. The startup has already spent USD 270 million in equity and cash in acquiring new firms.
About the recently turned unicorn startup
Good Glamm Group was founded by Darpan Sanghvi, Priyanka Gill, and Naiyya Saggi. It is the parent firm of direct-to-consumer beauty brand MyGlamm and is headquartered in Mumbai. The startup operates as a house of beauty and personnel care brands like MyGlamm, Popxo, The Mom’s Co, Plixxo, Baby Chakra, and Scoopwhoop. The majority of the products sold by the startup are from its website, application, and retail touchpoints, which are more than 30,000 in number.
This four-year-old startup is one of the earliest startups which has shown success while mixing content and commerce to drive and increase sales. It has an army of more than 22,000 influencers who help in the startup’s content and assist the customers in looking for and spotting new products, and spurring engagement. The Good Galmm Group is now also planning to file for an IPO.
The startup has a revenue rate of USD 100 million and has a target of USD 250 million by March 2022.
About Warburg Pincus
Warburg Pincus, a private equity firm, was founded in 1966 by Eric M. Warburg and Lionel Pincus. It has its headquarters in New York, United States. This firm is engaged in growing its investments with offices in the United States, Europe, Brazil, China, Southeast Asia, and India. It has total assets of USD 62 billion, and around 500-1000 people are employed in this private equity fund.
More than 140 companies with Warburg Pincus as its investor have raised close to USD 30 million in the public markets. The CEO of the private equity firm is Charles R. Kaye, and the President is Timothy Geithner.
About Proses Ventures
Proses Ventures is a global consumer internet group and is one of the largest technology investors in the world. It is operating and investing globally in the market with long-term potential. The firm is building leading consumer internet companies that empower people and enrich communities. It believes in the power of local backed by global scale. It looks for opportunities to address significant societal needs in the markets where it sees tremendous growth potential.
Some of the companies which have investments from Proses Ventures are-
Byju’s, BYKEA, 99 minutes, DeHaat, Delivery Hero, Klar, OLX, Shipper, Udemy, Urban Company, and many more.
What has been said about the deal?
Darpan Sanghvi, the co-founder of the startup, The Good Glamm, was delighted and said that this is just day one and is the beginning of the startup’s journey from one to ten. He then said that this fundraising had given the vision of the startup life, and the startup aims to be the beauty and personal care conglomerate powered by digital means. He said that the capital had given the startup firepower and is working as the benchmark to the category.
Naiyya Saggi, The Good Glamm, said that the startup had achieved its break-even at EBIDTA. She further said the new capital would serve as a war chest as it expands and scales. She even said that the startup would start its international expansion by the second half of the following year.
Vishal Mahadevia, the Managing Director and India Head at Warburg Pincus, commented that the venture fund is happy to provide its back to Darpan Sanghvi and the whole team at the Good Glamm Group. He said that the startup has a strong portfolio of D2C brands and proprietary content assets. Because of this, it is in an excellent position to scale quickly and form a sizeable digital-first business in the beauty and personal care space.
Ashutosh Sharma, the head of investments in India at Prosus Ventures, said they are very excited to partner with The Good Galmm Group and are ready to disrupt the beauty and the personal care industry. He even said that this is the first investment of Proses Ventures in the DTC Category.
The beauty and well-being industry has been doing great. Recently only we have seen how tremendously Nykaa has performed in its IPO. We wish the startup a bit of good luck and a bright and prosperous future ahead.
Article Proofread and Edited by Shreedatri Banerjee
