Firstcry enters Unicorn Club, raises $296 Mn funding from Softbank

Firstcry, the baby products marketplace has raised $296 Mn (INR 2120 Cr) Series E funding from Japan-based marquee investor Softbank’s Vision Fund.

According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) filings SVF Frog, a Cayman Island-based subsidiary of Softbank, invested INR 2120 Cr ($296 Mn) in Brainbees Solutions Pvt Ltd, the parent company of Pune-based Firstcry.

According to the filings the recent investment is the first tranche of the total $400 Mn funding committed by Softbank,. The additional INR 703 Cr ($100 Mn) has been reserved by Softbank to be invested on the second anniversary of the transaction in January 2021. As part of this deal, Firstcry has issued 7,31,66,665 Series E equity shares to SVF Frog at INR 381 per share with a nominal value of INR 5.

The transaction has taken Firstcry’s valuation to $1.2 Bn. This makes the company to enter India’s unicorn club. It must be noted that the estimated value is based on projections made by Firstcry and there is no new valuation report corroborating the unicorn claims.

Firstcry offers different categories of baby and kids products from clothing to school essentials. The company founded by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha in 2010, has expanded its user base to over 4 Mn and has a retail footprint of over 300 stores spread across 125 cities. It claims to offer 2 Lakh baby and kids’ products across 2,000 brands.