FirstCry raises $36 million from Valiant, NEA

Baby care products retailer FirstCry has raised $36 million from San Francisco-based hedge fund Valiant Capital Partners and Silicon Valley venture fund New Enterprise Associates (NEA) in its fourth round of institutional funding. Existing investors IDG Ventures India, Vertex and SAIF Partners, also participated in the round.

Brainbees Solutions Pvt Ltd, which owns FirstCry.com brand and started operations in late 2010, has rapidly expanded its online dominance to other channels as well. The company now has over 100 FirstCry-branded franchise stores across 85 cities in the country.

“The company is delighted to have Valiant, NEA and our existing investors as investment partners in this round. We plan to use the funds to focus on expanding our leadership across all channels (online, mobile and offline), as well investing in the growth of our private label business,” says Supam Maheshwari, Founder and CEO of Brainbees. 

According to Chris Hansen, Managing Partner of Valiant Capital, “Supam and Amitava are seasoned entrepreneurial leaders who have demonstrated their ability to build and scale-up a world-class organisation. We have been highly impressed with FirstCry’s leadership and believe it is becoming one of the marquee e-commerce brands in India.  We are excited to be part of this company.”

Ben Mathias, Partner and Executive Director, NEA said “With our prior experience of investing at Diapers.com in the US, we could see a lot of similarities in building a successful model. Brainbees team has demonstrated a superb execution and innovation capabilities which are the key drivers of their rapid growth. We believe that Brainbees has the potential to strengthen its domination of the baby and kids’ products market in India.”