The Content Queen Raising capital is hard, and for female entrepreneurs, it is harder. Regardless of our background, women still have to battle the inherent conscious and unconscious biases, including the age-old questions of juggling a career and family, to secure investments: Priyanka Gill
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Priyanka Gill was born in a small village in Punjab (Northern India). At the age of 6, she began her schooling at an all-girls boarding school - CJM Waverley. After completing her schooling at yet another all-girls boarding school VDJS, Hisar she went on to read English Literature at Lady Shri Ram College in Delhi. In 2001, she graduated, got married, moved to London, and began her career as a freelance writer. Her love for writing coalesced with entrepreneurship as she began writing her blog - eStylista which went on to become POPxo. In 2014, she moved back to India to launch POPxo, envisaged as a safe and engaging community helping Indian women lead their best lives. In 2017, Plixxo, POPxo's influencer marketing platform was launched.
Simultaneously, she realized the obstacles of monetization for online media. That's when POPxo ventured into e-commerce with its private-label merchandise such as mugs, laptop bags, canvas pouches and tote bags, among others. However, just when it started to resolve the monetization puzzle in online media, the pandemic happened, and things went downhill. She had to do the most painful town hall of her life. She had to put people on furlough. She needed to figure out how she could organize the finances of the company. Investors had to give a loan and so on. "That's when I got a call from Darpan Sanghvi, founder & CEO, MyGlamm, now the group founder and CEO of Good Glamm Group sharing his vision of content-to-commerce from the lens of a commerce company and with me owning a content company with a similar vision, offered that we do this together. That was the turning point for MyGlamm and POPxo," shares Gill.
When she began her journey to raise funds for POPxo, in one of the pitch meetings, she was asked why she was looking for venture capital instead of asking her husband, who is a London-based trader, for funds. As per Gill, "Raising capital is hard, and for female entrepreneurs, it is harder. Regardless of our background, women still have to battle the inherent conscious and unconscious biases, including the age-old questions of juggling a career and family, to secure investments. Women raise far less money than men. They raise money at a lower base, so you are undercapitalised pretty much from the get-go. It means they have to go to the market sooner than their male counterparts for the next round, which gives them less time to show the traction that will make the next round possible."
Talking about the growth of her venture post acquisitions, Gill mentions, "Prior to POPxo being acquired by MyGlamm, the brand was acquiring 30,000 new customers per month, one month post the acquisition, the number doubled, and today we acquire 400,000+ new customers per month through our unique content-to-commerce approach. This has helped us solve the CAC hurdle for all Good Glamm Group brands. Our brands serve over 10,000+ pin codes." Good Glamm Group is currently at $150 million revenue rate, targeting $250 million by March 2022.
