First Cry Raises Rs 1,055 Crore In Series-E Round From Softbank The firm raised $150 million from Softbank, last year in January, in the first tranche. The venture capital giant holds 46.6 per cent in the baby product retailer.
By Prasannata Patwa •
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First Cry, India's largest baby product platform, raised INR 1,055 crore from Masayoshi Son's Softbank Vision Fund. It is the second tranche of its Series E funding round, according to Registrar of Companies (ROC) filings sourced from information platform Paper Vc.
Owned by Brainbees Solutions Pvt Ltd, the firm raised $150 million from Softbank, last year in January, in the first tranche. The venture capital giant holds 46.6 per cent in the baby product retailer.
Softbank's Cayman Island-registered entity, SVF Frog, will hold 73.1 million Series E equity shares at a price of INR 5 with at a premium of INR 381 as allotted by Brainbess Solutions, according to the filings.
An email sent to First Cry's co-founder Supam Maheshwari remained unanswered till the time of publishing this story.
A graduate from Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, Maheshwari founded First Cry in 2010 with Amitava Saha, an IIM, Lucknow, graduate. Saha and Maheswari also founded Xpressbees, a logistics platform owned by Busybees Logistics Solutions Pvt. Ltd., in 2015. The platform is backed by Alibaba among other investors.
FirstCry is yet to receive INR 703.71 crore, which Softbank will realese on the second anniversary of the deal in January 2021.
Last year, Softbank invested in some of the mature firms including Lenskart, an eyewear company with online and retail presence, Vijay Shekhar Sharma-owned Paytm, and grocery-delivery platform Grofers.
First Cry is one of the most successful brands in a competitive baby-and-mother-care segment, which is still majorly dominated by mom and pop stores. With more than 300 stores across India, the brand's major sales still comes from its online business.
Chiratae Ventures (earlier known as IDG Ventures), Mahindra, and SAIF Partners, among others, have invested more than $100 million in the firm, apart from Softbank.
