The Story Behind Competition Turned To A Lucrative Alliance with FirstCry: By Anand Mahindra Mahindra's decision to invest in FirstCry comes from a rather unique story, that was elaborated by Anand Mahindra himself at the FirstCry listing ceremony
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As of Thursday, 8 August, Brainbees Solutions Limited's issue was fully subscribed recording over 12 times the share reserved.
FirstCry's parent company Brainbees made its D-street debut on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on Tuesday. Ratan Tata and FirstCry founders Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha are among the individual selling shareholders in the IPO.
While SoftBank is looking at a 3x gain from FirstCry's public listing, Mahindra & Mahindra is all set to bank a 6x return thanks to its 28 Lakh shares to be sold. Mahindra's investment arm Mahindra Partners was one among the USD 34 million Series D funding round for FirstCry in 2016.
Interestingly, Mahindra's decision to invest in FirstCry comes from a rather unique story, that was elaborated by Anand Mahindra himself at the FirstCry listing ceremony held at the National Stock Exchange (NSE) who started the speech in humor by admitting that he knows the attendees might be thinking: "Why this much pride for a sizeable stake in a company?"
Mahindra created 'Mahindra Partners' in 2010, the same year of inception as FirstCry to incubate companies in new-age fields and create value, rather than build empires.
"The mandate was to isolate this kind of mentality of the startup. To our minds, the differentiating mentality of startups is that they worship at the temple of value creation," expressed Anand Mahindra.
After successful ventures such as Mahindra Logistics, Susten, and Mahindra Accelo, all of which thrived, Mahindra Partners turned their attention and investments to Mom & me, a clothing and goods provider for babies. It also then acquired Baby Oye, which resulted in Mahindra Partners having two portfolio companies directly in competition with Supam's FirstCry.
It was at this moment, that Anand Mahindra recalls their decision to join hands and support FirstCry rather than fight against it, credits to Zhooben Bhiwandiwala, Senior Managing Director of Mahindra Partners, and his convincing conversation with Anand.
We are delighted to join hands with Firstcry. Being a solid industry leader is the way to win in e-commerce https://t.co/wnGqEhCBUG
— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) October 16, 2016
Anand Mahindra's post on X (formerly Twitter) announcing investment in FirstCry.
Zhooben told him that Supam is brilliant in what he does and that he's a passionate innovator with a global vision.
In the words of Zhooben, "This is the time for us to create value by consolidating with them. I think we'll be better off supporting him rather than fighting him."
Mahindra Partners' next move was to make an investment in FirstCry and become the largest shareholder and FirstCry surged ahead with the numbers that most matter. Zhooben's prediction about Supam's global vision also came true, as the company now has a business model very similar to India in Saudi Arabia and the UAE, with plans to further expand.
Anand also mentioned FirstCry's bespoke delivery system crafted by Supam, which according to him is the envy of numerous global online retailers and remarked, "Which, I suppose, is what attracted Softbank to come in, and of course the rest is history."
"I want to congratulate you and express my gratitude for creating immense value for Mahindra. And I want to thank you in particular for creating enormous value for this country," said Anand Mahindra as he concluded.
