Singapore-based beauty and personal care (BPC) products company, Believe Pte Ltd has raised $55 million in its Series C funding round.
New investors Venturi Partners and IIFL AMC participated in the funding round along with existing Jungle Ventures, Accel, Alteria Capital and Genesis Alternative Ventures, the company said in a statement on Thursday. Investment from IIFL AMC is subject to approval from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
With this funding round, Believe Pte, that houses brands like Lafz, ZM and Dr.Rhazes, has raised $80 million to date across three rounds, the company said.
The company will use the funds to consolidate its market share in Bangladesh and India via strategic acquisitions. The company said that it will also deepen its reach in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and Southeast Asia through both organic and inorganic growth.
Believe currently sells its products in over eight countries and manufactures them across the globe including countries like South Korea, Italy, Spain, France, Germany and UAE.
The Series A and B funding rounds were led by Accel and Jungle Ventures with participation from Wamda Capital, a Middle East-based fund, Believe said, adding that the Series C round was led by Venturi Partners, a Singapore-based investment platform founded by veteran consumer investor Nicholas Cator. Venturi Partners invests in sectors such as FMCG, education among others, in India and Southeast Asia.
“We are excited to be backing the most experienced BPC (beauty personal care) founders in the region and have been extremely impressed by their ability to build a diversified portfolio of products and a unique distribution network during a pandemic," said Nicholas Cator, founder and managing partner at Venturi Partners.
“We have received tremendous consumer love all the way from launching our first product in 2019 to witnessing 2.5 times growth in the last one year. Our 2,000+ family of happy Believers is our eyes and ears to the ground that help us be nimble and responsive to consumer needs,” said Ankit Mahajan, chief executive officer, Believe Pte Ltd.
“We have created a relentless marketing organization that has the ability to identify consumer needs, use of 12-member strong R&D expertise to make fantastic products and then put our international supply chain to deliver global standard products to countries across the world,” he added.
For IIFL AMC, Believe Pte's investment adds to its portfolio of start-ups such as Swiggy, Licious, Dailyhunt and Country Delight.
“Believe has demonstrated unprecedented traction and growth in a very short period via its brands focused on the global markets in the BPC segment. With its unique positioning of halal based clean products (devoid of alcohol and animal ingredients), it has addressed the latent need of a large target market in a highly focused manner,” said Chetan Naik, Fund Manager at IIFL AMC.
