GlobalBees Brands Pvt Ltd, a Thrasio-style direct-to-consumer (d-2-c) venture that aggregates and invests in e-commerce brands, added two more new-age brands, Yellow Chimes, a leading fashion jewellery brand, and Absorbia, an innovative home care brand, to its portfolio.
Last week, after investing in homegrown millennial skincare brand - Prolixr, women's health solutions company - &ME, and home care products company - The Better Home - in August this year, this will take its total acquisitions to five in just four months.
"Yellow Chimes and Absorbia are a strong addition to our portfolio, and it is heartening to see our family grow. We look forward to establishing each of these brands globally and achieving new milestones. Going forward we will continue to work with innovative brands across diverse and fast-growing categories" said Nitin Agarwal, CEO, GlobalBees.
The buyouts come at a time when the firm is also in discussions with two large investors to raise around $300 million at unicorn valuations, VCCircle reported recently.
The company said, there is an increased demand for trendy and affordable jewellery amongst millennials and Yellow Chimes has already served more than 10 lakh customers.
Founded in 2014 by Anuj Khemka and Megha Mittal, Yellow Chimes was formed to provide updated fashion jewellery for men and women across India. It offers trendy and affordable fashion jewellery through online marketplaces such as Amazon, Flipkart, and Myntra.
With its origins from a small home to operating a 6,000 feet warehouse in Bangalore, Karnataka, Yellow Chimes claims to have a base of nearly a million customers across India. Their range of product categories includes necklaces, bracelets, rings, earrings, nose rings, pendants, and more.
Meanwhile, Absorbia is the second company from the home care segment that Globalbees has acquired, which is presently valued at nearly $7.8 billion.
Founded by Prabhav Sharda in 2009, Kolkata-based Absorbia provides a range of moisture absorbers that is plant-powered and non-toxic and the brand claims to have over two million users.
Speaking on the partnership with GlobalBees, Prabhav Sharda, Founder of Absorbia said, “We entered India with a product that Indians didn’t even believe that they needed, and with constant innovation, we carved a niche in the home care market. We are proud of what we have achieved so far, and becoming a part of a like-minded company such as GlobalBees is a fantastic milestone in our journey."
GlobalBees
GlobalBees was founded earlier this year by FirstCry founder Supam Maheshwari and a former executive at Edelweiss Financial Services, Nitin Agarwal, with a corpus of $75 million.
In July, it raised $150 million in a mix of equity and debt this July. The round was led by FirstCry and also got Lightspeed Venture Partners as a new investor. Other investors in the round included Vikas Agnihotri of SoftBank, Harsha Kumar of Lightspeed, Atul Gupta of PremjiInvest, Sudhir Sethi of Chiratae Ventures and Kshitij Sheth of ChrysCapital.
GlobalBees, which aims to buy and consolidate brands that sell online as per a model popularised by US-based Thrasio, aims to invest in around 30-35 brands ranging from various D2C categories to fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and more. The company is looking forward to buying and consolidating brands, helping the brands scale and transform their digital impression. GlobalBees is planning to invest in over 20 brands within this financial year itself.
It plans to partner with digitally native brands across categories such as beauty and personal care, home, kitchen, food, nutrition, sports, and lifestyle, with a revenue rate of $1 million to $20 million.
Besides making strategic investments, GlobalBees also plans to help the brands scale and diversify their digital footprint through D2C channels. It further aims to support product development, branding and other key activities such as warehousing and logistics.
India is witnessing the rise of D2C brands across categories and is estimated to have a $100 billion addressable market by 2025, according to an October note by Avendus.
Among other Thrasio-style ventures in India, Myntra and Medlife executive Ananth Narayanan-founded Mensa Brands also attracted funds of around $50 million as part of its Series A funding round led by Accel, Falcon Edge Capital and Norwest Venture Partners earlier in May.
In August, UpScalio raised $42.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Presight Capital and an undisclosed global hedge fund.
Other aggregators of third-party sellers on ecommerce platforms, such as GOAT, Powerhouse91 and 10Club, among others have also raised funds capitalising this space recently.