Mensa Brand Technologies Pvt Ltd, which owns a clutch of direct-to-consumer companies under Mensa Brands, has raised Rs 300 crore ($36 million) in a debt funding round from alternative debt platform TradeCred.
The startup will deploy the fresh proceeds for further acquisitions as well as for product development, supply chain integration and working capital investment.
“We are pioneering the path to an industry-first tech-led house of brands with our five breakout category leaders. With this additional capital, we will be able to double down on our growth ambition,” said Ananth Narayanan, founder and chief executive officer at Mensa Brands.
TradeCred, founded by Hardik Shah in 2018, has over 2,200 crore of AUM and more than 20,000 active users as of February 2022. As part of Mensa's financing arrangement, 50 UHNIs have collectively participated. It has in the past backed companies such as Boutique Spirit Brands, and Matrix Partners-backed construction supply platform ZippMat Launched in 2021, Mensa Brands follows a 'house of brands' strategy, in which it acquires and partners with digital-first brands, with the goal of accelerating growth by providing on-the-ground expertise and tech-led interventions in marketing and operations.
It claims to have onboarded 25 brands across fashion, home, beauty and FMCG. It has around 700 employees across offices in Bangalore, Mumbai, Gurgaon, UAE, and the US.
Some of Mensa’s latest bets have been lifestyle portals MensXP, iDiva, and creator management and marketing company Hypp, which they had bought from Times Internet.
In September last year, it had acquired peanut butter brand MyFitness for an undisclosed sum.
Mensa has raised more than $300 million (about Rs 2,251 crore) in equity and debt in less than six months since launching the company. Accel Partners, Alpha Wave Global, Norwest Venture Partners, Prosus and Tiger Global Management are among the company's notable investors. Alteria Capital, InnoVen Capital, Piramal Capital, Stride Ventures, and TradeCredit have all provided debt financing to the company.
