Thrasio Holdings, Inc. has taken a majority stake in Hero Group-backed Lifelong Online through which it will acquire "promising, digital-first brands" in India, the company said on Friday. It is making a Rs 3,750 crore ($505 million) commitment to acquire brands, the company added.
"In addition to acquiring and growing digital-first businesses, we plan to participate in the ‘make in India’ movement by transitioning the manufacturing for some of our products to the country," Carlos Cashman, CEO of Thrasio said in a statement.
Thrasio aggregates brands on internet market places to build synergies and achieve scale. Its successful business model has led to a number of copycat business models raising significant funding from venture capital firms in India.
Globally, Thrasio has acquired more than 200 brands globally having raised over $3.4 billion in funding, the company said. “India is a unique market with hundreds of thousands of motivated entrepreneurs,” continued Cashman. “We are thrilled to provide brand owners with the opportunity to successfully sell their businesses as well as to give consumers greater access to quality products," Cushman said.
Lifelong Online is backed by Tanglin Venture Partners and the Hero Group's Hero Enterprise Investment Office -- both investors will continue to own a stake in the business.
Tanglin Venture Partners, an early-stage technology-focused venture capital firm, was the first institutional investor in Lifelong Online. Run by a team of ex-Tiger Global and ex-Flipkart leaders, Tanglin invests across sectors including SaaS, fintech, B2B commerce, consumer tech, health tech, and more and has a portfolio of more than 20 companies across India and SE Asia, the statement said.
Hero Enterprise Investment Office actively invests in innovation-led growth-stage companies in sectors including financial services, healthcare, omni-channel consumer businesses and new age technology ventures.
“We are building a technology-first, next-generation consumer goods company,” Bharat Kalia, CEO of Lifelong Online said. “Thrasio’s acquisition expertise and the strength of our platform across ecommerce, D2C, Amazon, and Flipkart are a perfect match. We are already in active discussions with a number of sellers ... with lucrative exit options for founders, we hope to encourage even more brands and sellers to join the D2C ecosystem in India,” Kalia said.
