Direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand aggregator GOAT Brand Labs on Thursday said it has raised $50 million (Rs 390 crore) in fresh capital from new and existing investors.
The D2C aggregator is also in advanced discussions to buy 12 brands in the coming days, the statement added. Rishi Vasudev, co-founder & chief executive officer of GOAT Brand said in the statement that the company will continue to acquire high potential D2C brands across lifestyle segments.
New investors who invested in the Series A1 round include Winter Capital, 9Unicorns, Venture Catalysts, Vivriti Capital and Oxyzo, GOAT Brand Labs said in a statement. It did not specify the names of the existing investors who participated in this funding round.
Prior to this fundraise, the company raised $36 million in July last year from Tiger Global, Flipkart Ventures, Mayfield, Nordstar, Better Capital and Trifecta, among others in its first external funding just three months after it launch.
Since its launch last year, the company has completed 15 D2C acquisitions in the lifestyle space including The Label Life, a celebrity-styled lifestyle brand, Voylla, a fashion jewellery brand, trueBrowns & Abhishti, an Indian wear brand, Frangipani, a children wear brand, Neemli and Nutriglow, a beauty and skin care and Doggie Dabbas, a petcare brand. The company has also purchased long-term rights for Pepe Inner fashion.
“Our journey of taking Indian D2C Brands global has just started. We are fortunate to partner with great founders and continue to learn and build capabilities in this fast-changing space," said Vasudev, who previously headed Flipkart’s fashion business, Lifestyle International, Home Center and Calvin Klein India.
GOAT Brand follows a model similar to that of US-based Thrasio, which acquires third-party private label brands on Amazon. Apart from GOAT Brand, other Indian companies which adopted the Thrasio-style business model category and raised significant venture capital funding last year include FirstCry-backed GlobalBees and Mensa Brands, Powerhouse91, 10club and Evenflow.
Notably, Mensa Brands became India’s fastest startup to turn unicorn in November last year after raising $135 million as a part of its latest Series B funding round led by Alpha Wave Ventures. The very next month GlobalBees also joined the unicorn club. A unicorn is a privately-held startup valued at over$1 billion.
Earlier in June, another D2C aggregator - House of Brands Company (HOBC) - founded on lines of Thrasio secured seed funding from VCs like Ah! Ventures, LetsVenture, IITIIM Angels and other major investors and family offices.