For a cash consideration of Rs 435 crore, the MEMG Family Office of Ranjan Pai of Manipal Group, Sharrp Ventures of Harsh Mariwala of Marico, and the DSP Family Office of Hemendra Kothari purchased stakes in the kids-focused omnichannel retailer FirstCry.
The three family investment offices have purchased the stake from SoftBank, the largest shareholder in FirstCry, according to a report by ET, which broke the news of the development first.
To date, the company has raised about $425 million. SoftBank contributed about $300 million to FirstCry’s unicorn round in February 2020. After that, Softbank bought a stake in the business worth about 40%.
Through its physical and online stores, FirstCry provides a vast selection of products for mothers, children, and babies.
In preparation for its IPO, FirstCry changed its status to that of a public company a year ago.
FirstCry has not yet released financial data for FY23. Operations revenue for the company increased by almost 50% in FY22, from Rs 1,603 crore to Rs 2,401 crore. A loss of Rs 79 crore was recorded by the company in FY22, according to Fintrackr’s analysis. It reported a Rs 216 crore profit for FY21.
Prior to FirstCry, a few startups, including XpressBees and Credgenics, saw early backers partially exit their investments. Khazanah Nasional Berhad purchased a stake in XpressBees from Elevation Capital in April for $40 million. The debt recovery and legal automation platform Credgenics saw a partial exit from early-stage investor Titan Capital last week, with a return of more than 100-fold.
