Ratan Tata, Chairman Emeritus of Tata Sons and Senior Advisor to IDG Ventures India, has invested an undisclosed amount in his personal capacity in Brainbees Solutions Pvt Ltd, which owns the ‘FirstCry.com’ brand.
FirstCry has been able to build a strong and dominant leadership in its category in a highly capital efficient manner, the company said in a statement.
The company is an omni-channel (web, mobile and offline) platform of baby and maternity products in India. Started in late 2010, it has a dominant presence with over 2 million happy parents, over 50 per cent mobile customer base and has over 150 FirstCry branded franchisee offline stores across 100 cities in the country. FirstCry has partnered with 7,000 maternity hospitals across the country and delivers the FirstCry GiftBox to over 1 million new mothers every year. Their own brand, BabyHug, is today the leading baby & kids apparel brand in the country.
“Our vision is to simplify parenting by creating the necessary eco-system and we have outgrown our competitors to become the dominant driver in this space across mobile, online and offline channels. A positive nod from a business leader of Mr Tata’s stature is a great vote of confidence in the way we have created the eco-system and validation of our business approach to profitability. We are delighted to have him on board and look forward to gaining from his experience," said Supam Maheshwari, Founder & CEO of Brainbees.
Brainbees has raised $69 million in capital over multiple rounds from marquee investors including IDG Ventures India, SAIF Partners, Vertex Ventures, Valiant Capital and NEA.