NIIF to invest $200 million in FirstCry

India’s sovereign wealth fund, the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) plans to invest in SoftBank-backed vertical e-commerce player FirstCry. The investment will be made through a secondary transaction estimated at around $150-$200 million. It will take place at a valuation of a little over $2 billion, similar to TPG, ChrysCapital and Premji Invest investment of around $315 million in the firm this March. This would take the total size of ongoing round to around $450-$500 million.

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank is the single largest shareholder in FirstCry with over 40 per cent stake. FirstCry is also looking at a potential initial public offering (IPO) in the next 12-18 months. It has spun a logistic arm-Xpresbess in 2015. It continues to see steady demand on its platform though consumption has taken a hit due to the second COVID-19 wave.

Founded in September 2010, FirstCry acquired BabyOye from Mahindra Retail in an all-stock deal worth around $50 million in 2015. Its other investors include Mahindra Group, Valiant Capital, Ratan Tata and Kris Gopalakrishnan. It currently has over 300 stores across 125 cities and a user base of over 4 million and offers more than 200,000 baby and children’s products from 2,000 brands. It competes with Hopscotch and Kids Stop Press in the online segment.