Globalbees yet another start up in 2021 to join unicorn club

30 December 2021, Mumbai:

GlobalBees, which raised one of the largest Series A financing rounds in India earlier this year, has entered the unicorn club as the New Delhi-headquartered firm scales its Thrasio-like house of brands.

Premji Invest, the investment firm controlled by Indian tycoon Azim Premji, led the nine-month-old startup’s Series B financing round, the young firm disclosed in a regulatory filing. The round, about $110 million, values GlobalBees at over $1.1 billion, the filing showed.

Steadview Capital, and existing investors Lightspeed, SoftBank and FirstCry, also participated in the $110 million equity round. Trifecta Capital additionally invested $30 million as debt in the new round.

Founded by Nitin Agarwal, formerly of Edelweiss Financial, and Supam Maheshwari, a founder of FirstCry, GlobalBees acquires and partners with digitally native brands across categories such as beauty, personal care, home and kitchen, food and nutrition, and sports and lifestyle, with a revenue rate of $1 million to $20 million.

GlobalBees helps these firms scale and sell to marketplaces and through other channels in India and outside of the South Asian market.

“We have created and engaged with brands in the past and realized that most of these brands reach a scale after which it becomes too difficult to scale them,” Agarwal told TechCrunch in an interview earlier this year. He declined to comment on the new fundraise.

“Supam and I have been talking about this for several years, trying to find ways to disrupt this market. We think there’s an opportunity to create a new house of brands that is digital-native.”