The universe has just grown bigger with Indian companies trying to replicate Thracio’s success in the world’s second-largest internet market. The three-month-old Globalbis reported on Monday that it had raised $150 million in a series of financing led by FirstCree. Lightspeed Venture Partners has also invested in a new financing round, equity $75 million and $ 75 million don. Even to raise $ 75 million in equity, Monday’s announcement made Globalbiz the fundraiser in India’s biggest series.
Founded by Nitin Agarwal, former Edelweiss Financial and founder of FirstCree, Supam Maheshwari, Globalbis partners and partners with over $20 digital national brands across sectors such beauty, personal care, home and kitchen, food and nutrition, and sports and lifestyle. Agatwal told TechCrunch in an interview that New Delhi-based startups help these companies sell in the market (such as Amazon and Flipkart) and through other channels in India and outside the South Asian market, adding that Globalbis has already acquired or partnered with more than a dozen brands and they are in India.
“We’ve created brands in the past and got involved with them and realized that most of these brands have reached a scale after which it becomes very difficult to scale them.” “Supam and I have been talking about this for several years, trying to find ways to disrupt this market. We think there is an opportunity to create a new home for the digitally native brand.” Agarwal said Globalbis will try to create a distribution and enterprise ecosystem in the online space, such as how traditional thematic companies have established this connection in the offline world. Agarwal said not all brands associated with Globalbis will be acquired overnight. Typically, some brands can acquire for three years or more.
Harsha Kumar, Partner at Lightspeed Venture, said in a statement, “Earnings from 0 – 100Cr (about $13 million) for D2C brands have more than halved in the last few years.” “We believe this creates a unique opportunity to build a brand house faster. With their past entrepreneurial spots together and experience in creating one of the largest e-commerce platforms in India, the pairing of Supam and Nitin is the perfect team to follow this idea. Lightspeed is thrilled to be a part of this journey! Kumar, who is joining the board of Globalbis, said.
