Bombay Shaving Company Raises INR 160 Crore in Series C The company in advanced talks to raise a further INR 300 Crore
By S Shanthi
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Bombay Shaving Company (BSC) has raised INR 160 Cr in a round led by Malabar Investments, a hedge fund based in India. The round also saw participation from Patni Advisors, Singularity AMC, and other HNIs. ESOP sales for some of its employees and exits for early investors to the tune of INR 45 Cr was another feature of this round.
The round comes 11 months after the company raised INR 45 Cr from Reckitt, a global FMCG giant in the health, hygiene, and nutrition space.
"We found the Bombay Shaving Company team to have this passionate and obsessive compulsion to address consumer pain points through product innovation, which is the hallmark of any great consumer company. In a short period of time, they have built a sizable business and a differentiated franchise despite heavily established competition. We believe hair removal is a large market and Bombay Shaving Company has emerged as a strong challenger across categories. We are thrilled to partner with them." said Sumeet Nagar, managing director, Malabar Investments.
Bombay Shaving Company (BSC) plans to scale operations to INR 500 Cr top line with an omnichannel presence in the next two years, and will deploy the funds towards expanding its portfolio of personal care and hair removal products. Along with launching new products, BSC will continue to aggressively expand its offline distribution, build international presence, invest in brand building and hire talent across positions. BSC also intends to acquire brands in adjacent categories and content platforms and is in advanced talks to raise a further INR 300 Cr for this.
The investment will further bolster the brand's ambition to deliver 10X growth in the next 5 years, the company said in a statement.
Launched in 2016, Shantanu Deshpande, BSC started as a premium, D2C, experiential shaving regimen brand and has since expanded into diverse hair removal categories. In 2020, BSC forayed into women's hair removal with their brand "Bombay Shaving Company–Women' which now accounts for nearly 25 per cent of the total business.
BSC has a portfolio of over 100 SKUs - comprising hair removal products for both men and women. The list includes: shaving regimens, trimmers, beard products, razors for women, wax strips, hair removal creams, and other products & accessories. BSC has served over 3 million customers across channels in the six years of its existence. With a finger on the pulse of customers, the brand is seen to be conscious, sensitive, and responsible.
"We are delighted to have investors of such caliber join our cap table. We are singularly focused on building a brand that owns hair removal. As we scale from INR 150 Cr to 500 Cr and 1000 Cr, we needed an investor group that could guide us on building an IPO-able company," said Shantanu Deshpande, founder CEO, BSC.
"We entered the market looking to raise INR 100 Cr but were delighted to have received offers of > INR 500 Cr. We will be evaluating how to further accommodate valuable investors. Also, we are happy to provide INR 45 Cr exits to our employees and early investors, a significant value creation milestone for us," he added.
