Transaction:

  • Mensa Brands, the house of brands startup, founded by ex Myntra CEO and cofounder of Medlife Ananth Narayanan, has raised $135 million in a series B funding round led by Alpha Wave Ventures (Falcon Edge Capital).
  • Its existing investors Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Tiger Global Management also participated in the round. New investor, Prosus Ventures, joined the fundraising.

 Mensa Brands:

  • Company builds global digital first brands by partnering with the founders and investing into their business. Its core team has 60+ years of ecommerce expertise and operators who help scale and grow brands. Mensa has acquired majority stake in brands like Karagiri, Priyaasi, Dennis Lingo, Ishin, Hubberholme, Anubhutee, Helea, Villain.
  • It has around 60 employees. It acquires digital first brands and provides them expertise and interventions in the areas of marketing and operations. Its current focus is cosmetics, fashion and beauty brands.
  • Mensa is platform neutral and its brands are present across different platforms like Amazon, Flipkart and others.

 Alpha Wave Global:

  • Previously Falcon Edge Capital, Alpha Wave Global is global alternative asset manager founded in 2012 with offices in New York, Miami, London, Abu Dhabi, Tel Aviv and Bangalore.

Rationale:

  • Narayan said that Mensa has acquired around a dozen brands and is working on another 20 such deals. All existing brands are growing at 100% year-on-year.
  • Mensa is profitable and is planning to use the funds to partner with brands and also invest in hiring as well as building its tech platform.
  • Mensa has reached unicorn status in only seven months of its commencement. It is the fastest startup to become a unicorn.
  • Cofounder and partner of Alpha Wave Venture, Navroz Udwadia commented that Mensa shows a noticeable raise by blending of product and pricing optimization, technology-led process improvement, distribution and marketing augmentation and fine-tuning the supply chain. This helps brands to grow and become leaders in their category.
  • As per news media, Mensa has raised total $300 mn in equity and debt funding.

Acknowledgements: 

RBI Bulletin (www.bulletin.rbi.org.in), SEBI (www.sebi.gov.in), NSE (www.nseindia.com), BSE (www.bseindia.com)

Disclaimer:

This material has been prepared by the personnel in Vora Corporate Finance which is Investment Banking arm of Vora Management Consultancy Private Limited and looks after Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Private Equity (PE), Fund Raising, Debt syndication and Valuations and is based out of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Any views or opinions expressed herein are solely that of individual authors and may differ from view of Vora Management Consultancy Private Limited. This material is proprietary to Vora Management Consultancy Private Limited and is for your personal use only. Any distribution, copy, reprints or forward to others is strictly prohibited.

This material captures the information based on information available in the public domain, public announcements and sources believed to be reliable. Analysis contained herein is based on publicly available information and appropriate assumptions. This material is intended merely to highlight market developments and is not intended to be comprehensive and does not constitute strategic, investment, legal or tax advice. In no event Vora Management Consultancy Private Limited be liable for any use by any party or for any decision made or action taken by any party in reliance upon, or for any inaccuracies or errors in, or omissions from, the information contained herein and such information may not be relied upon by you for evaluating any transaction. 

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