Good Glamm Group is in advanced talks to acquire strategic stake in skin and personal care brand St.Botanica, which would make it the first acquisition for the company after it joined the club of unicorns this week. A spokesperson said: “We confirm that the Good Glamm Group is in advanced discussions with St.Botanica.”
On Tuesday, Good Glamm announced a Series D funding round of $150 million led by Prosus Ventures (Naspers) and Warburg Pincus along with the participation from Alteria Capital and existing investors, valuing the platform at $1.2 billion, making it the 35th startup this year to join the club of unicorns, or privately held startups valued at $1 billion or more.
Good Glamm said in a statement on Tuesday that existing investors L’Occitane, Bessemer Venture Partners, Amazon, Ascent Capital and the Mankekar Family Office also took part in the funding round. Good Glamm’s portfolio includes cosmetics brand MyGlamm, premium mother-and-baby care brand The Moms Co, and baby products line BabyChakra.
A spokesperson for St.Botanica confirmed to ET that talks were on with Good Glamm Group but declined to comment on details. The St.Botanica brand is owned by Emmbros Overseas, a home-grown Haryana-based company founded and led by Sahil Mehta. Emmbros Overseas sells specialised premium skincare, haircare and beauty products under the labels St.Botanica, Oriental Botanics, Man Arden, Mom & World and MuscleXP. Its mainstay brand is St.Botanica. Emmbros Overseas follows an omnichannel strategy, and its brands are sold on e-commerce platforms and through independent brand sites as well as on offline retail stores.
Good Glamm, (previously known as MyGlamm), is also scouting for acquisitions in the men’s grooming space and one of the brands it is learned to be considering is direct-to-consumer grooming start-up Bombay Shaving Company, two industry executives in the knowledge of the development said.
“The Good Glamm Group is currently researching multiple men’s grooming brands. However, we have not reached a stage where we are in discussions with any of them at this point of time,” the Good Glamm spokesperson added in the email to ET.
Bombay Shaving Company, whose investors include Colgate Palmolive and Reckitt Benckiser, is a six-year-old direct-to-consumer grooming player that sells a range of shaving and grooming products and competes directly with Gillette.
Shantanu Deshpande, founder and chief executive of Bombay Shaving Company said in an email response: “There are no conversations of a strategic tie-up of any kind with The Good Glamm Group.” Bombay Shaving Company, which had raised Rs 45 crore from Dettol maker Reckitt Benckiser in January this year, also recently expanded its business to women’s grooming products.
Good Glamm executives said the platform is clocking an annual revenue run rate of $120 million, which it is targeting to grow to $250 million by March next year. Overall, the platform has an offline reach across 30,000 retail stores, which it is targeting to increase to 100,000 stores by March.
The company had earlier raised Rs 175 crore as a part of a Series C funding, and an additional Rs 355 crore mid-year led by Accel. It is also planning an overseas expansion by the middle of next year and a stock market listing over the next three years.
Source: Economic Times