Online beauty retailer Purplle.com has raised $65 million from Premji Invest to its cap table. This investment comes in less than a month after the company securing $75 million led by Kedaara Capital, Sequoia Capital India and Blume Ventures.
The fresh infusion will accelerate the company’s growth, it said in a statement.
Six months ago, the company had received $45 million funding backed by Verlinvest, Blume Ventures, JSW Ventures, and first-time investor Sequoia Capital India.
Purplle said it has about seven million monthly active users primarily in tier two and three cities and over 1,000 brands with 50,000 products. In comparison, competitor Nykaa claims to have over 19.3 million monthly average unique visitors and close to 4,000 brands listed on its website and two million products. Like Nykaa, Purplle, too, sells make-up, skincare, haircare, personal care, fragrances, and grooming appliances.
Manish Taneja, co-founder, and CEO of the firm, said, the investment will leapfrog its efforts to offer women personalised beauty experiences, expand its products, and drive penetration across the country.
“We plan to scale our private brands business and continue to build differentiated beauty brands with entrepreneurs. We will leverage exclusive Indian and international brand partnerships and fast-track acquisitions. Investments in content and community will be a key focus,” he said in a statement.
Premji Invest supports consumer, financial, technology, and manufacturing companies like Fabindia, ID foods, Lenskart, Policy Bazaar, Flipkart, Firstcry, among others.
Atul Gupta, partner at Premji Invest, said, “Democratising beauty will continue to be a dominant theme in India and customers today are looking for products that specifically cater to their skin and personal health and enhance their beauty.”
Since its launch in 2012, Purplle said it has built a community-led platform on the back of affordable beauty products. It has grown its Gross Merchandising Value (GMV) by 6 times in the last three years and is currently at a ₹1,200 crore run rate.
Last month, Taneja had told Mint that the funds will allow them to “continue to invest in India and the “Bharat” story since a majority of our customers are middle class Indians living in tier-2 and 3 India.
India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) said the Indian e-commerce market is expected to more than double to $111.40 billion by 2025 from $46.2 billion in 2020. Much of this growth has been triggered by an increase in Internet and smartphone penetration. Indian e-commerce will grow at a 27% CAGR over 2019-24, with grocery and fashion/apparel likely to be the key drivers of incremental growth. Avendus, an analytics firm added that the global beauty and personal care market is expected to become a $725 billion market by 2025.
Source: Mint