Excl: Hybrid online-offline baby & kids products retailer Firstcry raises $15M in Series C led by Temasek's VC arm

Pune-based BrainBees Solutions Pvt Ltd, the startup behind Firstcry.com, which offers baby and kids' products, has secured $15 million (Rs 93 crore) in its third institutional funding round led by Vertex Venture Holdings, a venture investment arm of Singapore's sovereign wealth fund Temasek. Its existing investors SAIF Partners and IDG Ventures also participated in the latest funding, a source privy to the development told Techcircle.in.

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It could not be immediately ascertained what the company plans to do with the fresh capital. Repeated calls and an email sent to Firstcry founder Supam Maheshwari did not elicit a response till the time of publishing the article. We have sent email queries to the three investors and will update the story as and when we get more details.

For Vertex this would be the second known investment in India currently. Earlier it had invested in Reverse Logistics Company which buys returned/factory seconds/demo/discontinued/overproduced consumer durable goods (called D2 products) at a discount from OEMs such as LG and Samsung. The firm, which operates under the brand Greendust, repairs these D2 products and sells them at substantial discounts from the retail price. Greendust products are available both online and through franchisee stores and dealers.

Firstcry was co-founded by Maheshwari and Amitava Saha in 2010. Maheshwari previously founded education startup Brainvisa Technologies, which was later sold it to Indecomm Global Services. So far, the firm has raised two rounds of VC funding worth $18 million from SAIF Partners and IDG Ventures.

Firstcry has over 70,000+ items from 400+ international and Indian brands such as Mattel, Ben10, Pigeon, Funskool, Hotwheels, Nuby, Farlin, Medela, Pampers, Disney, Barbie, Gerber, Fisher Price and Mee Mee. The firm aims also runs more than 25 physical stores across 11 states in the country. It claims that its team works with over 150 vendors internationally, nationally to source the best products/brands for you at the most affordable price. In an interview last August, Maheshwari said that the firm is looking to break even by the end of the current financial year.

Firstcry competes with the likes of Babyoye besides a string of horizontal e-tailers which also sell baby products.

BrainBees Solutions also owned and operated Goodlife.com, which focused on home, health and personal care items. This property was shut down a few weeks ago.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)