A Success Story of Indian Startup that Braved the Pandemic to enter the Elite Unicorn Club!
In 2020, when the global pandemic of COVID gave birth to revenue crunch and economic slowdown due to the resultant lockdown, some Indian Startups acquired the status of Unicorns.
11 Indian startups in 2020 managed to brave the storm and raise funding to gain a valuation of more than $1 Billion to enter the elite Unicorn club. Today, in our Unicorns 2020 series, we are going to talk about ‘FirstCry’.
The successful startup FirstCry achieved its unicorn status after a decade since its inception. This Indian startup achieved its status in2020 by acquiring a funding deal of $400 million from SoftBank and raising its valuation to $1.2 billion in February, last year.
Founded by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha in 2010, this Pune-based startup is an online and offline platform that offers a wide range of products for babies, kids, and moms. Supam Maheshwari, an IIM Ahmedabad pass out did engineering from Delhi College of Engineering began his entrepreneurship journey, early in his career.
His first company was an e-learning company called Brainvisa Technology. However, Brainvisa was acquired by Indecomm Global for $25 million in 2007.
Now a successful startup, Initially, FirstCry was full of struggle! Supam was facing challenges on an individual level, as he was about to become a father. His occupation at that time required him to travel abroad, frequently.
Many times, he would carry stuff for his new-born baby girl as the products available in the foreign country was more trust-worthy. Some of the products that he brought from abroad, did not exist in the local Indian market.
Hence, The idea of FirstCry was conceived with a desire to resolve the problems of millions of Indian parents who struggle to find the best product for their babies and kids.
Today, FirstCry has emerged as an undisputed leader in the omnichannel baby and mother care products segment. The brand offers more than two lakh baby and kid`s products across 2,000 brands. It has more than 300 stores, spread across 125 cities.
While the first tranche of $300 million has already been received by the company, the remaining Rs 703 crore ($100 million) has been reserved by SoftBank and is expected to be released on the second anniversary of the transaction in January 2021.
‘When failures hit you, you hit the failures back with Bounce Back’. FirstCry is the best example of how an Indian startup can succeed with a clear goal and a concrete business plan. For more such inspiring stories, visit www.badabusiness.com .
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