What is FirstCry? FirstCry Review

Entrepreneurship Story

Supam Maheshwari became a father for the first time in 2002 and he often travelled 18 km from home to buy baby care products. Diapers, baby oil, soap, lotion and toys were all on his shopping list.

Maheshwari, who was suffering from the busy schedule, decided to do something to change this situation. So he and his former colleague Amitava Saha set up a website called Firstcry.com, which specializes in selling baby products, in 2010. Today, their website has 500,000 registered users, who can choose more than 55,000 products from more than 400 brands on the Firstcry website.

Business Situation

FirstCry mainly sells various maternal and child products including clothing and school supplies offline. It currently has more than 300 stores in 125 cities in India. Its product brands include Funskool, Hotwheels, Nuby, Farlin, Medela, Pampers, Disney, etc. The company also has more than 300 stores in 125 cities in India. In order to expand its online business, the company acquired the maternal and child care e-commerce platform BabyOye for US$54 million in 2017.

logistics

Customers can receive the goods two or three days after placing an order online. They can pay online or choose cash on delivery. When customers order again, they can enjoy a "loyalty" discount price.

Financing

In April 2011, the company completed a $4 million Series A financing round with SAIF Partners as the investor.

In February 2012, the company completed a $14 million Series B financing round led by Chiratae Ventures and co-invested by SAIF Partners.

In January 2014, the company completed a USD 15 million Series B+ round of financing, led by Vertex Ventures, with participation from SAIF Partners, Chiratae Ventures, Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia & India, and Singapore’s sovereign fund Temasek Holdings.

In February 2015, the company completed a US$26 million Series C financing led by Valiant Capital Partners, with participation from Vertex Ventures China, Chiratae Ventures, and SAIF Partners.

In February 2016, the company completed a USD 26 million Series D financing round led by Valiant Capital Partners, with participation from Vertex Ventures, SAIF Partners, Vertex Ventures’ Southeast Asia and India subsidiaries, and Chiratae Ventures.

In October 2016, it completed a US$34 million D+ round of financing, led by Xiangfeng Investment, and participated by New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Temasek, SAIF Partners, and IDG Ventures.

In 2018, SoftBank Group successfully exited Walmart's $16 billion acquisition of Flipkart and received a $4 billion return on investment, so it has recently been looking for new investment opportunities.

In January 2019, Japanese Internet investment giant SoftBank Group will invest US$400 million in Indian maternal and infant products retailer FirstCry, and will acquire at least 40% of the shares of FirstCry's operating parent company BrainBees Solutions.