BrainBees Solutions Limited,

d/b/a A trade name, trading name, or business name is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is fictitious business name. Registering the fictitious name with ...

FirstCry, is an Indian multinational

retail company Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is the sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, ...

, focused on infant, maternity and children's products. The company was founded in 2010 and is headquartered in

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

. It sells products through its website, mobile app and over 1,000 stores, which operate under FirstCry and BabyHug brands. FirstCry debuted on the

Bombay Stock Exchange BSE Limited, also known as the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE), is an Indian stock exchange based in Mumbai. It is the 6th largest stock exchange in the world by total market capitalization, exceeding $5 trillion in May 2024. Established with t ...

and National Stock Exchange on August 13, 2024, following a successful

initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...

History

In November 2010, Supam Maheshwari, Amitava Saha, Sanket Hattimattur and Prashant Jadhav launched FirstCry.com as an online retailer of babycare, maternity care and kids products. In 2011, the company entered offline retail through franchise-owned stores, starting from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and towns. In 2013, FirstCry launched its

private label A private label, also called a private brand or private-label brand, is a brand owned by a company, offered by that company alongside and competing with brands from other businesses. A private-label brand is almost always offered exclusively by th ...

clothing brand called BabyHug. In 2015, the company reported having

distribution Distribution may refer to: Mathematics *Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations *Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a varia ...

partnerships with over 5,000 hospitals. In 2016, FirstCry acquired Babyoye, owned by the

Mahindra Group Mahindra Group is an Indian multinational conglomerate, headquartered in Mumbai. The group has operations in over 100 countries, with a presence in aerospace, agribusiness, aftermarket automotive components, construction equipment, defen ...

, for in a

stock swap In corporate finance, a stock swap is the exchange of one equity-based asset for another, where, during the merger or acquisition, the swap provides an opportunity to pay with stock rather than with cash; see . Overview The acquiring company ...

transaction. The merged entity had over 300 stores and did business under the name "FirstCry.com - a FirstCry Mahindra Venture". In 2019, the company acquired playschool company Oi Playschool. FirstCry began operating in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

in 2019 and

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in West Asia. Located in the centre of the Middle East, it covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula and has a land area of about , making it the List of Asian countries ...

in 2022.

Funding

FirstCry raised $4 million in funding from SAIF Partners in April 2011, followed by $14 million from

IDG Ventures IDG Ventures is a global family of venture funds with approximately $3.6 billion under management. All of the funds were originally sole-source-funded by International Data Group. The first fund was created by IDG in 1996 and was located in San ...

and SAIF Partners in February 2012. In January 2014, FirstCry raised $15 million led by Vertex Venture Holdings, a subsidiary of

Temasek Holdings Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited ( ) is a Singaporean State ownership, state-owned multinational investment firm. Incorporated on 25 June 1974, Temasek has a net portfolio of US$288 billion (S$389 billion) as of 2024. Headquartered at Orchard ...

. It closed its Series D round of funding of $36 million in April 2015, with investments from

New Enterprise Associates New Enterprise Associates (NEA) is an American-based venture capital firm. NEA focuses investment stages ranging from seed stage through growth stage across an array of industry sectors. With over $25 billion in committed capital, NEA is one of t ...

, Valiant Capital Partners and existing investors. Between 2019 and 2020, FirstCry raised $400 million from

SoftBank is a Japanese multinational Investment company, investment holding company headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, that focuses on investment management. The group primarily invests in companies operating in technology that offer goods and services ...

in its series E round of financing. In 2021, FirstCry raised 95 crore ($13 million) in an equity funding round from pi Ventures.

References

External links

*{{url, www.firstcry.com, Official site Online retailers of India Indian companies established in 2010 Indian brands Retail companies established in 2010 Companies listed on the National Stock Exchange of India Companies listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange 2024 initial public offerings