Mensa Brands Becomes India¡¯s Fastest Startup To Turn Unicorn

Within barely six months of launching its business, Mensa Brands has become India¡¯s fastest startup to turn into a unicorn. Post its recent Series B funding of $135 mn led by Alpha Wave Ventures-Falcon Edge Capital, this technology-led ¡®House of Brands¡¯ startup has quickly become the talk of the town in the e-commerce industry.

In the recent funding, Mensa¡¯s all existing investors, including Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Tiger Global Management Prosus Ventures (Naspers) also invested in the latest funding round of this startup.

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So what does Mensa Brands do?

This D2C brand aggregator company operates by acquiring digital-first brands and scaling them domestically as well as overseas. First, they get to know your brand, then go for valuation and commercial construct, followed by due diligence to close the deal and last but not the least, they accelerate your brand by integrating it with Mensa and embarking on a journey of exponential growth by leveraging both technology and the team expertise.

Currently, Mensa houses 12 brands across three key categories-fashion, home & beauty and personal care. Founded by the famous and former Myntra and Medlife CEO Ananth Narayanan, Mensa has already turned profitable.

Earlier this year, Mensa had raised around $50 million in May 2021, as a part of its Series A round led by investors like Accel Partners, Falcon Edge Capital and Norwest Venture Partners.

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What does Mensa intend to do with this recent funding?

Mensa intends to use the funding money to continue partnering with founding teams of customer-loved brands and help them become household names through Mensa¡¯s expertise. Moreover, Mensa also aims to invest in hiring across various functions and continue building its tech platform, besides putting money towards marketing and other growth capabilities as well.

Mensa also looks to scale up its employee count, from the current number of 60 to about 150-200 over the next 12-18 months. It also looks to scale up its acquisitions from the present number of 12 to 40 brands over the next 12-18 months.

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The competition and road ahead

Surely, the competition in the ¡®house of brands¡¯ e-commerce space is heating up already, with other thrasio-style (which aims to acquire a brand and then level up its marketing, product development. supply chain management etc) e-commerce startups like 10Club and GlobalBees too raising $40 million and $150 million respectively this year.

Moreover, even beauty marketplace Nykaa, which recently went public and had a bumper debut, is believed to be eyeing a ¡®house of brands¡¯ strategy rather than just being a multi-brand retailer.

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