Beauty & Personal Care Retailer Purplle Becomes India's 102nd Unicorn, Secures $33 Million Funding
Just a couple of days after Edtech platform Physics Wallah turned India's 101st unicorn, online beauty and personal care products retailer Purplle has become India¡¯s 102nd unicorn.
Just a couple of days after the edtech platform Physics Wallah turned unicorn, online beauty and personal care products retailer Purplle has become India¡¯s 102nd unicorn. Purplle raised $33 million from Paramark Ventures to reach a valuation of $1.1 billion.
¡°My view is that if you're a good company, if your unit economics is in place, you are good founders and if your corporate governance is top notch then I don't think that there is ever a funding winter,¡± Purplle¡¯s co-founder and chief executive Manish Taneja told ET.
ET
Existing investors Premji Invest, Blume Ventures and Kedaara Capital also participated in the round. The company has raised $215 million so far, including the latest round. Its previous investors include Goldman Sachs and Verlinvest.
¡°From the first quarter of FY22 to Q1 of FY23, our revenue has more than doubled. Also, the business has become more diversified. While online is obviously still the lion's share of our revenue, offline is also now quite significant. I think that's what's probably led to us being able to command a valuation that is almost double of what it was in the last round,¡± Taneja said.
While other beauty players and operators Plum, Sugar Cosmetics, and Nykaa are looking at aggressive physical retail expansion, CEO Taneja said Purplle will be mindful about expanding offline aggressively, even as its private brands Faces Canada and Good Vibes have benefited from offline stores reopening and their presences across 5,000 offline touch points.
Its annualised gross merchandise value (GMV) was $180 million in FY22.
Purplle said it would utilise the funds for marketing, advertising, and strengthening brand and technology.
More About Purplle
The company was founded in 2012 by Taneja, Suyash Katyayani and Rahul Dash.
Purplle, which competes with larger rival Nykaa, has seven million monthly active users and over 1,000 brands on its platform, including five private labels. It is strong in non-metro cities, as per ET.
The newly minted unicorn Purplle¡¯s valuation was valued at $630 million during its last fundraising in November.
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