IPO-Bound FirstCry to get investment from NIIF Shelves
- ByStartupStory | April 2, 2022
The plug on its proposed investment in the online baby marketplace, FirstCry, has been pulled by the National Investment & Infrastructure Fund (NIIF). In a Bloomberg report the revelations came to fore. Meanwhile, the report added, VC firm PremjiInvest is expected to step in and buy the stake.
After NIIF and PremiInvest had received CCI green-signal to pick up a stake in FirstCry, this came barely a couple of months later. A report states that in the Supam Maheshwari-led marketplace, the country’s sovereign fund was expected to pump in $100 Mn.
SoftBank and other existing investors were supposed to dilute their shareholding in order to make way for NIIF, as part of the defunct deal. Founded in 2010 by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha. The startup, FirstCry offers different categories of baby and kids products from clothing to other essentials.
FirstCry is spread across 125 cities, with a user base of 4 Mn+ and a retail footprint of over 300 stores. To offer 200K baby and kids products across 2,000 brands, has been claimed by the Pune-based unicorn.
After raising $296 Mn in Series E funding round led by SoftBank’s Vision Fund, Firstcry had entered the coveted unicorn club in February of 2020. Committed by SoftBank, the investment was said to be the first tranche of the total $400 Mn funding.
Till date, FirstCry has raised $428.4 Mn so far in eight funding rounds, in total. The startup is backed by marquee names including TPG, ChrysCapital, SoftBank Group Corp, among others.
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