Internet and telecommunications group SoftBank’s Vision Fund has invested $150m in Brainbees Solutions, the India-based operator of childcare-focused e-commerce platform FirstCry, to increase its series E round to $300m, Entrackr reported today.
Vision Fund had already provided the initial $150m for the round in January 2019. FirstCry aims to close it at $400m and expects to issue the remaining $100m worth of series E stock to the same investor in January 2021.
The company did not confirm a valuation for the round but Entrackr estimated it is now valued at at least $1.2bn, up from $850m for the first tranche. Vision Fund owns a stake of approximately 40% in Brainbees following its latest investment.
Founded in 2010, FirstCry operates an e-commerce platform together with more than 400 brick-and-mortar locations across India that sell more than 200,000 baby, children and mothercare products.
The company has also launched a parenting community app with 13 million active monthly users. Beyond talking with other parents and looking up articles, users can use the app to track vaccination dates and share updates on their children.
The series E extension will allow FirstCry to further expand its brick-and-mortar retail network and deal with competition from e-commerce firms Amazon and Flipkart. It has raised approximately $425 to date, including $34m in a 2016 round backed by conglomerate Mahindra Group.
Adveq, private investor Kris Gopalakrishnan and existing investors Chiratae Ventures (then known as IDG Ventures India), Vertex Ventures, SAIF Partners, New Enterprise Associates and Valiant Capital also took part in the 2016 round.
