Childcare e-commerce marketplace operator FirstCry has led a $150m series A round for India-based e-commerce aggregation startup GlobalBees, TechCrunch reported yesterday.
The round was backed by venture capital firm Lightspeed Venture Partners and consisted of $75m of equity funding and $75m of debt financing. TechCrunch reported the deal as the largest India-based series A round announced to date.
GlobalBees is looking to acquire and develop e-commerce brands that sell products on online marketplaces such as Amazon and Flipkart. It operates a similar business model to US-based peers like Thrasio and Elevate Brands.
The company was co-founded three months ago by FirstCry co-founder and chief executive Supam Maheshwari and Nitin Agarwal, former president, chief information officer, chief technology officer and chief digital officer of investment and financial services group Edelweiss Financial.
Agarwal told TechCrunch that GlobalBees has acquired or partnered “over a dozen brands” so far. He also said the company will attempt to build a distribution and enterprise ecosystem in the online space.
Vikas Agnihotri, operating partner of internet and telecommunications group SoftBank’s Investment Advisers unit, is joining GlobalBees’ board alongside Harsha Kumar, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners; Premji Invest partner Atul Gupta; Sudhir Sethi, founder and chairman of Chiratae Ventures; and Chrys Capital director Kshitij Sheth.