Babycare e-tailer FirstCry raises $26mn in Series D funding

Brainbees Solutions that owns baby and kids focused e-commerce site FirstCry.com today said it has raised $26 million Series D funding lead by Valiant Capital Partners.

Francisco-headquartered Valiant Capital, which currently manages over $2.5 billion of assets, was joined by investors IDG Ventures India, Vertex and SAIF Partners.

Brainbees, which started operations in late 2010, and owns the'FirstCry.com' brand, has rapidly expanded its online dominance to other channels as well. The company now has over 100 FirstCry-branded franchisee stores across 85 cities in the country.  Mobile transactions are growing the fastest and currently contributing over 50 per cent of traffic for the company, said the company.  

Brainbees also now has distribution partnerships with over 5,000 hospitals reaching over a million new parents across the country every year.

Brainbees founded by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha, who had previously built and sold Brainvisa Technologies.

"The Company is delighted to have Valiant and our existing investors as investment partners in this round. We plan to use the funds to focus on expanding our leadership across all channels (online, mobile and offline), as well investing in the growth of our private label business” says Supam Maheshwari, Founder & CEO of Brainbees.   

According to Chris Hansen, Managing Partner of Valiant Capital, "Supam and Amitava are seasoned entrepreneurial leaders who have demonstrated their ability to build and scale-up a world-class organization. We have been highly impressed with FirstCry's leadership and believe it is becoming one of the marquee e-commerce brands in India.  We are excited to be part of this terrific company.”

Board member Manik Arora, Founder and Managing Director of IDG Ventures India Advisors, said "We welcome Valiant as a new investment partner as Brainbees extends its multi-channel leadership and also expands the BabyHug brand into new product segments.”