Ali Hasan
Introduction – Do you want something for your cute little adorable toddler? If yes, then FirstCry can help you as it offers a unique range of products for your tiny loved ones. As of now, they have grown as a brand that’s recognizable as a one stop solution for all your worries if you have a kid and want anything that they require.
They claim to have more than 7.5 million registered users, more than 5,800 brands and more than 2 lakhs+ products in their portfolio. Today the company is owned by Mahindra Group but that was not the case when it was started in 2010. This is where things get exciting as we are about to explore their journey. This blog will give you an actual picture about where the brand stands today and where will they go from here in the future.
Early Days – FirstCry was started by Supam Maheshwari and 3 other co-founders in 2010 in Pune, India. FirstCry is an Indian online store for baby products retailing via both offline and online stores. They were an independent company but they were merged with the Mahindra Group in 2016. The merger entity now does business under the name – FirstCry.com, a FirstCry Mahindra Venture.
It was the same year when they acquired another startup in the same industry named BabyOye for Rs 362 crores. The startup was the result of issues faced by the CEO himself as a new parent. He immediately knew that there could be a huge scope of providing products and services to people who are planning to be parents or are new parents.
FirstCry caters to small kids but it isn’t a small company by any means. In January 2020 the company had over 380 stores across India out of which around 350 are franchise stores, thus making FirstCry “Asia’s largest online shopping store for kids & baby products.”
They have their in-house brand named BabyHug which contributes to approximately 25% of their revenues. They also have a brand named “MamaEarth”. According to the CEO, they are trying to be different from any other brand by a huge margin and thus they have tied up with more than 8,000 hospitals where a mother is gifted with a FirstCry gift box after she gives birth. They will increase this number in the future.
The FirstCry gift box contains many items which would help a new mother such as:-
- Diapers
- Baby wipes
- Lotion
- Oil
- Cream
The box basically has all the items that a new mother will require for the next 15-20 days after the birth of her child. They started out as an online retailer but expanded into the offline segment very soon. To be ahead of their competitors and to have a distinct competitive advantage, they installed touchscreen kiosks machine in their stores where customers could interact with them and learn more about the offerings of FirstCry.
To engage and educate young parents, the company also started a YouTube channel where they produced a lot of content to educate young parents about each and every concern that they could have while raising a baby.
Marketing Strategy – Amitabh Bachchan was hired by the brand as their official brand ambassador. He appeared in several of their ads which promoted various stuff like clothing, toys, accessories for kids.
They used a tagline named “Moms Gone Mad” which promoted the fact that they are offering so many discounts that moms might go mad. In another ad, they tried to convince parents that shopping for kids isn’t easy and a tagline was used “Bachchon ki Shopping, Bachchon ka khel nahi”.
Funding – FirstCry has so far raised a total of $428.4 million in funding over 8 rounds. Their latest funding was raised on February 7, 2020 from a series E round. They are funded by a total of 14 investors out of which 6 of them are lead investors. The major investors are as follows:-
- SAIF Partners
- Adveq
- Temasek Holdings
- New Enterprise
- Chiratae Ventures
- Valiant Capital Partners
- SoftBank
User Base & Valuation – FirstCry’s user base is quite strong if you consider the statistics. They have more than 7.5 million registered users, more than 5,800 brands and more than 2 lakhs+ products in their portfolio and a presence in over 125 cities by having 380 offline retail stores across India.
FirstCry valuation rose to $1.2 billion after they received $296 million in funding in February 2020. They finally became a unicorn after 10 years of starting their operations. The funding was raised from SoftBank.
Revenues & Losses – FirstCry saw their revenues increase by 68% to Rs 897 crores in FY20. This is a good jump from last year which was around Rs 535 crores in the fiscal year 2018-19 (FY19). During the same period, the company saw its expenses fall by 26% from Rs 1,468 crores in FY19 to Rs 1,088 crores in FY20. As a result, FirstCry has witnessed its net loss come down 83% from Rs 933 crores to Rs 191 crores.
Acquisitions – FirstCry has acquired 2 organizations which are as follows:-
- Oi Playschool
- BabyOye
BabyOye was a major acquisition as FirstCry paid $54 million for the company in 2016.
Controversy – Every major brand finds itself in at least one controversy but we did a lot of research about we are happy about the fact that so far, FirstCry didn’t find itself in any controversy. A brand that’s isn’t in any controversy in so much of a relief for their founders as today every now and then a brand is targeted for absurd reasons. We are talking about the “Myntra Logo”. We have seen a lot of hastags on twitter where people vent out their anger but luckily that’s not the case with FirstCry.
Present Conditions & Future Goals – FirstCry wants to keep up with their momentum and wants to further expand their business operations. They are expecting to launch an IPO in the next 2-3 years. Recently, FirstCry’s early backers are looking to sell about 7-9% stake in the baby and mother care products retailer for $180 million in a secondary transaction that will value the company at $2.1 billion. This will give the brand a good valuation and a head start to begin 2021 after a turbulent 2020.
Conclusion – Now that we have discussed everything, we can say that FirstCry looks quite promising in its approach and if it launches an IPO in the next 2 or 3 years, then it could also be on the verge of being profitable. It has all the bells and whistles that you would want from a brand that delivers on the promise of helping new parents to navigate their path to parenting in an easier way.
With both offline and online stores, multiple brands under its belt, tag of being a unicorn and being the next big thing in an industry that caters to new parents, it looks quite strong and we have high hopes from the brand in the present as well as the future.
