Purplle seeks $100 million from an internal raise at $800 million value

Mumbai: Online beauty and personal care products retailer Purplle has held talks with its existing investors to raise $75-100 million, giving it a pre-investment valuation of about $800 million, four people aware of the development said.

The Mumbai-based company will raise the money largely from its existing investors Verlinvest, Kedaara Capital and Premji Invest, among others, they said.

“This is part of the capital that was already committed to the company. There might be a couple of new investors, but it will largely be an internal round,” one of the persons cited earlier said.


A spokesperson for Purplle said in an emailed response to ET’s query that the company would not be able to comment at this point.

In November last year, Purplle had raised $60 million from Premji Invest, the family office of Wipro founder-chairman Azim Premji, pushing up its valuation to $630 million. Weeks prior to that, it had mopped up $75 million from Kedaara Capital, taking its funding.

Last year, Purplle had acquired cosmetics and skincare brand Faces Canada. After the acquisition, the company is expected to have clocked Rs 750 crore in combined revenue. Sequoia Capital has invested in both the companies.

he talks for financing come at a time when risk investors have turned cautious and most of the larger fundraises are on hold amid tapering valuations.

Larger rival Nykaa's initial public offering (IPO) last year fuelled a rush among investors to capture the beauty ecommerce segment. Other horizontal ecommerce players like Flipkart's Myntra have amped up their beauty category. Purplle also competes with the likes of house of brands platfroms like the Good Glamm Group.

Purplle is looking at multiple other tuck-in acquisitions and will use the capital to fund its inorganic growth plans, a person with direct knowledge of the development told ET.

Purplle was founded in 2012 by Manish Taneja and Rahul Dash. Its beauty brands include Good Vibes, NY Bae and Purplle. The company has a catalogue of more than 1,000 brands and 50,000 offerings across categories, including makeup, skincare, haircare, personal care, fragrances, and grooming appliances.

In December last year, the company had said it expects to end the financial year 2022 with an annualised gross merchandise value (GMV) run rate of Rs 1,400 crore.

According to the company’s filings, it incurred a loss of Rs 51.26 crore in the financial year ending March 31, 2021. It had posted a loss of Rs 24.69 crore in the previous year.

India’s beauty and personal care segment has seen heightened investor interest in the last 12-18 months. Last week, Wow Skin Care raised $90 million from GIC. As reported by ET earlier, the Good Glamm Group is in talks to raise $200 million in a funding round that would value it at $2 billion. Others such as Sugar Cosmetics and Mamaearth have also recently mopped up capital from risk investors.