July 2, 2024: Omnichannel Beauty Platform Purplle has secured Rs 1,000 crore in a funding, for building a sustainable and profitable business. The company spots disruptive brands, and partners with them for consumer value creation.
The latest investment round involves a combination of primary and secondary shares. The Mumbai-based firm also announced an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) liquidity programme, offering Rs 50 crore in liquidity to its employees.
So far, it has granted ESOPs to 320 employees, with 85 of them having liquidated ESOPs worth Rs 75 crore through three buyback programmes.
Furthermore, in the Tier II and III cities, the firm grew its Gross Merchandise Value by approximately 4X over the past three years. Gross merchandises value (GMV) is the total value of merchandise sold over a given period of time through a customer-to-customer (C2C) exchange site. It is a measure of the growth of the business or use of the site to sell merchandise owned by others.
“It is our mission to democratise beauty and make it accessible to all, and while we have reached many beauty enthusiasts across India, we still have a long way to go,” Manish Taneja, Co-founder and CEO of Purplle said, adding that the firm is pursuing its vision of “building a sustainable and profitable business”.
Purplle to scale offline stores
Purplle stated that it is operationally profitable and expects to grow its online platform while scaling offline stores.
“We will constantly innovate and leverage our technology and data capabilities to provide our customers with the best omnichannel experience,” Taneja added. The beauty and grooming products marketplace became a unicorn, valued at $1.1 billion, following a $33 million Series E funding round in 2022.
Founded in 2012 by Manish Taneja and Rahul Das, Purplle is backed by investors including a wholly owned subsidiary of ADIA, Kedaara, Premji Invest, Sequoia Capital India, Goldman Sachs, Verlinvest, Blume Ventures, and Paramark Ventures.
The firm offers dedicated guides, tips on most common concerns faced in daily life and helps fix them.
In October 2023, JSW Ventures fully exited its shareholding in Purplle, selling to Manipal Education and Medical Group Family Office, achieving a 2.7X return. In FY23, Purplle reported an operating revenue of Rs 475 crore, up from Rs 219 crore the previous year, while its loss widened to Rs 230 crore from Rs 203 crore the year before.
The latest funding round was led by a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), with participation from other investors.
