FirstCry, the largest e-commerce platform in India for mother and baby items, is planning to generate $218 million by selling new shares in its initial public offering. This is about a third of the $700 million it initially aimed to achieve.
Brainbees Solutions, the parent company of FirstCry, an online marketplace for baby products, stated in a draft prospectus that was submitted to the local market regulator that some investors, including SoftBank, NewQuest, and TPG, want to sell certain shares as part of the initial public offering (IPO).
According to an individual acquainted with the situation, the business aims for a value of about $4 billion, a decrease from its earlier objective of $6 billion from the previous year. FirstCry stated pricing had not been determined in its draft prospectus. Several companies, including Kotak Mahindra Capital, Morgan Stanley, BofA Securities India, and JM Financial, have been designated book-running lead managers for the initial public offering.
FirstCry, established in 2010, intends to put the profits from the initial public offering (IPO) toward establishing additional stores and warehouses, sales and marketing activities, investments in domestic and international expansion, technological expenditures, and inorganic growth through acquisitions. FirstCry provides more than one million stock-keeping units (SKUs) from over six thousand eight hundred brands. This covers essential third-party brands from India and other countries and FirstCry’s home brands, such as BabyHug and Babyoye.
Furthermore, the firm operates 180 preschools across India under FirstCry Intellitots. With the establishment of FirstCry online platforms in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, Brainbees has also expanded its operations worldwide. Additionally, in 2021, it acquired controlling ownership of GlobalBees.
Over the fiscal year ending in March 2023, FirstCry stated that its total income had increased to $688.4 million, more than doubling the previous year’s total income of $302 million over the same period. A year earlier, the company’s losses were $9.4 million, but by the fiscal year ending in March of this year, they had swelled to a staggering $58.3 million.
