Accel leads Series C top-up for India's MyGlamm
Accel has led a Series C top-up for MyGlamm, an India-based direct-to-consumer (DTC) beauty products marketplace, taking the overall round to INR5.3 billion ($71.1 million).
The company secured an initial Series C tranche of INR1.75 billion in March from Amazon, Ascent Capital, and Wipro. Accel has now come in with an additional INR3.55 billion, in what MyGlamm claims is one of the largest growth equity checks written by the investor in India.
Bessemer Venture Partners, L’Occitane, Trifecta, Stride Ventures, and the Mankekar family also participated, while Ascent and Amazon re-upped, according to a statement.
MyGlamm is looking to establish itself as a master brand concept, a strategy adopted by several Indian DTC beauty marketplaces as they launch private-label brands. Nykaa and Purplle both fall into this category. TPG-backed Nykaa is preparing for an IPO, while Purplle received $45 million in Series D funding earlier this year at a valuation of $300 million.
More recently, local personal care brand Mamaearth secured $50 million in funding at a valuation of $730 million, led by Sofina and Sequoia Capital India. The company plans to build out its brand portfolio – partly through acquisitions – and expand offline distribution capabilities.
Founded in 2017 by Darpan Sanghvi, MyGlamm offers more than 800 stock-keeping units (SKUs). While primarily an online operator, 40% revenue comes through 15,000 physical points of sale operated by third parties, Sanghvi told Techcrunch.
Last year, MyGlamm acquired POPxo, a VC-backed women-focused content platform. In addition to producing content on beauty, health, and lifestyle issues, the company runs Plixxo, a marketing platform comprising thousands of online influencers. POPxo has 60 million monthly active users and effectively brings down MyGlamm’s customer acquisition costs.
“The reason we have been able to build this is because we are truly direct to consumers. This allows us to communicate very directly with them,” Sanghvi said. “The content to the commerce engine has become our biggest moat. We are acquiring 250,000 new users each month without spending any real money.”
The new capital will go towards data science and technology research, broadening the reach and content creation capabilities of POPxo, and expanding the company’s offline footprint.
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