FirstCry: The Largest Online Store for Baby and Kid Products!
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In the 90's kids could have never imagined the appeal of online shopping. Nor did anyone fathom that e-commerce would transform the concept of purchasing. Taking the online shopping spree one step further, Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha started FirstCry in 2010 to provide baby care products to the masses.
Read more about FirstCry, how it was started, owners and team, growth, business model, challenges faced, funding, and more.
FirstCry Company Details
| Startup Name | FirstCry |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Pune, India |
| Sector | Online Baby Products |
| Founders | Amitava Saha and Supam Maheshwari |
| Founded | September 2010 |
| Parent Organization | BrainBees Solutions Pvt Ltd. |
| Website | firstcry.com |
FirstCry - About and How it Works
FirstCry - Founders/Owners and Team
FirstCry - Startup Story
FirstCry - Name, Tagline and Logo
FirstCry - Business Model and Revenue Model
FirstCry - Shareholding
FirstCry - Funding and Investors
FirstCry - Growth and Revenue
FirstCry - Product and Service
FirstCry - IPO
FirstCry - Acquisitions
FirstCry - Startup Challenges
FirstCry - Competitors
FirstCry - About and How it Works
FirstCry is an online-cum-offline brand providing a wide range of products for babies, kids, and moms. The startup was born out of a desire to solve the problem of millions of parents in India not having access to the best brands and baby care products for their offspring. The product categories at firstcry.com comprise diapering, feeding and nursing, skin and health care, toys, clothes, footwear, fashion accessories, and much more.
Firstcry.com has a product inventory of more than 90,000 items from around 1,200 international and Indian brands as of 2016. Mattel, Ben10, Pigeon, Funskool, Hotwheels, Nuby, Farlin, Medela, Pampers, Disney, Barbie, Gerber, and Fisher-Price are some of them.
The company provides the best products and brands at reasonable prices, complemented by a quality online shopping experience, fast and reliable delivery service, and prompt customer care.
Rishabh Rathi
FirstCry - Founders/Owners and Team
FirstCry was founded by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha.
Supam Maheshwari
The CEO and co-founder of FirstCry, Supam Maheshwari is an IIM Ahmedabad graduate and an engineer from Delhi College of Engineering. He is a first-generation entrepreneur and has also co-founded XpressBees, one of the largest logistics companies in India. Before launching FirstCry, Supam was the co-founder and CEO of Brainvisa Technologies, one of the largest e-learning ventures in India.
Amitava Saha
Amitava Saha, the COO and co-founder of FirstCry, has a master's degree from IIM Lucknow and a BTech from IIT Varanasi. Saha also worked with Supam for the launch of XpressBees. Post XpressBees, they collaborated again for another exciting venture—FirstCry. It is India's finest online platform for baby care products.
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FirstCry - Startup Story/History
The seeds were sown in 2010 when the options for buying baby care and kids' products online were extremely limited in India. Supam, the co-founder and owner of FirstCry, would buy things for his son from the countries he visited for business trips. The situation made him realize the huge opportunity for an online platform in the Indian market that would give Indian parents access to the best baby care brands from across the globe. This is how Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha started FirstCry.
Startup Launch
FirstCry initially followed an inventory-based model wherein the venture was just shipping products across the country from its warehouses in Pune, Delhi, Bangalore, and Kolkata. After a few years, FirstCry started adding retailers to its platform and presented an opportunity for local retailers to sell their products on its website.
The company also has two private labels called BabyHug, which is into apparel for babies and kids, and CuteWalk, a footwear brand. FirstCry is now one of the largest online shopping platforms for kids and has over 350 franchised brick-and-mortar shops in more than 125 Indian cities, as per a news report from July 2023.
Vidhi Punamiya
FirstCry - Name, Tagline and Logo
The name "FirstCry" was cleverly chosen and greatly added to its marketing strategies. The name signifies the first cry of a baby and the company significantly provides all of the baby essentials and other accessories for kids and babies.
"Asia's favourite baby and kid's shopping platform", says the FirstCry tagline.
FirstCry - Business Model and Revenue Model
FirstCry works on an integrated hybrid business model that includes online platforms and offline stores. Apart from its massive online presence, the company also has over 400 stores including 350 franchise stores across India as of July 2023. FirstCry runs a unique program through which it reaches over 70,000 parents each month by giving out a 'FirstCry Box' as per the news report of the year 2022.
This program gives free gift boxes to new parents across 6,000 hospitals in the country as a token of congratulations on the birth of their child. The box contains necessities like diapers, baby lotion, baby oil, etc. from leading brands such as Mamy Poko and Libero. FirstCry has reached out to millions of parents across India through this initiative to date.
Avantika Bhardwaj
FirstCry - Shareholding
Patterns of FirstCry shareholding as of November 2023, retrieved from resource tracxn:
| FirstCry Shareholding | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Founder | 6.29% |
| Fund | 76.35% |
| Enterprise | 13.84% |
| Angel | 0.02% |
| Other People | 0.25% |
| ESOP | 3.25% |
FirstCry - Funding and Investors
FirstCry has raised a total of $793.7 million in funding over 11 rounds.
Here is a list of all the funding rounds witnessed by FirstCry:
| Date | Stage | Amount | Investor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 21, 2023 | Secondary Market | Rs 435 crore | - |
| Mar 30, 2021 | Secondary Market | $300 million | TPG, ChrysCapital and Premji Invest |
| Mar 30, 2021 | Venture Round | $13 million | Premji Invest |
| Feb 7, 2020 | Series E | $150 million | SoftBank Vision Fund |
| Jan 22, 2019 | Series E | $149.4 million | SoftBank Vision Fund |
| Oct 17, 2016 | Series D | $34 million | Vertex Ventures |
| Feb 6, 2016 | Series D | $26 million | Valiant Capital Partners |
| Feb 2, 2015 | Series D | $36 million | Valiant Capital Partners |
| Jan 21, 2014 | Series C | $15 million | Vertex Ventures |
| Feb 13, 2012 | Series B | $14 million | Chiratae Ventures, IDG Capital |
Rishabh Rathi
FirstCry - Growth and Revenue
FirstCry claims to be Asia's largest online store for baby and kids' products.
Let's look at some of the growth highlights of FirstCry:
- FirstCry has 2,00,000+ unique products and hosts 5,800+ brands as of 2023.
- It has around 380+ offline stores across India as of January 2020.
- 'FirstCry parenting' is India's largest community of parents. It sees around 15 million active users every month and the overall engagement on the platform stands at 450 Million+ as of 2023.
- The FirstCry app has more than 10 million downloads on Google Play Store and App Store.
- Mr. Amitabh Bachchan is the brand ambassador of FirstCry.
- FirstCry is serving 465 cities as of 2023.
Financials
| FirstCry Financials | FY22 | FY23 |
|---|---|---|
| Operating Revenue | INR 2401.2 crore | INR 5632.5 crore |
| Total Expenses | INR 2568 crore | INR 6315.6 crore |
| Cost of Material Consumed | INR 1572.1 crore | INR 3935.3 crore |
| Employee Benefit Expenses | INR 338.8 crore | INR 769.8 crore |
| Transportation Cost | INR 61 crore | INR 429.2 crore |
| Advertising Expenses | INR 268.6 crore | INR 416.4 crore |
| Net Loss/Profit | Loss of INR 78.6 crore | Loss of INR -486 crore |
In FY22, FirstCry reported an operating revenue of INR 2401.2 crore, while its total expenses amounted to INR 2568 crore. The costs included INR 1572.1 crore for materials, INR 338.8 crore for employee benefits, INR 61 crore for transportation, and INR 268.6 crore for advertising. This resulted in a net loss of INR 78.6 crore. In FY23, the company's operating revenue significantly increased to INR 5632.5 crore. However, total expenses also rose to INR 6315.6 crore. Consequently, FirstCry's net loss increased to INR 486 crore. Despite the substantial increase in revenue, the company's growing expenses led to a larger overall loss.
EBITDA
| FirstCry FY21-FY22 | FY21 | FY22 |
|---|---|---|
| EBITDA Margin | 9.47% | 3.89% |
| Expense/Rs of Op Revenue | Rs 1.03 | Rs 1.07 |
| ROCE | 2.57% | -0.25% |
FirstCry - Product and Service
ARIAS Kids
Lara Dutta and FirstCry collaborated to introduce ARIAS, launched on August 13, 2023, an eco-fashion clothing and accessory brand whose mission is to create fashionable, comfortable, and high-end products by translating current trends into fashion.
FirstCry - IPO
Ahead of the public listing of the company, FirstCry has been converted into a public company, as per news dated April 28, 2022. Following the conversion, the company has been named Brainbees Solutions Limited. Furthermore, the company also approved the reclassification and sub-division of equity and preference shares. Besides, it has also amended its ESOP plans. FirstCry would likely file its DRHP in the upcoming weeks, said an ET report. The company is looking to raise $1 billion via its upcoming IPO. As per the reports, only a fourth of the money raised by FirstCry will be going towards a fresh issue of equity, whereas the rest will be going towards an exit for the existing investors of the company. FirstCry might seek a valuation of $7 billion in this IPO.
Though many companies like PharmEasy, Delhivery, MobiKwik, and OYO, would have seen their IPOs had not the Paytm and CarTrade IPO flopped so badly, However, FirstCry looking for an IPO looks more promising than many of them. It is also important to note that, unlike most others, FirstCry is a profitable company indeed. Mahindra Retail, owned 10.48% of FirstCry, while Mahindra Engineering and Chemical Products, another Mahindra subsidiary, held 3.11% preference shares in the startup in 2021. Being motivated to sell its stakes in FirstCry parent, BrainBees, Mahindra Retail has got the board approval to sell up to 2% of its stakes in BrainBees, via an Offer For Sale (OFS), which will be a part of the sale of its shares during the IPO of the company. Mahindra initially acquired BabyOye and merged it with FirstCry, and it was then that the company picked up a minority stake in BrainBees.
Nadeesh Kareemdathil
FirstCry - Acquisitions
FirstCry has acquired two organizations. The recent acquisition was Oi Playschool on November 28, 2019. FirstCry Oi Playschool is a chain of premium playschools focusing on safety, security, and hygiene.
In 2016, BrainBees Solution-owned FirstCry acquired Mumbai-based BabyOye for $54 million. BabyOye is an e-commerce portal dealing in pregnancy, infant care, and mother care products in India.
| Acquired | Date | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Babyoye | October 2016 | $54 million |
| Oi Playschool | November 2019 | - |
FirstCry - Startup Challenges
- The baby care segment in India is huge and promising. But the challenge lies in the fact that the market is really unorganized.
- Like any other business, staying relevant for consumers is imperative. Hence, the FirstCry team has to work on its toes to launch innovative and exciting strategies for its consumers.
FirstCry - Competitors
The company has a huge market presence. FirstCry and baby care have become synonymous to some extent. Thus, FirstCry does not have direct competition but online portals like Myntra and Amazon may pose some resistance to the company's online base. FirstCry's offline stores may face competition from local vendors and shopkeepers.
FAQs
Who is the Brand Ambassador of FirstCry?
Amitabh Bachchan is the brand ambassador of FirstCry.
How much is the operating revenue of FirstCry?
The total operating revenue of FirstCry has been recorded at INR 5632.5 crore in FY23.
Who is the owner of FirstCry or who started FirstCry?
FirstCry was founded by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha.
Who are the Top Competitors of FirstCry?
Kraftly, Snapdeal, BeiBei , Myntra, and Amazon are some prominent competitors of FirstCry.
Is FirstCry an Indian company?
FirstCry is an Indian online store for baby products. It was launched in the year 2010.
