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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 for providing baby care products to the masses.
Read more about FirstCry, how it was started, founders and team, growth, business model, challenges faced, funding, acquisitions, and competitors.
FirstCry - Company Highlights
- 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.
- Total Funding-$582 mn (March 2022)
- Revenue-$230.64 mn (Rs 1740 cr in FY21)
- Valuation-$1.9 bn (March 2021)
- Website-firstcry.com
About FirstCry 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 1200 international and Indian brands. 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 quality online shopping experience, fast and reliable delivery service, and prompt customer care.
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 B.Tech 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.
FirstCry - Startup Story
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 was following 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.
FirstCry - Name, Tagline and Logo
The name "FirstCry" was cleverly chosen and greatly adds to its marketing strategies. The name signifies the first cry of baby and the company significantly provides all of the baby essentials and other accessories for kids and babies.
FirstCry logo
"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 which 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. FirstCry runs a unique program through which it reaches over 70,000 parents each month by giving out a 'FirstCry Box'.
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 basic 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.
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 - Funding and Investors
FirstCry has raised a total of $741.4M in funding over 10 rounds. The latest funding of $313 million was raised on March 30, 2021 from a secondary market round and venture round.
The funding round worth $296 mn, which was led by Softbank in February 2020 made the popular kids and baby product marketplace a unicorn.
FirstCry Valuation
FirstCry was last valued at $1.9 billion and is one of India’s unicorns. It must be noted that the estimated value is based on projections made by FirstCry and there is no new valuation report corroborating the unicorn claims. Firstcry has raised $13 Mn (INR 95 Cr) in an equity funding round from pi Ventures through its opportunity fund I. TPG, ChrysCapital and Premji Invest - has invested around $315 million in Firstcry, valuing the baby products company at around $1.9 billion.
FirstCry - Growth and Revenue
FirstCry claims to be Asia's largest online store for baby and kids' products.
FirstCry has reported a 65.8% jump in its FY20 revenue, which grew from $73.59 million (INR 535 crore) FY 2019 to be $122.07 million (INR 887.5 crore) in FY 2020. In FY 2018, the revenue grew by 48.03% from $33.06 million (INR 240 Cr) in FY17 to $48.84 million(INR 355.2 Cr).
The company's revenue has undoubtedly grown year after year, besides, looking at the financials the company posted for FY21, we can conclude that the Supam Maheshwari-led company profited too. As per the reports dated April 4, 2022, the Pune-based baby and kids marketplace posted a profit of Rs 215.94 crore, which had last posted a loss worth Rs 190.8 crore. The consolidated revenue of the company this year, rose to Rs 1740 crore, thereby surging by 141.3%.
It is true that the expenses of the company increased too to become Rs 1645.3 crore from the Rs 1088.1 crore of expenses recorded by FirstCry in FY20.
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 Revenue of FirstCry?
The total revenue of FirstCry has been recorded at Rs 1740 crore in FY21.
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.
