New Delhi-based men’s grooming startup Bombay Shaving Company (BSC) has raised ₹45 crores ($6.3 million) in a fresh funding round led by India’s first consumer-centric venture fund Sixth Sense Ventures, reported ET.
The round also saw participation from the startup’s existing investor Colgate Palmolive Asia Pacific.
Following the latest round, around 30 angel investors and a clutch of early employees of BSC made successful exits with as much as sixfold return on their investments.
Among these angel investors were 16 partners from McKinsey including Noshir Kaka and Gautam Kumra. Other angels included the likes of former TCS Director S Ramadorai, former CEO of Tech Mahindra Kiran Deshpande and OYO‘s Head of Strategy Maninder Gulati.
Freshly infused capital will be used for brand building, product development and expansion.
Talking about future plans, Shantanu Deshpande, Founder and CEO of BSC, said, “As an omnichannel brand, BSC will focus on expanding its current offline footprint of 3,000 stores to 10,000 stores in the coming months.”
Founded by Shantanu Deshpande, Deepu Panicker, Raunak Munot and Rohit Jaiswal in 2015, BSC is an omnichannel men’s grooming brand selling products across categories like shave, beard, bath and skin through its online platform and offline stores. The brand is looking to target an annualised turnover of ₹100 crores by the next year.
Last year in November, BSC had raised an undisclosed amount of funds from Colgate Palmolive and Fireside Ventures.
According to a recent report, Men’s grooming market in India is expected to cross $1.2 billion by 2024 growing at over 11% CAGR from $643 million in 2018. With rising disposable incomes and focus on men’s grooming picking up pace in India, there is a unique opportunity for grooming startups in India.
With Amazon and Flipkart making their way into grooming sector in India, BSC has a tough competition ahead of them. Apart from these Indian ecommerce giants, other emerging Indian startups competing with BSC in the space include Beardo, Ustra, Happily Unmarried and The Man Company, among many others.
Earlier this year, Indian actor Ayushmann Khurana invested in The Man Company.