Fri. Mar 29th, 2024

Bombay Shaving Company, a New Delhi-based firm which provides men’s personal care products, has raised ₹14 crore in a fresh funding round. The round was led by  Fireside Ventures — a new investor in the company.

Apart from Fireside, the company also witnessed participation from its existing investors S Ramadorai, former CEO at TCS; Pankaj Gupta, supply director at USL Diageo, and some senior executives at McKinsey & Co.

With new capital infusion, the firm is now looking forward to doubling down on its branding efforts. It will also spend money on new product development and expansion into offline sales channels like salons and supermarket chains. The company will also expand into facial grooming through products such as face moisturiser and face wash by next month.

Commenting on this funding round, Kanwaljit Singh, founder of Fireside Ventures, said,

We believe the market opportunity is tremendous as men have begun investing in the products they use and the ‘grab and go’ mindset is on the decline. With expansion into more categories and an aggressive sales team, there is enormous potential to build a large, premium brand for men’s products.

Founded in 2016 by Shantanu Deshpande, Bombay Shaving Company sells a premium range of shaving products including shaving brushes, razors, foam, post shave balms, shaving brush, towel, travel kits, etc.

As per the company, due to better rate of margins, it has been able to achieve five times growth in the topline, with an annualised revenue run rate of about ₹8 crore. It has also formed partnerships with BigBazaar and Affinity Salons and is now targeting a revenue run rate of ₹13-17 crore by the end of the year.

Industry estimates suggest that the men’s grooming category has grown over the last few years to account for 45% of the ₹70,000 crore grooming market in India in terms of usage.

By Jeet