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Online beauty service provider BigStylist is planning to close its Series A round by raising about $4 million (₹25 crore) from a new set of financial investors, with a valuation of ₹150 crore.
The less than two-year-old start-up has already raised $2 million from listed company Info Edge, and is now approaching VC funds for expanding operations and developing cosmetics under its own brand name.
Chinmaya Sharma, co-founder of BigStylist, said: “We are looking for a valuation of ₹150 crore to raise between $2-4 million to close our Series A round with a 20 per cent stake sale. We now want to take our services to cities like Hyderabad, Ahmedabad and NCR. Competition is toned down in the smaller cities and we want to cater to the migrant populations in such cities who prefer to use beauty services at home.”
Funds raisedBigStylist has so far raised $2 million from Info Edge as part of seed and pre Series A rounds with a valuation of about ₹50 crore.
“Last year we sold 25 per cent stake in BigStylist to Info Edge, which has already invested $2 million in our start-up. This time we are approaching VCs and intend selling an additional 20 per cent stake with a valuation which should be four-to-six times more in the next 3-4 months since we want to close our Series A,” added Sharma.
Info Edge is a Noida-based company, which has already invested behind start-ups like food tech player Zomato, coupons site Mydala, online insurance policy aggregator PolicyBazaar, e-learning firm Meritnation, and online photography start-up Canvera Digital Technologies.
With presence in Mumbai and Pune, BigStylist is now planning to extend its services to develop personal care products in skin and hair. “We are in talks with FMCG companies for product development since we want to get into R&D for making formulations,” he added.
Of late, FMCG companies like Marico has invested behind the Mumbai-based start-up like Bellezimo to enter the salon distribution channel.
Going forward BigStylist plans to develop cosmetics and products for styling, weight loss and skincare, which would be adjacent and add to its current business of beauty services.
“We intend getting into adjacent businesses with a range of personal care products. We also can provide our own data to FMCG companies for developing products for categories like foot care and skincare,” he added.
Competing with a host of other beauty service start-ups like MyGlamm and horizontal players like House Joy and Urban Clap, BigStylist is a relatively new player having started operations last year. “Today we have revenues of ₹5 crore but we plan to take it up to ₹450 crore in the next five years,” added Sharma.
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