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Homegrown grooming brand Bombay Shaving Company is in advanced talks with an international group of investors to raise a fresh round of funding. It is also gearing up to launch new brands to expand its presence in the personal care space, in line with evolving consumer trends.
The grooming brand, which was founded in October 2015, has so far raised about ₹80 crore from Colgate Palmolive, Sixth Sense Venture Partners, Fireside Ventures and other prominent angel investors. This will be the brand’s fifth round of funding, including the initial angel funding round.
Shantanu Deshpande, CEO and founder, Bombay Shaving Company, said that the rapid acceleration in adoption of digital platforms by consumers during the pandemicfor personal care product purchases helped the company witness strong growth trends. “We also ventured into a completely new category with the launch of grooming products for women earlier this year. These have already emerged as among our top selling products,” he added.
The start-up closed FY20 with gross annualised revenues of ₹40 crore. “We have seen a huge jump and expect to close FY21 with gross annualised revenues of ₹105 crore,” he added.
Branching out
The personal care firm is also sharply focussing on profitable growth with more efficient cost and supply chain management. At the same time, it is looking to launch new brands to strengthen its presence in both male and female grooming segments while also venturing into hygiene products.
“We are looking to launch a new brand in the sanitisation products space. The sanitisers segment is fast-evolving in the country. We feel there is huge opportunity for growth for a “softer” or “less chemical-heavy” yet effective range of sanitiser products,” Deshpande added.
It also plans to launch another men’s grooming brand targeted at younger male consumers. At the same time the company, will also look at strengthening its presence in the women’s grooming segment. “We have a good equity among women consumers and we want to translate that equity by offering more solutions to them in the hair removal, shaving and personal care space. So we could look at launching a separate brand for this and scale it up,” he added.
Meanwhile, the brand is also looking to ramp up its presence in offline stores. “As a brand we have been focusing on an omni-channel strategy and expanding access to our products across physical stores is a critical focus for us,” Deshpande added.
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