Bengaluru, May 31
E-commerce roll-up unicorn Mensa Brands plans to acquire 20 more brands as it targets ₹3,000-crore net revenue run rate in the next year
In the past year, Mensa acquired 20 brands and reached a net revenue run rate of ₹1,500 crore and became profitable. As the number of options for D2C brands to get capital is going down in the current market, Mensa expects the acquisition opportunities to increase for a strategic investor like them.
“We have a lot of dry powder (cash reserves), and are in the market looking for great brands to partner with. Given the market downturn, I think there will be better brands open to a strategic investment from Mensa, which may not have wanted to do something like this earlier,” Ananth Narayanan, Founder & CEO of Mensa Brands, told BusinessLine,
Narayanan added that a portfolio of brands model like Mensa is more efficient than individual brands. For instance, if 20 brands set up 20 warehouses it is not as efficient but if there are 4 warehouses for 20 brands, then efficiency is much better.
Partner brands
Leveraging a combination of levers across product, pricing, marketing, distribution, and brand building, Mensa works closely with partner brands to accelerate growth on both marketplaces and D2C channels in India and globally. Mensa is said to have grown 80 per cent organically y-o-y in India.
Further, 10 out of 20 brands under Mensa have been selling outside India across the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Singapore, and UAE. In terms of revenue, 20 per cent of Mensa Brand’s revenue comes from outside India. The company currently has 700 employees across its three central offices (Bangalore, Mumbai, and Gurgaon) and plans to hire another 700 people across tech, operations, category roles in the coming year. On IPO plans, Narayanan said that Mensa is 2-3 years away from a public listing as it is still a young company.
The company is backed by marquee global investors including Accel Partners, Falcon Edge Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Prosus, and Tiger Global Management. It has also secured debt financing from Alteria Capital, InnoVen Capital, Oxyzo, Stride Ventures, and TradeCred.