E-commerce roll-up company Mensa Brands has raised $40 million or Rs 332 crore in debt funding from EvolutionX, a leading debt financing platform for growth-stage companies.
The development comes two months after it announced that it will feature three of its brands on multiple buyer-side apps of the government-backed ecommerce protocol, Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC).
Ananth Narayanan, founder & CEO of Mensa Brands, said, “We are excited to partner with long-term marquee investors like EvolutionX. In the last 2 years, we have profitably scaled more than 20 brands across beauty & FMCG, fashion, home and consumer electronics.”
Ananth said the raised capital would be used to continue building consumer-loved brands for the next-generation of India.
Mensa Brands turning unicorn
Mensa Brands is the fastest startup that turned unicorn within six months of its inception. In November 2021, Mensa Brands raised $135 million at a valuation of more than $1 billion. The Series B round was led by Alpha Wave Global, Tiger Global Management, Prosus, Norwest Venture Partners, and Accel.
“We are looking to build a global tech house of brands. We’re trying to genuinely see if we can build a new age house of brands. It has been a good strong start for us, and have partnered with 12 brands already. All of the 12 brands we have on our portfolio are growing at a 100 percent year-on-year,” Ananth Narayanan told YourStory in November 2021.
Following this, the company raised Rs 300 crore in debt in February 2023 from TradeCred, a trade credit platform that provides financial services.
What does Mensa Brands do?
Launched in 2021, Mensa partners and invests in digital-first brands across fashion and apparel, home and garden, beauty and personal care and food and helps them scale their growth exponentially.
The company claims to have partnered with 25 brands across fashion, home, beauty, and FMCG under its portfolio. It builds digital-first brands by partnering and investing in the business and bringing expertise and technology to scale the brands.
In late December 2022, Mensa Brands acquired MensXP, iDiva, and creator management and marketing company Hypp from Times Internet for an undisclosed amount.
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