When I first met the Purplle.com founders some 6 years ago , I was wondering how these techies would make an impact in the makeup industry . IvyCap ventures , a private Equity fund founded by Vikram Gupta was an early investor in Purplle.com. I continue as a Board adviser in the fund since inception and over the last 6 years have witnessed how Manish and Rahul , founders of the company have worked with lots of conviction on their digital strategy . They have built a number of homegrown brands while selling top beauty brands through their web site. They have made cosmetics and beauty products available to an entirely under serviced customer segment in the tier II and tier III cities of India other than the major metros.
Today Purplle.com has over six million users and three million monthly active visitors. It has over 700 brands with nearly 50,000 products available online.
For IvyCap it was a great investment from our first fund . We invested about $ 2 million in 2015 and this week we exited our entire shareholding of the first fund with a 22x return. In fact our whole fund and more has got returned just with this one investment .
There is no doubt that the founders played a stellar role in growing the company . There are many others from IvyCap and outside who have significantly contributed in guiding the founders and the company over the last few years. with a war chest of over $70 million , the company is doing well in growing their business and is likely to become another Indian unicorn in the near future.
Thanks and have a nice day.
Hari
Simplicity with substance
www.bhari.com