Know What Made Mensa Brands India's Fastest Unicorn?

For any startup, attaining unicorn status (a $1 billion valuation) is incredibly remarkable. However, it's not an easy task. Creating a distinctive product or service, assembling a motivated team, obtaining funding, gaining clientele, and, most crucially, scaling up, are all very challenging tasks. There are some unique Indian startups, though, that make it look so simple.

Mensa Brands, based in Bengaluru, is the fastest Indian startup to become a unicorn in its first six months. a remarkable achievement! We shed light on the company's ambition for altering brands across India and becoming profitable in this intriguing endeavor in this post.

Know What Made Mensa Brands India's Fastest Unicorn?

Origin of Mensa Brands

Ananth Narayanan, the former CEO of Myntra and co-founder of the online healthcare platform Medlife, set out to create a new business in May 2021: a "house of brands." He observed that the majority of early-stage firms or startups in India's fashion and beauty industries were unable to implement the appropriate business growth plans. Many businesses failed because they were unable to market their goods, control inventory, or increase sales.

Narayanan believed he possessed the knowledge and relationships necessary to scale brands and design merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions. His four years at Myntra contributed to the development of a corporate vision for collaboration and investment with digital-first firms in the fields of fashion, cosmetics, and some fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). He made calls to his friends and created a plan of action. Mensa Brands was created as a result!

What exactly does Mensa Brands do?

Mensa investigates emerging companies and businesspeople in the fashion, beauty, and personal care industries. They would choose companies with stable revenue sources and an expanding consumer base.

Once a deal or business plan has been reached, it will buy a majority (51%) ownership in the brands.

The founding team or designers of these businesses then collaborate with Mensa Brands to carry out large-scale operations. Mensa will support brands in managing and growing their product offers across all significant markets and on their official digital platforms.

Mensa would help firms by imparting its knowledge of technology, supply chain management, e-commerce, and digital marketing.

They help tech-driven product development firms by locating a product that potential clients are interested in. Based on their results, Mensa will assist these firms in launching a new product line.

Mensa's Capital & Investors

Mensa Brands is the fastest Indian firm to achieve unicorn status in November 2021 after raising $135 million at a valuation of approximately $1.2 billion! Leading equity investors including Tiger Global Management, Falcon Edge Capital, Accel, and Norwest Venture Partners support the company. Angel investors in Mensa include Kunal Shah of Credit and Mukesh Bansal of cult.fit.Mensa executives,Mensa's business strategy,

Over the course of six rounds, Mensa Brands has raised a total of $187 million (1,540 crore).

Mensa Brands' Rapid Development

Mensa Brands first struggled to approach brands with an unfamiliar notion and establish trust with them. Imagine that a new businessperson was calling them from a number they had never heard of before. Mensa executives essentially discussed with founders taking over the company they toiled so hard to build from the ground up.

But over time, a lot of businesses came to appreciate the specifics of Mensa's business strategy and the knowledge they would contribute.

By October 2021, Mensa has acquired ten new-age brands for 51-75% of each! Additionally, if specific milestones are reached over the course of five years, it will have the chance to buy the remaining interest in these businesses/brands. Therefore, once the brand valuations increase under Mensa's skilled guidance, its founders could easily exit with millions in their pockets!

The average income for these ten brands is between 25 and 35 crore. Ananth Narayanan claims that these brands have had 70–80% annual growth. Over the next five years, they are anticipated to increase by at least 10 times! Outside of India, consumers may find more than half of Mensa's brands in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Singapore, and UAE.

Mensa Brands declared its profitability in June 2022, estimating that its first 12 months of business will generate revenues of 1,500 crore. It has grown to be the biggest direct-to-consumer (D2C) tech-driven brand house in India. Around 20 fashion, beauty, and leisure brands are now supported by Mensa. And women are in charge of over 80% of them.

Also Read: Local Success Stories Learn About 5 Successful Indian Startups

Mensa’s Mission and Vision 

The goal of Mensa Brands is to scale more digital-first brands through partnerships and investments. The business will use the capital it has available to expand its operations, marketing, and technology teams and accelerate expansion. Nearly 60 people work for the company, which hopes to grow that number to 150–200 over the course of the upcoming year.

Mensa intends to purchase more than 50 brands in the home, garden, fashion, personal care, and cosmetics categories over the next two to three years. They want some of their current brands to become well-known names! Mensa will intensify digital marketing operations for businesses by growing its influencer and social media networks. The business plan of the startup has created fresh possibilities for potential e-commerce growth!

The Indian e-commerce business is getting more and more cutthroat. There may be hundreds of viable brands, and each one's success would depend on its ability to successfully scale and raise money. Let's hope that Mensa can help more companies reach new heights in business! What do you think about this startup? Please let us know in the marketfeed app's comments section.