In India’s fastest unicorn story, Mensa Brands, founded by Ananth Narayanan, has entered the Unicorn club in just six months after raising $135 million in Series B funding.
The Thrasio style startup that houses and acquires and invests in online-first brands announced its Series B fundraise. The round was led by Alpha Wave Ventures of Falcon Edge Capital with participation from all existing investors – Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Tiger Global Management.
Prosus Ventures (Naspers) also invested in Mensa in this latest funding round. Mensa has raised a total of more than $300 million in equity and debt since starting its journey in May this year.
“We are grateful for the confidence from our investors and our brand partners. Our deep focus on technology and digital brand building has allowed us to grow three times of our initial plan and we at Mensa Brands are primed to build global breakout brands from India,” said Ananth Narayanan, founder and CEO of Mensa Brands.
“I am especially proud that women founders lead more than 50 percent of our brands and that Mensa supports small- and medium-sized businesses across the country,” added Narayanan.
Mensa Brands digital-first approach
Mensa Brands was founded in May 2021 with a vision to partner and invest in digital-first brands across fashion and apparel, home and garden, beauty and personal care and food and scale them exponentially.
Mensa Brands works closely with founding teams to accelerate growth on marketplaces through the brand’s websites and global platforms by using a combination of initiatives across product, pricing, marketing, distribution, and brand building with a technology platform at the core.
The startup builds global digital-first brands from India by partnering with the right entrepreneurs, investing in the business, and bringing our expertise to bear to scale the brand. The founding team has a combined experience of over 100 years in Indian and global e-commerce.
Currently, the company houses 12 brands across three key categories-fashion, home & beauty and personal care. The founder is former Myntra and Medlife CEO.
