Sunday, 28 December 2014

Mahindra Group to buy BabyOye

Mahindra Partners, the emerging business arm of the diversified conglomerate Mahindra Group is in talks to acquire online portal BabyOye. The acquisition is likely to be made through Mahindra Retail. Mahindra already runs a chain of baby-care stores i.e. Mom & Me.

BabyOye is a four-year-old portal founded by Nadkarni and his wife and is backed by Accel Partners, Helion Venture Partners, and Tiger Global Management. The three investors have infused Rs 90 Crore into the venture. The portal selling diapers, kid’s apparel, toys, and maternity care products had clocked a GMV of Rs 5 Crore last month and expect to hit annual revenues of Rs 250 Crore by 2015.
In terms of hybrid presence, another player FirstCry leads BabyOye; it has tied up with 500 brands and is currently offering over 70,000 products. It has 50 branded franchise stores across 45 cities and expects to grow this network to 100 stores. This year it raised $15 Million in series C round funding. First cry’s investors include Vertex Venture Management, IDG Ventures India, and Saif Partners.

The recent deals in this space were, online baby products store Hopscotch had acquired school supplier e-tailer SkoolShop. Kids wear manufacturer Indian clothing league had raised Rs 50 crore in first round of funding from ASK Pravi PE Opportunities Fund. FirstCry, an online portal for baby products was raising $15 Million from Singaporean sovereign fund Vertex venture holding.

The domestic baby and children care products market, which includes apparel, footwear, toys, and baby cosmetics, is growing in sync with the retail industry growth, and is estimated to grow at a CAGR of around 17% during 2012-2017% to $26.2 Billion from $11.8 Billion in 2012. Market size for baby, kids, and maternity products is estimated at INR 40,000 Crore annually growing at 15-20% a year.

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