Bombay Shaving Company raises Rs 50 crore from GII; to enter Middle East

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Bombay Shaving Company on Friday said it has raised Rs 50 crore from Gulf Islamic Investments (GII), which will help it gain access to the Middle East region.

The company, which is into personal care and hair removal, recently had a Rs 160 crore fund infusion and the latest one takes the overall quantum of money raised in this round to Rs 210 crore, as per an official statement.

"We love the company’s focus on hair removal and personal care as a category. It is a deep market, there is a first mover advantage and the company has demonstrated strengths in building innovative products,” co-chief executives of GII Pankaj Gupta and Mohammed Alhassan said in a statement.

Without disclosing the current revenues, the statement said the company is targeting to scale operations to have a top line of Rs 500 crore top line in the next two years, and will deploy the funds towards expanding its portfolio of personal care and hair removal products.

In 2016, Bombay Shaving Company (BSC) started as a premium direct-to-consumer and experiential shaving regimen brand.

It has since expanded into diverse hair removal categories, the statement said, adding it ventured into catering for women in 2020.

"As we scale from Rs 150 crore to Rs 500 crore and Rs 1,000 crore, we needed an investor group that could guide us on building an IPO-able company,” said Shantanu Deshpande, founder CEO of BSC, said.

The statement said the Series C is the 6th round of financing for the company that counts Reckitt, Colgate Palmolive, Sixth Sense Venture Partners, and former TCS head S Ramadorai and 16 senior partners from McKinsey & Company as investors.