Mensa Brands picks majority stake in 10 digital-first consumer brands

Mensa Brands, an e-commerce rollup firm started by former Myntra CEO Ananth Narayanan, has acquired a majority stake in 10 brands across fashion, home and beauty.

Among the brands acquired include Karagiri (high-end, designer sarees), Priyaasi (traditional and contemporary jewellery brand), Dennis Lingo (men's casual wear brand), Ishin (women's ethnic wear brand), Hubberholme (affordable men’s casual wear brand), Anubhutee (women’s ethnic wear brand), Helea (smart home-device brand), and Villain (men’s personal care company).

These brands cater across five cities and serve millions of customers in India and around the world. Post this deal, founders of these brands and their teams will be a part of Mensa, the company said.

Earlier this week, Moneycontrol had exclusively reported that Mensa has inked deals- or Letter of Intents (LoIs) with about 25 sellers to acquire them, with some of the deals being as big as Rs 150- Rs 200 crore. Mensa didn't disclose the acquisition terms or the deal size.

The startup said it plans to acquire more than 50 digital-first brands across categories including home, garden, apparel, personal care, and beauty. It is currently in talks to raise about $200 million at a billion dollar valuation, less than six months after its inception, Moneycontrol exclusively reported on October 4. The company had earlier raised $50 million in an equity and debt round in May this year.

"We are committed to propelling their journey forward and working together to build global breakout brands from India. At Mensa, we are passionate about using technology to build digital brands that are rooted in bringing joy to our customers" Narayanan said.

Ecommerce roll-up firms, built solely to acquire other companies, have emerged as one of India’s hottest startup spaces. Over $500 million could be invested in the sector this year- most funding rounds based on acquisition timelines and nothing more. Another rollup firm GlobalBees, co-founded by FirstCry’s Supam Maheshwaris is in talks to raise $100 million led by SoftBank, Moneycontrol reported last week.

Mensa targets digital-first brands that have a revenue between $1 million and $10 million and claims to close end-to-end acquisitions within 4-6 weeks.

“Over the past couple of months working with Mensa, we have already started increasing our sales by working together on growth, supply chain and marketing, leveraging working capital, data, technology and the team’s e-commerce experience," said Ishin founder Charu Agarwal.

Mensa has offices in Bengaluru, Mumbai and Gurugram and plans to scale its team across areas such as growth, product, finance among others in the coming months.