Former Myntra CEO and Medlife co-founder Ananth Narayanan’s new venture Mensa Brands has raised $50 million in a Series A funding round led by Accel Partners, Falcon Edge Capital, and Norwest Venture Partners, per a company statement.
The round also saw the participation of angel investors including Scott Shleifer of Tiger Global, Rahul Mehta of DST Global, Kunal Shah, and Mukesh Bansal, among others. Debt part of the financing was contributed by Alteria Capital and InnoVen Capital.
The startup will use the funds to invest in scale digital-first brands with revenues of Rs 10 – 70 crore per annum. Over the next three years, Mensa looks to acquire 50-plus brands across categories including home, garden, apparel, personal care and beauty.
“Scaling digital brands from India is a large opportunity. Incredibly excited and passionate about partnering with terrific founders and helping scale their brands globally. Having seen this first hand at Myntra and Medlife we know the effort it takes to scale a brand digitally – we will be a true trustee of your brand,” Ananth Narayanan, founder and CEO of Mensa Brands, said.
Mensa is an Indian version of American firm Thrasio which acquires third-party brands on Amazon. Ananth and his team bring in-house domain expertise in marketplace-native technology, data mining and digital marketing, category management and operations, brand building, and global expansion, per the statement.
For marketplaces, Mensa will bring a data-led approach, a better balance sheet and a focus on consumer experience with all of its brands that should help with overall NPS.