FirstCry's Parent Firm BrainBees Solutions Refiles For IPO With Additional KPI Disclosure

Online retailer BrainBees Solutions Pvt., the parent firm of e-commerce platform FirstCry, has re-filed preliminary papers for its initial public offering after SEBI sought additional information and sent back its initial set of documents, an update with the market's regulator showed on Monday.

SEBI directed the refiling, citing insufficient disclosure of key performance indicators, according to two people familiar with the matter. According to the fresh draft herring prospectus, the Pune-based company's IPO size has remained unchanged. The company filed additional information, reporting a net loss of Rs 278 crore on operating revenue of Rs 4,814 crore for the nine months ended December 2023.

According to the most recent key operating metrics, the company has 88 lakh annual unique transacting customers, with orders totaling 2.67 crore, while the average order value rose to Rs 2,554 from Rs 2,482.

The company further added that around 77% of the company's total sales came through online mediums and the remaining 23% through offline stores, as per the latest draft papers.

Its IPO is a combination of a fresh issue of equity shares totaling Rs 1,816 crore and an offer-for-sale of up to 5.44 crore shares by existing shareholders. SVF Frog, which is a Cayman Islands-registered entity of Softbank, will sell 2.03 crore equity shares of BrainBees Solutions Ltd., and Mahindra & Mahindra will offload 28.06 lakh shares of the company under the OFS.

While Softbank holds a 25.55% stake in the multi-brand retailing platform, Mahindra & Mahindra owns 10.98% of the company. The others that will be selling shares in the OFS are TPG, PI Opportunities Fund, NewQuest Asia Investments, Valiant Mauritius, Think India Opportunities Fund, Apricot Investments, TIMF Holdings, and Schroders Capital.

FirstCry says it will use a major part of the proceeds of Rs 648 crore to fuel its expansion, including setting up new modern stores, a warehouse and lease payments for its existing identified modern stores in India. It will also use the funds for subsidiary investment, acquisition of stakes in indirect subsidiaries, and sales and marketing initiatives.

Launched in 2010, FirstCry sells a wide range of products for babies, kids and mothers through online and physical stores. It has raised about $425 million to date, and it became a unicorn in 2020 when SoftBank invested around $300 million.