Chandigarh-based personal care and grooming startup LetsShave recently announced that it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Wipro Consumer Care Ventures, the venture capital fund of Wipro Consumer Care and Lighting. Existing investor Dorco also participated in the funding round.
Although there is no confirmation by the company, media reports suggested that with the latest round of funding, LetsShave has so far raised ₹30Cr in funding.
According to a company press release, Wipro acquired a minority stake in the company and has signed an agreement to invest in the company. Further, a 60-year old Korean razor manufacturing company Dorco, which is an existing partner of the company, also increased its stake from 10% to 15% in the company.
It is being said that the company will use these funds to expand its shaving and personal care product portfolio, bolster its online presence by growing the revenue by at least 3X and leverage Wipro’s touchpoints to expand into the offline market.
Talking about future plans of the company, LetsShave’s CMO Asawari Pawar said, “We will effectively utilize the funds to expand our shaving and personal care product portfolio, bolster our online presence by growing our revenue by at least 3X and leverage Wipro’s touchpoints to expand into the offline market.”
“In the women’s shaving market, we have grown a lot faster than we initially thought, so we also plan to expand our women’s product portfolio under the brand LetsShave ‘Evior’ in an effort to continue to drive growth overall” she added.
LetsShave was founded in 2015 by Sidharth Oberoi. The brand started off as a brand catering to men’s grooming products, but today it caters to both men and women with more than twenty grooming products which include — shaving kits, trial kits, blades, shaving foams, scrubs, shaving brushes and exclusive products such as 6-blade razor with trimmers.
Thanking the investors, Sidharth S Oberoi, founder of LetsShave said, “We had started our journey four years ago and have made a strong presence with huge acceptance from our consumers for our products. We are excited to partner with Wipro who has a deep understanding of Indian consumers.”
“With their support, we plan to chart a strong growth trajectory and are committed to making LetsShave a sustainable and responsible one-stop solution provider for shaving systems, personal care and grooming for men and women,” he added.
Talking about the investment, Sumit Keshan, Managing Partner, Wipro Consumer Venture, said, “LetsShave offers high-quality products and is a challenger brand in a space dominated by a single large player. They are a promising team and have the ability to understand consumer requirements, identify opportunities, and meet them in quick cycle time. This investment is in keeping with the company’s strategy of leveraging emerging online opportunities addressed towards the millennial population. We will be increasing our portfolio in the short to medium term as part of our strategy of investing in innovative start-ups in the space of consumer brands and consumer-tech domains in India and South-East Asia.”
According to reports by PGA Labs, India’s men’s grooming market was $1.28 billion in 2016 and is estimated to have crossed $2.6 billion in 2018, recording a CAGR of 36 percent. The market is projected to soar to $5.5 billion by 2021.
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