Sure, here is a rephrased version of your text:
- During his time at his ed-tech startup, Brainvisa, Supam Maheshwari became a father. His frequent travels to the United States and Europe meant he often brought back toys for his newborn daughter. After Brainvisa was acquired, he looked for toys locally but found the process frustrating. 🤔
- He struggled to find a variety of good-quality products easily. The Indian baby care products market, worth 50,000 CR, was largely unorganized, with 95% of sales happening offline. Supam wanted to change the way parents shop for their children. 🙌
- Supam, along with his colleague Amitava Saha, co-founded Brainbees Solutions to launch an online platform offering high-quality baby care and kids products. With Rs 2.5 CR from friends and family, they took the plunge, and in September 2010, FirstCry was born. 🚀
- FirstCry started with an inventory-based model, shipping products nationwide from four warehouses in Pune, Delhi, Bangalore, and Kolkata. The idea took off, and by 2011, FirstCry reached 100 CR in Gross Merchandise Value (GMV). However, Supam knew customer retention was essential and came up with another idea. 👇
- In 2011, he launched Goodlife, an online home and personal care product store. He also opened franchise-driven physical stores in tier 2 and 3 towns such as Bhilai, Dehradun, Haridwar, and Bharuch. By 2013, FirstCry scaled to 250 CR GMV with 30% customer retention. âś…
- By 2014, with stores becoming profitable within three months, FirstCry had 100 stores, 600 brands, and 25,000 products. Not losing focus on online sales, Supam introduced private labels BabyHug (apparel) and CuteWalk (footwear). FirstCry’s revenue skyrocketed to 118.08 CR by 2015. 📉
- Despite minimal marketing expenditure, Supam partnered with 6,000 hospitals to deliver a “FirstCry box” containing diapers, lotion, and other items from premium brands like Mamy Poko and Libero to new mothers. The initiative was a success. 🙌
- They delivered 200,000 boxes and offered 90,000 items across 180 stores, complete with detailed product descriptions and online inventory status for easy order placement before visiting a store. The big news came on October 17, 2016. 👇
- FirstCry acquired its biggest competitor, Mahindra’s retail 120-store franchise business, Babyoye, for 362.1 CR. This merger led to the formation of FirstCry—A Mahindra FirstCry Venture. By 2019, FirstCry had grown to 283 stores and raised 1096.94 CR at a valuation of 6057.58 CR. 💰
- By February 2021, FirstCry had expanded to 400 stores and achieved a revenue of 1842.27 CR and a profit of 337.34 CR. It raised an additional 2120.5 CR from Tiger Global at a valuation of 8482 CR, becoming the fourth Unicorn of 2021. 🦄
➡️Today, FirstCry is a 22,400 CR company with over 5650 CR in sales. 77% of its sales come from online, and it plans to go public with an 1815 CR IPO soon. 💪
Supam Maheshwari continues to provide FirstCry boxes to 70,000 mothers each month. 🙏