Purplle expects to close FY22with ₹700-crore revenue: CEO

Beauty care firm grew rapidly during COVID; IPO in 3-4 years

Beauty and personal care e-commerce platform Purplle expects to close the current financial year with a revenue of ₹700 crore, a 90% growth from last year, driven by new customer acquisition amid the pandemic, said co-founder and CEO Manish Taneja.

The company, which had grown its employee base from about 300 people to 1,300 people in two years, was also planning to go for an initial public offering (IPO) in the next 3-4 years, he said.

“Like for most online businesses, we’ve grown quite rapidly during COVID and for us, all of this growth is organic,” he said. “This year, we should do close to ₹700 crore of revenue and about ₹1,000-1,100 crore of GMV, and this is a growth of 90% from last year,” he added.

Mr. Taneja said while last year skincare and haircare segments took off as people were at home and wanted to take care of themselves more, this year, there had been a big resurgence in the makeup segment, especially in the last 2-3 months.

According to a report by Avendus, the beauty and personal care market is projected to reach $27 billion by 2025. While in 2020, sales from online shopping stood at 6% of the total market at $1.1 billion, by 2025, it is expected to rise to 16% of the market at $4.4 billion. On the company’s IPO plans, Mr. Taneja said from a capital point of view, Purplle was well-covered and most of their investors were “very long-term investors.”

“But I think going for an IPO will be a good thing at some point in time…we will keep ourselves ready and prepared. My sense is the preparation will take us 6-12 months. We’ll have to time the IPO, maybe, after 3-4 years we can look at it,” the CEO said.

He also pointed out that Purplle.com recently announced a $75 million funding, in which private equity firm Kedaara also participated. “Kedaara has taken five or six companies public so far from their own portfolio. For example, Vijaya Diagnostics, and now Manyavar is also going for IPO. I think they can add tremendous value to us from an execution as well as going public point of view,” he said.

The company has so far raised about $170 million, and the funds are being utilised for brand building and investments in infrastructure and technology. The company is also looking at acquiring a couple of brands “which are very differentiated and bring unique skills to Purplle…We are also open to acquiring companies that operate in the beauty content space.”.

Replying to a query on increased competition in the online beauty marketplace, he said, India was still a very unbranded market, especially when compared with most modern geographies, and there was room for multiple players.

“It’s just about who can stay in the game for long enough…we’ve been around for 10 years…will there be consolidation? Yes, definitely, but that is the usual course of action. Some people will get tired competing so they will like to sell, some people will not be able to attract capital, so they will sell out. I think it’s a great time to sell. Lots of buyers have come into the market, including us,” he said.

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