Flipkart Ventures, Tiger Global invest in Thrasio-style venture G.O.A.T

Flipkart Ventures and Tiger Global have made an investment in Thrasio-style venture G.O.A.T. Brand Labs. It would use the funding to accelerate the growth of digitally native brands in India. G.O.A.T was founded by Rishi Vasudev and Rameswar Misra, who bring with them decades of expertise in this space. Vasudev, a veteran retail executive, previously headed Flipkart’s fashion business.

G.O.A.T has completed its Series A funding of approximately $36 million which includes equity and debt. This round was led by Tiger Global, with participation from Flipkart Ventures (the early-stage venture fund of the e-commerce firm, Mayfield, Nordstar and Better Capital. Some of the prominent angel investors who are also part of this round are Virender Gupta of DailyHunt, Sujit Kumar (Udaan), Dr. Ranjan Pai (Manipal Group), Suhail Sameer of BharatPe, Neeraj Goenka (Texport) and Alex Kuruvilla (MD Conde Nast India).

“G.O.A.T stands for Greatest of All Time. Through this venture, we are bringing together passionate entrepreneurs, their D2C (direct to consumer) brands, marquee investors, industry experts and a dynamic team, who believe in the philosophy of partnering and nurturing,” said Rishi Vasudev, co-founder G.O.A.T. “We want these brands to have access to the best resources so that they scale rapidly to become G.O.A.T s”.

He added that G.O.A.T will fuel the exponential growth of D2C brands across all channels – marketplaces, brand’s e-commerce platforms, offline retail, and global markets. It would provide them a tech-enabled platform for end-to-end integration replete with deep digital marketing expertise. G.O.A.T’s integrated platform will help the brands maintain high efficiency and gain from economies of scale.

The model is similar to US-based Thrasio, a digital consumer goods company that acquires private label Amazon FBA businesses and direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands.

Vasudev has vast experience in building and scaling fashion and lifestyle brands (both online and offline). This includes his previous roles as Flipkart’s Group Head – Fashion (Flipkart and Myntra) and as CEO of iconic brands and retailers – Calvin Klein India, Lifestyle Departmental Store and Home Centre. Rameswar, who was co-founder of Menswear brand Turms and previously an SVP at VOONIK, has first-hand experience in creating, launching and scaling brands in the D2C space. The G.O.A.T founding team comprises senior leaders with deep expertise in brand building, digital marketing, fashion design, M&A and operations at scale.

“The potential of the D2C market in India will only continue to grow and G.O.A.T. Brand Labs is well-positioned to effectively tap this while helping brands scale,” said Scott Shleifer, Partner, Tiger Global. “We are excited to partner with Rishi, Rameswar and team, as they build their tech-enabled platform and make the best resources available to native brands.”

Ravi Iyer, senior vice president and head, corporate development, Flipkart, said the e-commerce firm is consistently focused on identifying opportunities and building new partnerships that benefit the ecosystem at large.

“Our investment in G.O.A.T. Brand Labs is aligned to this intent, as we aim to work with early-stage startups that have the potential to address emerging business and consumer requirements leveraging the power of technology,” said Iyer. “The leadership team at G.O.A.T. have deep experience in this segment and we look forward to the transformation they will make in the D2C segment.”

Nikhil Khattau, managing director, Mayfield India said with the digital acceleration of commerce in India, there will be a large opportunity for brand aggregators to partner with home-grown D2C brands and help them scale exponentially. “We are excited to partner with Rishi (Vasudev) and the team as they build out the centralised operating ecosystem to help digital brands scale across multiple platforms in India and globally.”

G.O.A.T is in advanced discussions with at least 10 brands for acquisition and would be announcing the same shortly. It is looking at brands in fashion, beauty, personal care, and home and kitchen in the first phase.

“The post-pandemic world will see a boom in e-commerce penetration in India and with this comes an opportunity for bigger and more organized brands and sellers,” said Rameswar Misra, co-founder, G.O.A.T. “G.O.A.T aims to be a reliable partner for these brands and sellers by providing them tech-driven solutions to scale quickly.”

Investments in Thrasio-style ventures have risen rapidly of late as the demand for e-commerce has increased amid the pandemic. This month, India’s largest Thrasio-style investment venture, GlobalBees raised $150 million in a mix of equity and debt in a Series A led by e-commerce firm FirstCry and some of its investors with additional participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners. Also, after getting a blockbuster exit from the PharmEasy-Medlife deal, this year Ananth Narayanan launched a new venture Mensa Brands which aims to create a technology-led ‘House of Brands’ built for the e-commerce industry. Mensa also closed its Series A funding round, raising about $50 million.