Mensa Brands, a Thrasio-style house of brands player, said on Tuesday that it has garnered $135 million in a Series B fundraising round led by Falcon Edge Capital's growth stage platform, Alpha Wave Ventures, for a valuation of about $1.2 billion.

Mensa became the fastest firm to attain unicorn status in under seven months, thanks to existing investors such as Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, and Tiger Global Management, as well as new investor Prosus Ventures, previously Naspers Ventures.

Jobs platform Apna, InMobi's lock screen solution Glance, Paytm Mall , business-to-business marketplace Udaan, , and electric mobility solution provider Ola Electric were previously considered among India's fastest unicorns, having reached a valuation of more than $1 billion in less than two years of operation.

Mensa Brands intends to use the new funds to accelerate growth and expand its acquisitions in the industry, as well as to expand its personnel across operations, marketing, and technology.

The company now has around 60 employees and plans to expand to 150-200 in the next 12-18 months.

Mensa Brands, which was founded this year, follows a 'house of brands' or brand aggregation strategy in which it acquires and partners with digital first brands, with the goal of accelerating their growth through on-the-ground expertise and tech-led marketing and operations interventions.
Mensa's present concentration is on fashion, beauty, and cosmetics, as well as the field of home furnishings.

Ananth Narayanan, founder and chief executive officer (CEO) of Mensa Brands said, “one of the key reasons to raise another round of investment this year is to invest into more brands. There are a lot more inbound deals coming our way now and we look to tap into those opportunities. Close to 80% of this fundraise will go in bringing these brands to Mensa’s fold. The second is to grow and scale our brands both in domestic and international markets, as well as to scale our team”.

Mensa has bought 12 brands to date, according to Narayanan, and plans to increase that number to 40 in the next 12 to 18 months. He noted that the organization is in the process of closing eight more acquisitions in the near future.

According to Narayanan, the typical price tag for acquiring a brand remains in the $4 million to $5 million area.
According to the company, close to four of the 12 brands have sold to overseas markets.

Narayan underlines, “close to four of our total 12 brands are selling in international markets including the UK, US and Middle East. We are forming partnerships with international e-commerce majors such as Amazon, Walmart and Target to retail these brands. Today 15% of our revenues come from international geographies. We can see this number grow to almost 30% in 12-18 months. However, our brands will be primarily focused on the India opportunity”.

Mensa has already generated more than $300 million in stock and debt in less than six months of operation. TradeCred , InnoVen Capital, Stride Ventures, Piramal Capital and Alteria Capital, among others, have provided loan funding.

Alpha Wave Ventures’ co-founder and partner Navroz Udwadia remarked, “Mensa demonstrates a tangible uplift through a combination of product and pricing optimization, technology-led process improvement, distribution and marketing augmentation and fine-tuning the supply chain. These levers meaningfully accelerate the growth and margin trajectory of the brands and make them well-poised to become category leaders”.

Mensa secured over $50 million in a Series A investment headed by Accel Partners, Falcon Edge Capital, and Norwest Venture Partners in May 2021.

Ashutosh Sharma, Prosus Ventures' head of investments in India, stated, “we are excited to support MensaBrands in their journey to build digital-first global brands from India. Their team brings superior execution focus and technology chops to help emerging brands scale digitally”.

Thrasio-style e-commerce initiatives like as 10Club and GlobalBees raised $40 million and $150 million respectively in the highest early-stage investments among Indian companies, indicating that competition in the 'house of brands' e-commerce industry is heating up.

Nykaa, the freshly public cosmetics marketplace, is targeting a 'house of brands' approach across new categories of home furnishings.