mensa brands: Mensa Brands sees loss widen to Rs 213 crore, revenue jumps 2.5 times

The Singapore-registered firm’s expenses also swole up 149% to Rs 718.9 crore in FY23 from a year earlier, filings showed. The biggest shifts came in the cost of purchase of stock-in-trade, which grew 138% to Rs 151.8 crore, while employee benefit costs nearly tripled to Rs 89.5 crore.

Meanwhile, revenue from sale of products, the biggest contributor to revenue, was at Rs 469.3 crore, up from Rs 193 crore a year earlier.

Mensa houses a total of 25 brands under its umbrella across fashion, beauty, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), and content like Villain, Pebble, Folkulture, and MyFitness. In August, the firm said it was foraying into the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and planned to expand into neighbouring Saudi Arabia in the near future.

Mensa is backed by the likes of Alpha Wave Global, Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Tiger Global Management and Prosus Ventures. In October, the firm closed a $40 million (around Rs 330 crore) debt-financing round from debt capital provider EvolutionX, according to data from Tracxn. Prior to that, the firm had raised about $36 million (Rs 300 crore) in debt from credit platform TradeCred in February this year.

The overall roll-up industry has seen a slowdown in growth rates of acquired brands in the domestic market over the past year. At the same time, there have signs of consolidation too- while Mensa’s competitor Goat Brand Labs bought Chumbak and four other D2C brands in January this year, Hindustan Unilever Limited invested in Zywie Ventures, which sells plant-based supplement brand Oziva, and Nutritionlab in December 2022.

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The fate of roll-up brands abroad has been rocky over the past few months too. In November, The Wall Street Journal reported that US-based Thrasio, one of the pioneers of roll-up ecommerce which started by acquiring third-party sellers on Amazon, was preparing to file for bankruptcy.

The Singapore-registered firm’s expenses also swole up 149% to Rs 718.9 crore in FY23 from a year earlier, filings showed. The biggest shifts came in the cost of purchase of stock-in-trade, which grew 138% to Rs 151.8 crore, while employee benefit costs nearly tripled to Rs 89.5 crore.

Meanwhile, revenue from sale of products, the biggest contributor to revenue, was at Rs 469.3 crore, up from Rs 193 crore a year earlier.

Mensa houses a total of 25 brands under its umbrella across fashion, beauty, fast moving consumer goods (FMCG), and content like Villain, Pebble, Folkulture, and MyFitness. In August, the firm said it was foraying into the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and planned to expand into neighbouring Saudi Arabia in the near future.

Mensa is backed by the likes of Alpha Wave Global, Accel Partners, Norwest Venture Partners, Tiger Global Management and Prosus Ventures. In October, the firm closed a $40 million (around Rs 330 crore) debt-financing round from debt capital provider EvolutionX, according to data from Tracxn. Prior to that, the firm had raised about $36 million (Rs 300 crore) in debt from credit platform TradeCred in February this year.

The overall roll-up industry has seen a slowdown in growth rates of acquired brands in the domestic market over the past year. At the same time, there have signs of consolidation too- while Mensa’s competitor Goat Brand Labs bought Chumbak and four other D2C brands in January this year, Hindustan Unilever Limited invested in Zywie Ventures, which sells plant-based supplement brand Oziva, and Nutritionlab in December 2022.

Discover the stories of your interest

The fate of roll-up brands abroad has been rocky over the past few months too. In November, The Wall Street Journal reported that US-based Thrasio, one of the pioneers of roll-up ecommerce which started by acquiring third-party sellers on Amazon, was preparing to file for bankruptcy.