Food and clothing are the two necessities for people, and when it comes to babies, utmost care has to be taken to ensure these are 100% safe for them. The moments between new parents and the newborns are precious, with plenty of things to be taken care of when it comes to baby care. It cannot be wasted in scouring the town for baby clothes, baby toiletries, baby food, toys, etc. Its everything new for the new moms who are already exhausted with the paranoia of delivery, and they tend to get overwhelmed in taking a decision on whether the cereal is safe, that baby soap is safe, if there is no harmful plastic involved in the baby’s toy, etc. There is also the problem of buying clothes often, as babies outgrow their size fast during the first 2 years.
Firstcry.com is a Pune- based baby and mother care product retailer, which provides a one stop shopping destination for parents, making available for them the widest collection of baby, kids and new mom products through its online ecommerce store and through its offline retail chain of 100+ stores.
FirstCry was founded in 2010 by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha and is owned by BrainBees Solution. The startup’s online store was launched in December of 2010, with a belief that there should be a single, convenient and comprehensive platform for parents that can help them make well researched and informed choices for products they need for their kid. Within a small span of time, FirstCry has grown to a young and dynamic organization of a thousand employees serving more than a million parents in the country, giving them a choice of more than 100000 products across 1000+ top International and Indian brands like Mattel, Ben10, Pigeon, Funskool, Hotwheels, Nuby, Farlin, Medela, Pampers, Disney, Barbie, Gerber, Fisher Price, Mee Mee and more. Its baby and kids products are spread across diverse categories that include diapering, feeding and nursing, skin and health care, toys, clothes, footwear and fashion accessories among others.
In 2016, FirstCry acquired Mumbai-based BabyOye for $54 million. In November 2019, FirstCry went on to acquire Oi Playschool, a platform for early learners.
FirstCry aims to provide best of the products/brands at the best prices with a great online shopping experience, fast and reliable delivery service and a prompt customer care. FirstCry’s warehouses work round the clock across major cities, and in tandem with FirstCry’s own logistics arm, XpressBees, ensure prompt order processing, delivery and delight to its customers. FirstCry runs 100+ brick and mortar Firstcry stores in cities like Bangalore, Mumbai, Delhi, Karnal, Ahmedabad, Allahabad, Jaipur, Gurgaon, Udaipur, Chennai, Agra, Raichur, Kota and more. A unique hospital contact program helps FirstCry reach out to 70000+ new parents every month.
FirstCry raised $400 million in 2019 from the Japanese internet and telecom giant SoftBank’s Vision Fund. The investment was part of a larger round in which FirstCry would be raising around Rs 2,825 Crore ($396.34 Million) from SoftBank’s $93-billion Vision Fund in two tranches. This reportedly pushed the startup’s valuation to around $800 million, thereby earning it a ‘soonicorn’ tag. Prior to this investment, the company had raised about $125 million from multiple investors such as Chiratae Ventures, SAIF Partners, Valiant Capital Partners and Vertex Ventures. The funds are being utilized by the company to expand its offline and online presence as well as to strengthen its technology platform.
India is home to the largest number of children in the world, out beating even China. The market size of baby care products in India is expected to grow by USD 26.35 Billion and record a CAGR of 11.11% during 2021-2025. The decline in birth rate in the upcoming years would not affect this market in a big way. FirstCry continues to make parenting experience smoother, richer and more fulfilling.