Bombay Shaving Company raises Rs 160 crore in Series C round

Hair removal brand, Bombay Shaving Company (BSC) has raised Rs 160 crore in a funding round led by Malabar Investments, a hedge fund based in India as it looks to expand products and acquire companies.  

The round also saw participation from Patni Advisors, Singularity AMC, and other HNIs, the company said in a statement. 

The round comes 11 months after BSC raised Rs 45 crore from Reckitt, a global FMCG giant in the health, hygiene, and nutrition space.  

The company is uniquely capitalised with two global, strategic giants-Colgate Palmolive and Reckitt on their cap table.

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"We found Bombay Shaving Company team to have this passionate and obsessive compulsion to address consumer pain points through product innovation, which is the hallmark of any great consumer company. In a short period of time, they have built a sizeable business and a differentiated franchise despite heavily established competition," said Sumeet Nagar, Managing Director at Malabar Investments. 

"We believe hair removal is a large market and Bombay Shaving Company has emerged as a strong challenger across categories. We are thrilled to partner with them." he added. 
BSC plans to scale operations to Rs 500 crore top line with omnichannel presence in the next two years, and will deploy the funds towards expanding its portfolio of personal care & hair removal products, the statement read further.  
  
Along with launching new products, the company said it will continue to aggressively expand its offline distribution, build an international presence, invest in brand building and hire talent across positions. 

BSC also intends to acquire brands in adjacent categories and content platforms and is in advanced talks to raise a further Rs 300 crore for this.  
  
The investment will further bolster the brand's ambition to deliver 10X growth in the next 5 years.  
  
Launched in 2016, BSC started as a D2C, experiential shaving regimen brand and has since expanded into diverse hair removal categories. 

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In 2020, BSC forayed into women's hair removal with their brand 'Bombay Shaving Company-Women' which now accounts for nearly 25% of the total business.   
  
BSC boasts of a portfolio of over 100 SKUs - comprising hair removal products for both men and women. 

The list includes shaving regimens, trimmers, beard products, razors for women, wax strips, hair removal creams, and other products as well as accessories.   
  
"We are delighted to have investors of such calibre join our cap table. We are singularly focused on building a brand that owns hair removal. As we scale from Rs 150 crore to 500 crore and 1,000 crore, we needed an investor group that could guide us on building an IPO-able company," said Shantanu Deshpande, founder CEO of BSC.   
  
"We entered the market looking to raise Rs 100 crore but were delighted to have received offers of >Rs 500 crore. We will be evaluating how to further accommodate valuable investors. Also, we are happy to provide INR 45 Cr exits to our employees and early investors, a significant value creation milestone for us," he added.