Bombay Shaving Company raises Rs 50 cr; expands Series C round to Rs 210 cr

The Bombay Shaving Company (BSC) has raised Rs 50 crore from Gulf Islamic Investments (GII), as follow on to its Rs 160 crore Series C funding round led by Malabar Investments, a hedge fund based in India.  

This series C is the sixth round of financing for the men's grooming and hair removal brand that counts Reckitt, Colgate Palmolive, Sixth Sense Venture Partners, and industry powerlifters (including former vice-chairman of TCS S Ramadorai and 16 senior partners from McKinsey & Company) as investors, the company said in a statement on Friday. 

This takes the round size to Rs 210 crore. The financing round comes 11 months after the Bombay Shaving Company raised Rs 45 crore from FMCG giant Reckitt. 

Also Read: Bombay Shaving Company raises Rs 160 crore in Series C round
 
"We love the company's focus on hair removal and personal care as a category. It is a deep market, there is first mover advantage and the company has demonstrated strengths in building innovative products. We are thrilled to partner with Shantanu and team" said Pankaj Gupta and Mohammed Alhassan, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs, Gulf Islamic Investments (GII)  
 
Bombay Shaving Company further said that it plans to scale its operations to Rs 500 crore top line with an omnichannel presence in the next two years, and will deploy the funds towards expanding its portfolio of personal care and hair removal products.  
 
"GII will also be strategically positioned to provide access to GCC markets in addition to already existing domestic market expertise the company has attained," the statement read further. 
 
Launched in 2016, BSC started as a premium, D2C, experiential shaving regimen brand and has since expanded into diverse hair removal categories. 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.  

Also Read: Indian men spend 42 minutes everyday on grooming, says report
 
"We are delighted to have GII join our cap table. We are singularly focused on building a brand that owns hair removal and personal care. As we scale from Rs 150 crore to 500 crore and 1000 crore, we needed an investor group that could guide us on building an IPO-able company," said Shantanu Deshpande, founder CEO of BSC.  

"Interactions with GII were always focused on the right things - customer, product experience and team quality" he added.