Purplle plans to go for IPO in about 4 years from now

E-commerce firm Purplle, which deals in beauty and personal care products, is planning to go for an initial public offering (IPO) in 3-4 years after scaling up business with a target growth of around 80 per cent year-on-year, a top official of the company said.

The announcement from the company follows after its competitor Nykaa got listed last week.

"Beauty is a business of momentum. As you build momentum and get to a larger scale, your cost becomes smaller and you become a profitable franchise. It's not the right time for us to continuously look at our costs.

"Right time for us is to continue to build momentum, keep growing at 80 per cent year-on-year. In 3-4 years, we will be like a mammoth potentially going for an IPO," Puplle co-founder and CEO Manish Taneja told PTI.

The company on Friday had announced the raising of around $75 million (about Rs 555 crore) in a funding round led by private equity fund Kedaara at an enterprise valuation of $630 million (Rs 4,662 crore).

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The company will use the fund to grow six-eight times in the next five years through both organic and inorganic businesses.

Taneja said the company is investing in marketing which is a big expenditure on profit and loss but it's get paid from the business.

He said the company wants to increase its share in about $20-billion Indian beauty market.

"We are probably operating at $150 million of GMV (gross merchandise value). We will love to strengthen our market share before we enter any other market.

"We don't understand anything outside of India as now. Our core focus over the next 3-4 years will be to build massive leadership in India," Taneja said.

The company will continue to invest in technology and launch products that are backed by data.

Taneja said data scientist in the company tells the kind of product that the company should launch and the product manager then works on the touch and feel of the product.

Purplle's competitor Nykaa launched an IPO comprising a fresh issue of equity shares worth Rs 630 crore and an offer-for-sale (OFS) of 41,972,660 equity shares by the promoter and existing shareholders.

The initial share-sale of FSN E-Commerce Ventures was fully subscribed on the first day of subscription on Thursday and was subscribed 4.82 times on Day 2 of the offer.

The upper price band of Rs 1,125 per share values Nykaa at $7.4 billion.

According to the IPO documents of Nykaa, the beauty and personal care market in India was sized at around $17 billion in 2019 and is projected to cross $26 billion in 2025.

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