Indian Startup Mensa Brands Becomes Unicorn

The founder of Indian direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand aggregator Mensa Brands on Thursday (Nov. 19) told CNBC that it has become a unicorn — a private company with a valuation of at least $1 billion — and is already profitable after closing a $135 million Series B fundraising round.

Falcon Edge Capital led Mensa’s latest funding round, bringing the total the company has raised in debt and equity to $300 million.

“Within the first six months of operation, we’re actually profitable, and we intend to continue to run this business in a profitable manner,” Founder Ananth Narayanan told CNBC’s “Street Signs Asia” on Thursday.

Mensa Brands acquires digital-focused brands and helps them scale across the U.S. and around the world. The company has 12 brands in fashion, home, and beauty and personal care.

“We’ve actually had a lot of success with accelerating the brands,” Narayanan told CNBC, to which he attributes the firm’s value. Mensa Brands will look to partner with 30 more brands across its target vertical, he added.

Narayanan also noted that Mensa Brands — one of about 70 unicorns in India — doesn’t plan to go public at this time, saying that an IPO would likely come “down the road.”

Related news: India Central Bank Eyes Digital Currency Trial Run in 2022

Meanwhile, the Central Bank of India could roll out the pilot version of a digital currency early in 2022, a delay from when the central bank governor predicted a soft launch of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) could happen this year, although the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) never announced a timeline.

During the State Bank of India’s Banking and Economic Conclave, a senior central bank officer shared the information with India’s Business Standard newspaper.