FirstCry – Everything You Need To Know

The appeal of online purchasing was unimaginable to the children of the 1990s. Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha established FirstCry in 2010 to provide baby care products to the crowd, taking the online shopping experience a step further. Nobody expected e-commerce to revolutionize the way people shop.

Official Name	BrainBees Solutions Private Limited
Founded in	2010
Founder	Supam Maheshwari, Goku Jangra, Prashant Jadhav, Sanskriti Hattimattur
CEO	Supam Maheshwari
Type	Private
Available areas	Worldwide
Status	Active
CIN	U72100PN2010PTC136340
Headquarters	Pune
Revenue	₹ 215.94 crores
Net Worth
No. of employees	1001 – 5000 ≈
Monthly visits	5,692,339
GST no.	27AAECB1042N1ZQ
PAN	AAECB1042N
Category	Lifestyle | Childcare
Company Class	5
Website	www.firstcry.com
Available as	Website, Android and iOS
Social platforms

About FirstCry

It is an Indian e-commerce firm based in Pune that launched in 2010. It is an online-cum-offline brand that sells a variety of products for kids, babies, and the big store for the little ones. They empathize with the mothers who want to bestow their newborn, infant, baby, or kid with the best things even for their smallest needs. 

A woman requires everything for her child, from breastfeeding to bathing necessities, appropriate furniture to a variety of infant care goods. This motivates the company to provide simple and hassle-free online shopping not just for newborns and children, but also for moms-to-be and new moms.

The company offers a singular shopping experience with 2 lakh baby & kids products and 2,000+ top-notch national and international brands like 

Firstcry Online Shopping

There are offers for baby & kids products available online from various categories including diapering, feeding & nursing, skin & health care, baby & kids toys, newborn & infant clothing, baby clothes, kids apparel, footwear, fashion adornments, baby gear, nursery, gifts, kids furniture, books & CDs, party supplies, school supplies and more at great discounts.

The company pampers your little one with the widest range of newborn & baby products; 

Their buying guides, premium stores, boutiques, products checklist, and lookbooks are aimed toward an enriching and fulfilling shopping experience.

Founders

Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha are the founders of the company. 

Supam Maheshwari

The CEO and co-founder, Supam Maheshwari, is an IIM Ahmedabad graduate and engineer from Delhi College of Engineering. He is a first-gen entrepreneur who co-founded one of India’s premier logistics companies, XpressBees. Prior to founding the company, he was the co-founder and CEO of Brainvisa Technologies, one of India’s premier e-learning companies.

Amitava Saha

The COO and co-founder, Amitava Saha, is an MBA graduate from IIM Lucknow and a B.Tech at IIT Varanasi. Saha also worked alongside Supam on the introduction of XpressBees. They worked together again after XpressBees for another intriguing project, FirstCry. It is India’s best online baby care product marketplace.

Startup Story

The seeds were planted in 2010 when the alternatives for purchasing baby care and children’s products online in India were exceedingly restricted. Supam, the co-founder and owner, would buy items for his son in places where he travelled for work. The situation helped him recognize the enormous possibilities in the Indian market for an online platform that would provide Indian parents with access to the greatest baby care brands from across the world. This is how Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha launched the company.

FirstCry – Startup Launch

They initially operated on an inventory-based approach, shipping products across the country from warehouses in Pune, Delhi, Bangalore, and Kolkata. After a few years, it began to add shops to its platform and offered local retailers the ability to sell their products on its website.

The company also has two private labels: BabyHug, which sells infant and child clothing, and CuteWalk, which sells footwear. With over 350 franchised brick-and-mortar stores in over 125 Indian locations, later it has evolved to become one of the leading online shopping platforms for children.

FirstCry Name & Tagline

The term “FirstCry” was skillfully picked and contributes significantly to its marketing techniques. The name refers to a newborn’s first cry, and the company offers a wide range of baby basics and other accessories for children and babies. The tagline is “Asia’s favourite baby and kid’s shopping platform.”

FirstCry Service

They have the fastest delivery, and you can check your availability of the products by checking with your Pincode. The company gives the best products at an affordable price and they have customer support to help you in all situations. Their applications for Android, and iOS and their website are customer-friendly and they give you the best online shopping experience. They have more than 10 million application downloads. 

Newborn Essentials

• Swaddle cloth – this cloth will be helpful while receiving the baby, from the doctor or nurse. Use muslin cloth, which will be super soft, and made of cotton, which is breathable and does not affect the sensitive skin of the babies. This cloth will also be useful for swaddling the babies, to cover them during their sleep. 
• Baby wipes – one of the essential products, for both mom and the baby. The wipes come with good water content and you can use them from day one to wipe your baby’s butt, and skin, or as a mom you can use it whenever the baby spills something on you. 

Tip: Buy wipes that have lids, so that the pack remains moisturized. 

• Nail trimmer
• Lotion
• Powder
• Comb
• Bed
• Bed protector sheet
• Diaper – Cloth diaper/ langots / normal diaper
• Soft towels, etc

The company with its online and offline store has gained the trust and has become the number one choice for parents. 

FirstCry Achievements

Business Model

It employs a hybrid business approach that mixes online and offline venues. Aside from its large online presence, the company has over 400 outlets in India, including 350 franchise stores. The company offers a one-of-a-kind initiative in which it sends a ‘FirstCry Box‘ to over 70,000 parents every month.

This campaign delivers complimentary gift boxes to new parents in 6,000 hospitals across the country as a token of congratulations on the birth of their kid. Diapers, baby lotion, and baby oil from well-known brands such as Mamy Poko and Libero are included in the present. So far, it has reached out to millions of parents in India through this endeavour.

Acquisition

It has bought two companies. Oi Playschool was acquired on November 28, 2019. FirstCry Oi Playschool is a luxury playschool chain that focuses on safety, security, and hygiene.

The company which is owned by BrainBees Solution, paid $54 million for Mumbai-based BabyOye in 2016. In India, BabyOye is an e-commerce portal that sells pregnancy, infant care, and mother care products.

Funding status

There are lots of funds over the years, starting from 2011 to 2021. They have investors around the world and their business have been successful throughout.

• In April 2011, 4 million US dollars to SAIF Partners.

• Then in February 2012, 14 million US dollars were funded, which is 10 times higher than the previous years by investors, Chiratae Ventures, and IDG Ventures India.

• Later, in January 2014, 15 million US dollars was invested by Vertex Ventures. 

• In February 2015, 26 million US dollars, to Valiant Capital Partners was invested. In April 2015, they invested around 10 million US dollars.

• In February 2016, they had the same investors and they invested 26 million US dollars. In October 2016, they had a venture round, with investors from Vertex Ventures and Mahindra Group for around 34 million US dollars. 

• After three years gap in January 2019, the company has 150 million US dollars from SoftBank Vision Fund. Then in February 2020, they have the same investor with the same amount of 150 million US dollars.

• In March 2021, they have a venture round, investing from Premji invest for 13 million US dollars. Chrys Capital and Premji Invest funded a secondary market for 300 million US dollars in the same month. 

FirstCry Parenting

No worries if you are a first-time parent, or it’s your second pregnancy FirstCry parenting provides you with each step from planning to pregnancy. You can also learn about the important vaccines for your child from birth to 12 years, the immunization schedule, and can be personalized for your child, and they give you a timely notification that you can never miss a vaccine. 

You can even track your child’s height & weight with their child growth tracker and take proactive steps towards your child’s healthy growth. You can benefit from their expert advice, researched articles, Q & A’s, tools & trackers, and tips from fellow parents and can simply your parenting experience with them.

FirstCry Intellikit

It keeps your little one engaged for hours with age-appropriate fun with a learning activity program with their FirstCry Intellikit which is designed by developmental experts and toy makers to put together unique themed activities every month. 

Each box contains activities, a story, a book, and flashcards, and with their Intellikit, your child will learn about a vast variety of topics, while enhancing and honing development in a fun and interactive way.

FirstCry Intelliots Preschool

They offer children a unique learning experience through hands-on education that covers life skills. The preschool is modelled around the SPARKS curriculum, where the children get exposed to quality education and will be given individual attention.

Coupon codes and offers

It offers and deals give you satisfaction and savings on a range of high-quality products. They include such as shopping carnivals, loyalty cash programs, app offers, bank & wallet offers, Free @ Three, cashback, and guaranteed savings offers. They even provide some great discounts with their coupons and you can buy baby & kids products online from anywhere in India with their free shipping, cash on delivery ( COD ), same & next day delivery, and easy returns options.

Final thought

The company has a significant market presence. FirstCry and newborn care have become somewhat inseparable. Thus, while there is no direct rivalry for FirstCry, online portals such as Myntra and Amazon may pose some challenges to the company’s web base. Local vendors and entrepreneurs may compete with FirstCry’s offline outlets.

Happy Shopping!

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