Ex-McKinsey exec’s personal care startup bags $6.1m

Bombay Shaving Company (BSC), which is owned by Visage Lines Personal Care, has raised 450 million rupees (US$6.1 million) in a funding round led by Reckitt Benckiser (RB), a British multinational consumer goods company.

Individual investors including Bharti Enterprises managing director Rajesh Sud, Avaana Capital founder Anjali Bansal, and CleanMax Energy managing director Kuldeep Jain also participated in the round.

Following the deal, Arjun Purkayastha, RB’s senior vice president of ecommerce, digital, and ventures, will join the Visage Lines board.

Bombay Shaving Company founder and CEO Shantanu Deshpande / Photo credit: Bombay Shaving Company

BSC is an ecommerce firm focused on personal care, founded in 2016 by ex-McKinsey & Company consultant Shantanu Deshpande. It currently has a portfolio of over 100 brands across the shaving, bath and body, skin, and beard care product categories.

The investment will help the company scale its operations and access RB’s global scale, expertise, and mentorship.

Moving forward, the Indian brand plans to scale its operations to 1.5 billion top lines in the next fiscal year. It’s also expanding its offline retail distribution as physical shopping ramps up post-Covid-19.

“As we build omnichannel revenue streams, we are cognizant that brands will be scaled through strong digital and retail distribution,” said Deepak Gupta, chief business officer at Visage Lines.

To date, the company said it has completed five fundraising rounds. In December 2019, the company closed a US$6.1 million round led by Sixth Sense Venture Partners, along with Colgate Palmolive Asia Pacific.

Additional individual backers include Tata Consultancy Services former vice chairman Subramaniam Ramadorai, as well as 16 senior partners from McKinsey & Company.

Currency converted from Indian rupees to US dollar: US$1 = 73.07 rupees.