Firstcry: The First Choice of Parents and Little Ones

If we look back 10 years ago, it was non-existent to do online shopping, particularly if you are trying to buy your kids anything like toys, clothing, fashion accessories, important items like cribs, baby care stuff, etc. We have to buy everything from the industry and then not be happy because they did not have enough options and what was available did not meet the needs of the consumer. 

The children of the 90s would never have dreamed that one day they would be able to buy online baby items. Nor can anybody fathom that online shopping would be such a joy and that it would change the buying concept. India's baby care segment is big and exciting. But the challenge lies in the fact that the market is unorganized.

Laying Foundation Stone

Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha formed FirstCry in 2010. The seeds were sown a decade back when the opportunities for purchasing online baby care and children's goods were very small. Supam, FirstCry's co-founder and owner, would buy stuff for his son from the places he was visiting for business trips. The situation made him understand the tremendous potential in the Indian market for an online portal that would give Indian parents access to the best brands of baby care from around the world.

This is how FirstCry was started by Supam Maheshwari and Amitava Saha. At first, the owner of FirstCry was continuing with a prototype supply base, which means that they were doing their hardest to export baby goods from their stores all over India. But to extend their company and to keep up with the demand of the modern era. They started introducing shopkeepers to their forum, which presented the local shopkeeper on the FirstCry website with the ability to market their baby products.

Adding Sparkle to the world of your kid 

FirstCry is an online and offline brand offering infants, teens, and moms a wide variety of items. The start-up was born out of an urge to address millions of parents in India's issue of not getting access to their babies and children's best brands and baby care goods. Firstcry.com's product ranges include diapering, breastfeeding and eating, skin and health care, toys, jewelry, boots, fashion accessories, and many more.

The business offers the latest goods and brands at affordable prices, complemented by a high-quality online shopping experience, quick and efficient delivery service, and timely customer support. FirstCry, a baby and mother-care merchandise retailer headquartered in Pune, claims to be Asia's largest online store for baby and children's products. The company's growth rate has been exponential. There are more than 10 million installs of the FirstCry app on the Google Play Store and App Store.

Firstcry: The First Preference of Parents and Little Ones 

After acquiring Mumbai-based e-commerce store BabyOye in 2016 offering maternity, child care, and mother care goods and services in India, this decade-old venture was an undisputed pioneer in the omnichannel baby and mother care products market and strengthened its grip in the segment. Firstcry.com has a merchandise portfolio in the baby care sector of more than 90,000 products from about 1200 foreign and Indian brands that lead the game.

FirstCry is one of the biggest children's online shopping sites to date and has over 350 franchised brick-and-mortar stores in more than 100 Indian cities. FirstCry runs a unique service in which it meets more than 70,000 unique parents per month by sending out a 'FirstCry Package'.' FirstCry parenting' has the largest parent group in India. Every month, about 13 million unique parents are engaged and the total activity on the site is 92 million a month.

Funding and entrepreneurship model 

Japanese Internet and telecom giant SoftBank's Vision Fund agreed to spend $400 million in FirstCry after accepting last year's private placement letter in January 2019 for the $400 million investment in FirstCry. Thus, from just over $350 million earlier, raising FirstCry's valuation to $800 million and taking it very close to the unicorn level.

In two tranches, FirstCry was expected to collect about Rs 2,825 crore ($396.34 million) from the $93 billion Vision Fund of SoftBank. Over 8 rounds, FirstCry raised a total of $429 million in support. FirstCry runs on an interconnected hybrid business model that involves offline stores and online channels. The organization also has over 100 franchise stores across India, apart from its large online presence. FirstCry's is estimated at $1.2 billion and is one of India's latest unicorn club additions. FirstCry posted a turnover of INR 535 Cr. in FY 2019.

Plans for the Future 

The company also has two private brands, BabyHug, which is a line of footwear for babies and girls, and catwalks. It has about 400+ offline shops in India. The designs they offer are not normally available on the internet, and FirstCry was their first stop to buy chic clothes for their children for people who want their little ones to look trendy. Every and every passing day, it is rising. For a long time, a major celebrity like Amitabh Bachchan has been endorsing their brand, and parents trust this brand to take care of their kids' needs. A company that started from Pune, which used to sell mother and baby care products, is now alleged to be entire Asia’s one of the biggest online shops, which is currently selling varieties of various children’s products.