Flipkart Ventures, Tiger Global-backed G.O.A.T Brand Labs in 11 D2C tie-ups

Flipkart Ventures and Tiger Global backed G.O.A.T Brand Labs are taking D2C (direct-to consumer) brands to the next level, with 11 strategic brand partnerships.

G.O.A.T Brand Labs, a venture which started a few months back, acquires and scales D2C brands. The current acquisitions are in the fashion, beauty-skin care, pets and home-kitchen categories.

G.O.A.T was founded by Rishi Vasudev and Rameswar Misra, who bring with them decades of expertise in this space. Vasudev, a veteran retail executive, previously headed Flipkart’s fashion business.

“Each of our acquisitions is special and strengthens G.O.A.T Brand Labs as a D2C accelerator platform,” said Rishi Vasudev, Co-founder and CEO of G.O.A.T Brand Labs. “We are on course to enable passionate founders and their brands and scale at least twenty-five D2C brands to Rs 100 crore in the next 3-4 years.”

Frangipani, a Mumbai-based kids clothing brand, popular among Bollywood celebrity parents, is one of the first partnerships that G.O.A.T Brand Labs revealed. Some of the other acquisitions done by G.O.A.T Brand labs, which will be revealed soon, include a women’s lifestyle brand and a leading global inner wear and loungewear brand.

“I am extremely excited to announce Frangipani as our first investment. Sunaina and Mansi, Frangipani’s founders, have built their business with great love and care,” said Vasudev. “They have a very loyal base of consumers, including many Bollywood stars and their kids. Together we will take this proposition to a much bigger audience with speed and efficiency.”

The model is similar to US-based Thrasio, a digital consumer goods company that acquires private label Amazon FBA businesses and direct-to-consumer e-commerce brands.

Vasudev has vast experience in building and scaling fashion and lifestyle brands (both online and offline). This includes his previous roles as Flipkart’s Group Head – Fashion (Flipkart and Myntra) and as CEO of iconic brands and retailers – Calvin Klein India, Lifestyle Departmental Store and Home Centre.

The Indian kids wear market is set to grow to $35 billion by 2025 and is a crucial focus for G.O.A.T Brand Labs. The aim is to grow Frangipani at least 5x in the next 2 years. The Frangipani founders and G.O.A.T Brand Labs will combine their expertise to expand the brand’s presence pan India and take it global. G.O.A.T Brand Labs will aid the founders in areas such as digital marketing, technology, working capital management, and channel expansion.

Founded in 2012, as a small business from home, Frangipani was born out of both necessity and opportunity for new mothers, Sunaina Patel and Mansi Kilachand. They decided to leave their jobs (Patel is an INSEAD MBA graduate and ex-BCG, IDFC; Kilachand is an SPJIMR graduate and ex-Kotak) to embark on the exciting and uncertain path of building a household name for kids clothing.

Sunaina Patel and Mansi Kilachand, the Founders of Frangipani said their firm and G.O.A.T shared the same growth philosophy and believed that the operational expertise of their team could provide incredible value to our business.

“For G.O.A.T. Brand Labs, we were not just another brand in their portfolio, and it wasn’t just about numbers and valuation, it was an understanding of the value and potential of our brand. With the growth capital and operational support provided by the team, we hope to quickly realise Frangipani’s future potential of being a Rs 100-crore brand,” said Patel and Kilachand.

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