Visage Lines Personal Care has closed a ₹45 crore strategic investment round led by consumer goods firm Reckitt Benckiser.

WHO: Visage Lines Personal Care is the Indian company that owns popular men’s grooming brand Bombay Shaving Company, launched in 2016. Bombay Shaving Co. has a portfolio of over 100 products across shaving, bath and body, skin, and beard care, and launched a line of women’s products last year.

WHY: The capital will be used to scale operations and provide access to RB’s global scale. The business also plans to launch more brands in the personal care space.

IN THEIR OWN WORDS: “RB is a home and hygiene giant globally and is well-entrenched in the Indian consumer space. We have always tried to find long-term, patient investors and RB has an excellent record in building health and wellness brands over their 200-year heritage. They enter niche spaces and turn them into big categories. We have earlier seen great value with our association Colgate-Palmolive as well,” Shantanu Deshpande, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Visage Lines.

Arjun Purkayastha, SVP, E-commerce, Digital and Ventures at Reckitt Benckiser said in Mint, “Our investment represents a commitment to bring the best of two worlds together, BSC’s expertise in digital-first brands with strong e-commerce capabilities and RB’s expertise in branding, manufacturing, and global scale.”

DETAILS:

• Consumer goods firm Reckitt Benckiser has led a ₹45 crore strategic funding round in Visage Lines Personal Care Pvt. Ltd, which owns the grooming brand Bombay Shaving Co.
• The round also saw participation from individual HNIs (high net-worth individuals) such as Rajesh Sud from Bharti Enterprises, Anjali Bansal founder of Avaana Capital, and Kuldeep Jain, managing director of CleanMax Energy.
• Visage Lines, the owner of the brand Bombay Shaving Company, aims to launch three independent consumer brands and grow to ₹150 crore annual sales in 2021.
• BSC plans to scale its operations, target a revenue of ₹150 crore in the next fiscal year, and expand its offline retail distribution as footfalls ramp up, it said. The company is also steadily building omni-channel revenue streams and wants to increase its presence from 10,000 stores in 20 cities to 50,000 stores by the end of the year.
• Arjun Purkayastha, SVP, E-commerce, Digital and Ventures at Reckitt Benckiser, has been named as a member of the Visage Lines Board.
• The new investment is the fifth round of financing for the company that has been invested in by Sixth Sense Venture Partners, Colgate-Palmolive, and noted industry veterans like S Ramadorai, former Vice Chairman of Tata Consultancy Services, along with 16 senior partners from McKinsey & Company since launching.
• In 2019, the company had also created ₹20 crore of exit for early angels and employees.
• In October 2018 Colgate-Palmolive made an investment of ₹18 crore ($2.6 million), acquiring a 14% stake in the company.