D2C brand Mamaearth in talks for up to $150M pre-IPO round: Report

Direct-to-consumer (D2C) personal care brand Mamaearth is reportedly planning to raise about $120-150 million in a new funding round ahead of its planned initial public offering (IPO). The development comes as some of the company's early investors are looking to cash out in this round.

A report by Moneycontrol noted that Mamaearth has held preliminary discussions with investors including SoftBank, sovereign wealth funds like Singapore's GIC and Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), and pre-IPO investors including Fidelity Investments. The D2C firm is targeting a valuation of $1.5 billion largely through a secondary share sale.

YourStory could not independently verify the report and has reached out to Mamaearth for comments.

Earlier this month, Honasa Consumer Ltd, the owner of Mamaearth and D2C skincare brand The Derma Co, received the go-ahead from the markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for the IPO.

As per filings with SEBI, Honasa Consumer's offering will consist of a fresh issue of equity shares valued at up to Rs 400 crore, along with an Offer for Sale (OFS) of up to 4,68,19,635 shares by promoters and existing shareholders. These include founders Varun and Ghazal Alagh, along with actress-investor Shilpa Shetty Kundra, Kunal Bahl, Rohit Kumar Bansal, and Sofina Ventures.

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Founded in 2016 by the husband-wife duo Varun and Ghazal Alagh, Mamaearth turned unicorn in 2021 when it raised $37.5 million in a funding round led by Sequoia. It turned profitable in FY22, raking in Rs 19.8 crore in net profit

If the deal goes through, Mamaearth could potentially become the first venture capital-funded unicorn to be listed on India's stock exchanges this year. The lull at the bourses was smashed by the bumper listing of drone manufacturer ideaForge Technologies whose IPO in June was oversubscribed 85.2 times in the retail category itself.