FirstCry's GlobalBees Brands sees three board members exit

​Three investor board members of GlobalBees, a FirstCry venture, have stepped down, multiple people aware of the matter told YourStory.

Sudhir Kumar Sethi from Chiratae Ventures, Harsha Kumar from Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Kaveesh Chawla from Premji Invest have stepped down from the company’s board, the people said, requesting anonymity.

FirstCry last month said that GlobalBees CEO Nitin Agarwal quit the roll-up commerce company.

Premji Invest's Chawla stepped down in September last year, while Chiratae's Sethi left before the company announced Agarwal's exit. In July 2021, Kumar and Sethi joined GlobalBees’ board after participating in its $150 million Series A funding round led by FirstCry.

“Premji and Chiratae are shareholders of FirstCry, and they continue to be part of FirstCry. Their exit is to comply with UPSI rules,” said a person aware of the matter. 

SEBI’s Unpublished Price Sensitive Information (UPSI) rules aim to curb insider trading by restricting those with access to confidential information from trading a company’s securities until the information is publicly disclosed and its impact is reflected in the market price.

"As a matter of general practice, Premji Invest does not hold Board positions in listed companies or their subsidiaries. In line with this principle, Premji Invest had stepped down from the Board of Firstcry and GlobalBees, a subsidiary of FirstCry, several months ago," said a Premji Invest spokesperson.

GlobalBees, FirstCry, and Lightspeed did not immediately respond to queries shared by YourStory. Questions sent to Supam Maheshwari, Co-founder of FirstCry, who also sits on the board of GlobalBees, didn’t elicit an immediate response. Meanwhile, Chiratae Ventures declined to comment.

Almost two weeks ago, Globalbees' CEO and Director Agarwal tendered his resignation from the Thrasio-style direct-to-consumer (D2C) company, citing “personal reasons.” In August last year, GlobalBees's Chief Business Officer, Damandeep Soni, also left the company and joined AstroTalk in March 2025.

Post Agarwal's departure, Anuj Jain, previously Chief Business Officer of FirstCry's pre-school segment and SVP of Marketing, is leading the global brand.

GlobalBees Brands—founded by FirstCry founder Maheshwari and Agarwal in 2021, with an initial corpus of $75 million—operates brands across sectors like beauty and personal care, accessories, and gym equipment, including Joker and Witch, Haironic, and Strauss, among others.

Just a month ago, FirstCry approved the infusion of Rs 146 crore into GlobalBees, expecting to close the investment in tranches over 12 months. The company clocked a consolidated turnover of Rs 1,209.35 crore in FY23.

(The story has been updated to reflect the departure timeline from the GlobalBees board.)