Good Glamm buys MissMalini📸, Ninjacart bags $145 Mn🥦, Mensa acquires LilPicks👼🏻

Good Glamm Group acquires MissMalini, Walmart invest $145 million in Ninjacart,Mensa Brands acquires kidswear firm LilPicks, Fundung Deals & more.

Rise & Shine ☀

Dec 14, 2021

Morning peeps👋🏻

Start your day, the smart way!

Top tech news of the day, along with a daily dose of motivation, delivered to your inbox.

1 Mail | 2 Minutes | 3 Stories | Funding Deals

Let’s get started

Good Glamm Group acquires talent management network MissMalini🎥

Content-to-commerce conglomerate, Good Glamm Group has acquired MissMalini Entertainment, a leading celebrity media and influencer talent management network.

This strategic acquisition of a personality-driven company by content to commerce conglomerate will offer Good Glamm Group unprecedented access to a robust network of influencers, celebrities and market know-how strongly enhancing its unique content-to-commerce play in the country.

The Good Glamm Group acquires talent management network MissMalini - The Economic Times

Following this acquisition, Mumbai-based MissMalini Entertainment will continue to function independently while bringing its expertise to the Good Glamm Group. MissMalini Founder Malini Agarwal and Co-founders Nowshad Rizwanullah (also CEO) and Mike Melli (also CRO) will continue to lead the company.

With this acquisition, the Good Glamm Group now boasts a bouquet of India’s largest digital media brands including POPxo, ScoopWhoop, BabyChakra and now MissMalini Entertainment. The Good Glamm Group’s media division now generates over 3.5 billion monthly impressions and has over 150 million unique users.

Flipkart, Walmart invest $145 million in Ninjacart in online grocery push🥕

Flipkart and its parent company Walmart said on Monday they were investing $145 million in fresh produce supply chain startup Ninjacart. This is the third time Flipkart is investing in Ninjacart and marks the largest agritech deal in the country.

Flipkart was in advanced talks to invest in Ninjacart at a valuation of $750-800 million. The deal comes at a time when Flipkart is scaling its 90-minute online grocery business — Flipkart Quick — to 200 cities by the end of 2022.

Flipkart & Walmart announce a fresh round of investment in Ninjacart to organize the Agri Ecosystem & create economic opportunities for farmers in India. - Ninjacart Blog

“With this investment, we are further able to strengthen our grocery footprint and offering as consumers across the country throng to e-grocery for quality and affordable options in the fresh category,” Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy said.

“The funds will enable us to dream beyond organising the farmer-to-retailer ecosystem to a much larger goal of organizing the complete Agri ecosystem and enabling transparent commerce,” said Thirukumaran Nagarajan, co-founder and CEO of Ninjacart.

Hot Shorts⚡

Smartworks, which provides managed office space, will invest $25 million (nearly Rs 190 crore) in its new tech venture 'Smartworks Technology Services' that will offer services related to workspace management, as part of its plan to grow business.
Sports nutrition and supplements company Fullife Healthcare has raised $22 million in a Series C funding round led by Morgan Stanley Private Equity Asia (MSPEA).
B2B SaaS startup Anakin has raised $2 million in a seed funding round led by YCombinator, HOF Capital, Austen Allred, ACE & Company, Integrity, Pioneer Fund and a group of other angel investors.

Mensa Brands acquires online kidswear firm LilPicks👶🏻

E-commerce roll-up unicorn Mensa Brands has acquired a digital-first fashion brand LilPicks in the kids wear segment.

With a strategic roadmap towards becoming India’s largest kids apparel brand, coupled with Mensa’s expertise, LilPicks is looking at achieving a gross turnover of Rs 500 crores within the next 4 years, the company said in a statement.

(L-R)Riya Gupta, founder of LilPicks and Ananth Narayanan, founder and CEO of Mensa Brands — Riya Gupta, founder of LilPicks and Ananth Narayanan, founder and CEO of Mensa Brands

Founded in 2017, LilPicks said it is growing at 3X of last year’s sales.

So far, the six-month-old Mensa Brands has acquired 14 brands including categories such as designer sarees, jewellery, men’s wear, smart devices and personal care. Most of these brands are growing 100 percent year-on-year since the time of acquisition, the roll-up firm said.