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Former Myntra CEO To Build ‘House Of Brands’ For Flipkart, Amazon

Ananth Narayanan’s new startup, Mensa Brands, will acquire 50 brands over three years and build the expertise to scale them.

Ananth Narayanan, speaks during an interview at the company’s office in Bengaluru, India. (Photographer: Namas Bhojani/Bloomberg)
Ananth Narayanan, speaks during an interview at the company’s office in Bengaluru, India. (Photographer: Namas Bhojani/Bloomberg)

The former chief executive officer of fashion portal Myntra, through his newest venture, plans to build brands for online retailers like Amazon.com Inc. and Flipkart that would tap into India’s growing e-commerce market.

And the goal, according to Mensa Brands’ founder Ananth Narayanan, is “to build technology-led ‘House of brands’ that’s ready for e-commerce age, built from India but for the global market”.

The startup, Narayanan told BloombergQuint in an interview, aims to acquire 50 brands over three years and build the expertise to scale them. He said they’re looking for profitable brands in segments like home, personal care, beauty and apparel that are doing $1-10 million in revenue.

Narayanan who had joined online pharmacy startup Medlife as Co-founder and CEO in 2019, stepped down in March this year following its acquisition by rival PharmEasy. His latest venture, however, has already raised $50 million from the likes of Accel, Falcon Edge Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, and others.

Mensa Brands joins the growing club of startups such as Global Bees, Bzaar, GOAT Brand Labs, 10club among others, that are trying to replicate the success of Thrasio in U.S.

The opportunity is big and it’s not a winners-take-all market, he said

“There are 4,000 digital brands in the categories we are eying and the number doubles if we look at offline,” Narayanan said. “And we’re only hoping to buy 50 of them. There’s enough opportunity for everyone.”

Watch the full interaction here: