Powerhouse91, the tech-driven company acquiring and growing e-commerce brands in India, has announced that it has on boarded multiple marquee global investors, raising an undisclosed amount of capital from them.
One of the incoming investors, FJ Labs, is a US-based venture capital firm that focuses on marketplaces and consumer-focused businesses. The investment in Powerhouse91 marks FJ Labs’ entry into the Indian roll-up space. FJ Labs is also an investor in Thrasio-like businesses operating in geographies outside India including Razor Group (global player), Elevate Brands (US) and Valoreo (Mexico).
Ryan Gnesin (Co-founder, Elevate Brands) and Sujay Tyle (Co-founder, Merama), who have successfully built and scaled roll-up ventures in the US and Latin America, have backed Powerhouse91 in their individual capacity. Varun Alagh, Founder of Mamaearth – one of India’s leading and fastest-growing D2C brands, also joined Ryan and Tyle.
The funding also included participation from Maninder Gulati, the Global Chief Strategy Officer of OYO, and Haresh Chawla, Partner at True North Co.
On closing the fundraise, Nikhil Agrawal, Co-Founder and Chief Corporate Development Officer at Powerhouse91, said, “Securing the backing from such marquee investors reaffirms our thesis towards building a successful roll-up business, tailor-made for the Indian E-commerce ecosystem. With the likes of FJ Labs, Ryan, Sujay, and Varun on board, the opportunities for cross-learning will be immense.”
Powerhouse91 Co-founder Aqib Mohammed said, “We see this as a significant addition to our knowledge and expertise pool and consequently our ability to scale the acquired brands multifold over the course of next few years. Our shared vision towards creating an efficient e-commerce growth engine that helps us scale while maintaining healthy profitability is what brought us together in the first place.”