Inside the reticent mind of FirstCry’s top bee—Supam Maheshwari

livemint.com:

MUMBAI : In the midst of covid lockdowns a few top executives of ChrysCapital, a private equity firm headquartered in New Delhi, decided to make a trip to Pune. That city about 150 km to Mumbai’s south is home to an unassuming entrepreneur who over the past decade and half has founded three startup unicorns. That includes Brainbees Solutions Pvt.

Ltd—the parent company of baby products retailer FirstCry—that made a stellar stock market debut this week. The ChrysCapital executives were looking to make their first investment in FirstCry and had conducted most of their due diligence online over Zoom meetings. But they wanted to meet in person the FirstCry team and co-founder and chief executive Supam Maheshwari.

“We were amazed at the understated office that he worked out of, which was unlike many other new-age founders that we come across," said Kshitij Sheth, managing director, ChrysCapital. ChrysCapital would eventually participate in a $315 million funding into FirstCry alongside TPG Growth and Premji Invest in 2021, valuing the company at $1.9-$2 billion. FirstCry had gained its unicorn tag a year earlier, when it raised $296 million at a $1.2 billion valuation in a funding round led by Japan’s SoftBank.

Many investors have similarly found Maheshwari non-flashy, bringing up comparisons with another high-profile entrepreneur who scored an electric stock market debut last week. Bhavish Aggarwal, outgoing and opinionated, has founded three unicorns, including the now publicly listed Ola Electric Ltd, ride-sharing platform Ola Cabs, and artificial intelligence platform Krutrim, India’s first AI startup estimated to be worth at least $1 billion. Also read | FirstCry, Ola Electric IPOs to build a club of super-rich