India’s leading personal care and hair removal brand, Bombay Shaving Company (BSC) has raised INR 50 Cr from Gulf Islamic Investments (GII), as a follow on to its INR 160 Cr Series C led by Malabar. This takes the round size to INR 210 Cr. The round comes 11 months after the company raised INR 45 Cr from Reckitt, a global FMCG giant in the health, hygiene, and nutrition space. The company is uniquely capitalized with two global, strategic giants–Colgate Palmolive and Reckitt on their cap table.

“We love the company’s focus on hair removal and personal care as a category. It is a deep market, there is first mover advantage and the company has demonstrated strengths in building innovative products. We are thrilled to partner with Shantanu and team” said Pankaj Gupta and Mohammed Alhassan, Co-Founders and Co-CEOs, Gulf Islamic Investments (GII)

Bombay Shaving Company (BSC) plans to scale operations to INR 500 Cr top line with an omnichannel presence in the next two years, and will deploy the funds towards expanding its portfolio of personal care & hair removal products. GII will also be strategically positioned to provide access to GCC markets in addition to already existing domestic market expertise the company has attained.

Launched in 2016, BSC started as a premium, D2C, experiential shaving regimen brand and has since expanded into diverse hair removal categories. In 2020, BSC forayed into women’s hair removal with their brand ‘Bombay Shaving Company–Women’ which now accounts for nearly 25% of the total business. BSC has a rich portfolio of over 100 SKUs – comprising hair removal products for both men and women. The list includes:  shaving regimens, trimmers, beard products, razors for women, wax strips, hair removal creams, and other personal care products & accessories. BSC has served over 3 million customers across channels in the six years of its existence. With a finger on the pulse of customers, the brand is seen to be conscious, sensitive, and responsible.

“We are delighted to have GII join our cap table. We are singularly focused on building a brand that owns hair removal and personal care. As we scale from INR 150 Cr to 500 Cr and 1000 Cr, we needed an investor group that could guide us on building an IPO-able company,” said Shantanu Deshpande, founder CEO of BSC. “Interactions with GII were always focused on the right things – customer, product experience and team quality” he added.

This series C is the 6th round of financing for the company that counts Reckitt, Colgate Palmolive, Sixth Sense Venture Partners, and industry powerlifters (including former vice-chairman of TCS S Ramadorai and 16 senior partners from McKinsey & Company) as investors.