Roll-up e-commerce startup Mensa announced on Monday that it has acquired denim brand High Star for undisclosed amount. This is Mensa’s second acquisition in the ongoing month (December 2021), after having acquired kids wear label LilPicks.
Apart from Denims, High Star sells wide range of cloths that resonates with India’s digital first customers. This includes jackets, skirts, Jeggings, palazzos and shorts. The company sells its products on e-commerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon, which is where roll-up e-commerce startups like Mensa hunt their acquisition targets.
Founded by Ananth Narayan, Mensa has made quite a splash on the Indian startup ecosystem. It became the youngest unicorn of India in November this year, after raising $135 Mn in series B round. It knocked off blue-collar job platform Apna to get the tag of being the fastest unicorn.
With this acquisition, the Bengaluru based startup will look to make a dent in India’s highly lucrative online fashion industry, where apparels and shoes usually sell like hot cakes. By a rough estimate, India’s online fashion industry is likely to be valued around $43 Bn by 2023.
Mensa is expected to make such acquisitions on regular basis as it thrives on an aggressive acquisition model. It is actually inspired from successful American startup Thrasio. Thrasio is credited for pioneering a model that acquires small yet promising brands and helps them to scale their business.
Today this model has created a slew of clone startups and has paved way for a standalone industry, officially tagged roll-up e-commerce industry. Apart Mensa, other popular startup that follow the Thrasio model includes UpScalio, Globalbees and 10Club. In the coming months or next year, we could see more Thrasio like startups as India’s Roll-up e-commerce startup is expected to grow in leap and bounce.
