What is FirstCry? FirstCry Review

Founded in 2010, FirstCry is an e-commerce platform for maternal and child products and toys in India. Currently, there are more than 250 top global brands on the platform, including Carter's, Mattel, Ben10, Pigeon, Funskool, Hotwheels, Nuby, Farlin, Medela, Pampers, Disney, Barbie, Gerber, Fisher Price, and Mee Mee.

About FirstCry

Currently FirstCry's office is located in Pune, while orders are shipped from warehouses located across India.

FirstCry also has more than 300 stores in 125 cities in India.

FirstCry Startup Story

Supam Maheshwari became a father for the first time in 2002 and he often travelled 18 km from home to buy baby care products. Diapers, baby oil, soap, lotion and toys were all on his shopping list.

Maheshwari, who was suffering from the busy schedule, decided to do something to change this situation. So he and his former colleague Amitava Saha set up a website dedicated to selling baby products, Firstcry.com, in 2010. Today, their website now has 500,000 registered users, who can buy more than 200,000 products from more than 2,000 brands on Firstcry.com.

Customers can receive the goods two or three days after placing an order online. They can pay online or choose cash on delivery. When customers order again, they can enjoy a "loyalty" discount price.

India’s maternal and infant market

As Internet penetration in India continues to increase, e-commerce companies have been expanding their businesses. According to a forecast by business consulting service company RNCOS, the compound annual growth rate of India's baby care products market will exceed 15% from 2015 to 2022. E-commerce giants such as Flipkart and Amazon, as well as some Indian startups, have made the maternal and infant market one of their investment priorities.

Amazon Fashion has launched a dedicated e-commerce store for baby clothing, while Flipkart subsidiary Jabong has also been actively expanding its kids fashion+ category by partnering with international brands such as Disney, Angry Birds, Pokémon, and Indian brands such as Lilliput, Gini and Jony, and Nautinati.

Financing and Acquisitions

Since its inception till May 2018, Firstcry has raised more than $100 million in funding and has received support from investors such as IDG Ventures India, SAIF, Valiant CAPItal, Ratan Tata, Vertex Venture and NEA.

In 2017, FirstCry also acquired the baby care e-commerce platform BabyOye from Indian automobile manufacturer Mahindra for US$54 million.