Ananth Narayan, the CEO and Founder of Mensa Brands took the company to sky-rocketing heights by touching a net revenue of 1500 crores within 12 months of operations. Mensa Brands is a roll-up e-commerce startup that works with 20 brands and manages their growth and operations by leveraging technology. Here is a bit on this company’s business model.
About Mensa Brands
This investment company works with business owners to develop and scale their digital brands. The company’s business model entails funding other D2C startups with working capital, acquiring equity, and expanding their online presence. Its platform supports expertise in driving growth, product, merchandising, technology, supply chain, product, and access to global markets that assist founders in obtaining a profitable financial exit while they successfully transform their company through a partnership.
Their investors’ list includes Accel, Falcon Edge Capital, Norwest Venture Partners, Prosus and Tiger Global. Mensa Brands’ brand partners include Urban Fix, Florona, Pebble and MyFitness.
Vision and Mission
Vision – Bring joy to customers by building global brands for the digital age.
Mission – Partner with the best founders to grow digital first brands using technology.
About the Founder
Ananth Narayan was initially serving as the chief executive of fashion e-commerce giant Myntra. He also operates in a similar designation for Thrasio – the Boston-based startup that works on a similar business model.
But when it comes to Mensa Brands, Ananth begs to differ. The term ‘Mensa’ originally means ‘constellation’ in Greek. Similarly, Mensa brands attempts to build a new age consumer brand similar to Unilever or Bed Bath & Beyond conglomerates.
Main Business Model
- Getting to know the brand
They conduct one or two detailed meetings to learn more about the company. They make financial and qualitative investments in learning about the development of the brand.
- Valuation and Commercial Construct
Mensa Brands give a lot of value to whatever the brand has built so far. They do a detailed analysis and revert within 48 hours with a fair and transparent commercial construct that they plan to shape along with the brand.
- Due Diligence and Deal Closure
Mensa brands value the time the brand has invested and understand that they are already busy running their business. Mensa Brands come up with a streamlined Due Diligence and close the deal within 4 weeks.
- Accelerate your Brand
Mensa then integrates with the brand and together they embark on a journey of exponential growth by leveraging technology and team expertise.
How does Mensa Brands add value to the companies?
Mensa Brands add value through enhanced technology, optimized operations, digital brand building, channel expansion, data-driven marketing, and getting global reachability. They use Machine Learning and Big Data to identify the right brands by analyzing millions of data points across the internet.
How Mensa Brands Helps Brands Grow
In each brand it partners with, Mensa purchases a majority stake with the intention of completing the acquisition in five years. All of these brands are successful, and their founding team has joined Mensa Brands to collaborate with the bigger company.
Mensa assists these companies in streamlining and optimizing their inventories across all major online marketplaces and their corporate websites. On the demand side, the startup optimizes product prices in addition to engaging in “tech-led marketing.”
Currently owned by Mensa, the top men’s accessory and fragrance brand Villain saw more than 250% growth in October. Another partner brand, the high-end designer sarees brand Karagiri increased by 140% last month. According to Narayanan, over 100% of the brands Mensa has acquired so far have experienced growth.
How did Mensa achieve the phenomenal revenue run rate?
Tech-driven growth hacking and investments in the category, pricing, and product support the revenue run rate. The actions they took were based on trends predicted using a tech- and data-driven approach, and they included improving the product, placement, and profitability as well as adding SKUs.
How does Mensa manage the integration of various brands and their working together?
The supply chain, central warehouses, personnel, and financial aspects are integrated right away. In order to plan how they will use our budget on platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, and others, they also invest in performance marketing. After an acquisition, the sourcing, design, and persona are still brand-specific, giving each brand a unique persona or identity that is reflected in product development.
What are the main challenges faced by Mensa Brands so far?
The two main focus areas for creating a house of brands are technology and execution. The key is to have a highly skilled and knowledgeable team that can address these two issues consistently.
What are the future goals?
In the next 12 months, Mensa hopes to partner with another 20 founders and brands to reach a revenue run-rate of Rs 3,000 crore. Mensa has 700 employees spread across its three central offices in Bengaluru, Mumbai, and Gurugram, and has developed a strong values-driven culture. In the upcoming year, we want to continue this hiring spree and add about 700 more people. The team is currently working on the first-of-its-kind digital saree brand of India – Karagiri.
Mensa shows a real improvement by combining product and pricing optimization, technology-driven process optimization, distribution and marketing augmentation, and supply chain optimization. The brands are well positioned to become category leaders thanks to these levers, which significantly accelerate their growth and margin trajectory. We think Mensa is well on its way to establishing itself as the go-to partner for successful e-commerce brands.
