Thursday, February 27, 2020, Chandigarh: Wipro HQ has acquired a minority stake in LetsShave and signed an agreement to invest in the company. LetsShave is predominantly into the shaving domain and steadily expanding into grooming. It markets a high-quality portfolio of men’s and women’s premium products in this space under the brand name of LetsShave. It has a strategic tie-up with a more than 60 years old established razor manufacturing, Korean company Dorco.
“LetsShave offers high-quality products and is a challenger brand in a space dominated by a single large player. They are a promising team and have the ability to understand consumer requirements, identify opportunities, and meet them in quick cycle time. This investment is in keeping with the company’s strategy of leveraging emerging online opportunities addressed towards the millennial population. We will be increasing our portfolio in the short to medium term as part of our strategy of investing in innovative start-ups in the space of consumer brands and consumer-tech domains in India and South-East Asia,” said Sumit Keshan, Managing Partner, Wipro Consumer – Venture.
According to reports by PGA Labs, India’s men’s grooming market was $1.28 billion in 2016 and is estimated to have crossed $2.6 billion in 2018, recording a CAGR of 36 percent. The market is projected to soar to $5.5 billion by 2021.
Sidharth S Oberoi, founder of LetsShave said, “We had started our journey four years ago and have made a strong presence with huge acceptance from our consumers for our products. We are excited to partner with Wipro who has a deep understanding of Indian consumers.” “With their support, we plan to chart a strong growth trajectory and are committed to making LetsShave a sustainable and responsible one-stop solution provider for shaving systems, personal care and grooming for men and women,” he added.
Considering its strong partnership with LetsShave, Dorco recently increased its stake from 10% to 15%. Mr. Ken Kwak, Managing Director of Dorco Co. Ltd. and also one of the Directors of LetsShave said, “We are thrilled by the prospect of Wipro joining hands with LetsShave. The powerful combination of our high-quality products and LetsShave’s passionate team, digital marketing expertise, technical capabilities with Wipro’s deep knowledge and experience in the Indian market will help us to further reach the Millennial population and together we’ll be able to create LetsShave an even stronger brand for Indian consumers.”
Further to, Mr. Ashwani Oberoi, father of founder Sidharth Oberoi and Director of LetsShave was the first investor in the company and still holds the majority stake in the business.
Company’s CMO Asawari Pawar said: “We will effectively utilize the funds to expand our shaving and personal care product portfolio, bolster our online presence by growing our revenue by at least 3X and leverage Wipro’s touchpoints to expand into the offline market”. “In the women’s shaving market, we have grown a lot faster than we initially thought, so we also plan to expand our women’s product portfolio under the brand LetsShave ‘Evior’ in an effort to continue to drive growth overall” she added.
LetsShave has a user base of over a half-million customers with a promising repeat rate of over 40% and serves more than 18,000 pin codes in India. It has recently entered into the shower, body care, beard products, and electric trimmers categories. All products from LetsShave.com are also available on marketplaces such as Amazon, Nykaa, Flipkart, Paytm, Bigbasket & Snapdeal and more. (Source: Business Wire India)
