As part of the deal, Bulbul’s founder Sachin Bhatia will take over GCC’s chief executive, sources said.
The acquisition is expected to help GCC ramp up its influencer-led social commerce play and use Bulbul’s tech stack to help creators launch digital storefronts.
“Bulbul is being merged into GCC,” said another person with knowledge of the development. “Some early backers will cash out while others will get an equity swap in GCC,” said another person.
GCC and Bulbul declined to comment.
ET reported on Feb 22 that
creator management and monetisation platform Qyuki is also in talks for a majority sale.
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Good Glamm Group, armed with capital raised from investors, has invested Rs 200 crore as seed capital in Good Creator Co, when it was spun off in January.
The funds will help the company grow its revenue base, company executive told ET in a recent interview.
ETtech“Our current revenue run rate for GCC is around Rs 75 crore and we expect it to grow to Rs 250 crore by the end of the current calendar year,” Darpan Sanghvi, founder and CEO,
Good Glamm Group told ET on February 4.
GCC has a network of 1.5 million influencers across the country. It has acquired companies and platforms such as influencer marketing platform Plixxo, MissMalini Entertainment, Winkl and online video analytics company Vidooly.
Founded in 2018, Bulbul was among the first cohort of startups experimenting with live commerce. When that failed to gain traction, last year it pivoted to digitising storefronts for creators, shops, and sellers and influencer-led sales in a pre-recorded video format.
It last raised $8.7 million in 2020 and counts Sequoia’s Surge, Info Edge and Leo Capital among its backers.
ETtechAs of December 2021, Bulbul was selling unbranded products through a network of 1,000 influencers, primarily on YouTube. The platform was clocking about 100,000 transactions every month, Bhatia told ET in December last year.
Bulbul focuses on tier 2 and tier 3 influencers and market, in the fashion, home and kitchen, and gadgets category. It had also launched its own brands – Myfav (grooming category), Noor (women ethnic wear), and Aro (men sneakers), promoted and pushed through influencers.
The Good Glamm Group has adopted an acquisition strategy to expand and grow its business and to get into newer segments such as women’s hygiene, organic and clean beauty products, mom and baby care, among others. The D2C beauty conglomerate has acquired brands such as The Moms Co, St. Botanica, Sirona and Organic Harvest as well as content platforms – POPxo, Scoopwhoop and BabyChakra.
Valued at over $1.2 billion, the group is backed by investors such as Warburg Pincus, Prosus Ventures, L’Occitane, Bessemer Venture Partners, Accel, and Amazon. According to sources, the company is now in talks with investors to stitch together a new funding round that values the company at over $2 billion.
There is an unprecedented rush among direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands to snag a meaningful share of the content creator economy. Influencer and creator economy startups have seen a spate of acquisitions in recent months with new age brands such as MamaEarth acquiring influencer-engagement platform Momspresso MyMoney.
The social commerce space has also seen a large degree of consolidation in 2021 with YouTube buying video commerce platform Simsim, and Shop101’s acquisition by InMobi’s Glance.
According to multiple executives, e-commerce players are exploring investments and acquisition opportunities to reduce the cost of acquiring new customers and build a social commerce play.
“This is bound to happen as brands, ecommerce, and social platforms all achieve scale because all three sectors are going to be heavily dependent on the creator economy and would want operational expertise in that area,” said an executive at a creator management company.
