UpScalio, a digitally led ‘House of brands’ in the utility consumer goods space, has raised $15m in a pre-series-B round, led by Gulf Islamic Investments, with participation from a consortium of lenders including Northern Arc and Unity bank. This fund raise announcement comes shortly after UpScalio’s mega series-A round fundraise of $42.5M in August last year.
Gulf Islamic Investments (GII), having an AUM of ~$3b spanning over private equity and real estate globally, is looking to build on its portfolio in India. GII’s investment in UpScalio marks their sixth investment in its second Indian Growth Portfolio launched in 2021 consisting of opportunities across technology based consumer and healthcare segments.
UpScalio, headquartered in Gurgaon, was founded in April 2021 by former McKinsey & Company consultant Gautam Kshatriya, former Bain & Company consultant Saaim Khan, and former Disney Hotstar and Purplle marketing and growth executive, Nitin Agarwal. UpScalio’s vision is to be India’s next generation, tech-led consumer goods company. UpScalio acquires stakes in high growth ecommerce brands that sell on Amazon, Flipkart, other marketplaces, and their own websites, and then works closely with founders to scale these brands 5-10x over a 2-3 year period.
Over the last 9 months, UpScalio has built a portfolio of 13 brands across utility categories such as Home & Kitchen, Furniture, Auto accessories and Lawn & Gardening. UpScalio’s current annualized GMV run rate is already at over Rs. 300Cr from its existing brands portfolio, with the majority of these 13 brands showing strong unprecedented growth year-on-year. UpScalio’s also been successful in building a team of over 120+ specialists across functions with experience scaling successful e-commerce companies in India.
Pankaj Gupta and Mohammed Alhassan, Co-founders and Co-CEOs of Gulf Islamic Investments said, “UpScalio’s core focus on operating brands in all-weather utility categories is differentiated from similar modelled businesses in India and globally. We have been thoroughly impressed with the UpScalio team’s ability to integrate companies and create value across digital marketing, product development, pricing, supply chain and deep analytics. We believe UpScalio’s brands are on the trajectory of becoming category leaders and household names.
“We are absolutely thrilled to have GII partner with us on our growth journey. GII team’s global experience in ‘buy and build’ across industries will be immensely helpful as we aggregate and scale ecommerce brands. We will utilize this fundraise to partner with more brands, to invest in hiring across key growth functions, and to build out other technology and growth capabilities.”, said Gautam Kshatriya, Co-founder & CEO, UpScalio.