Pep Technologies raises Rs 42 cr in funding round led by Amicus Capital, RPSG Ventures

Pep Technologies, which aims to make mCaffeine a Rs 500-crore brand in the next three years, said a majority of the investment has come from Amicus Capital and RPSG Ventures.

The company had last raised funds in June 2019, when it received USD 2 million (nearly Rs 15 crore) in a Series A funding round from a group of investors led by RPSG Ventures. This is the third round of funding raised by the company so far and the fresh funds will be utilised for scaling up R&D capabilities, expanding distribution across digital channels, growing operations, brand building and organisational scale up, the company said in a statement.

"mCaffeine plans to penetrate the market aggressively by giving more emphasis to a customer-driven approach, especially for the young millennials of India, with premium offerings," Pep Technologies said. The company said its products are currently available at 18,000 pin codes across India and it plans to substantially increase its online and offline presence.

Commenting on the fresh round of funding, mCaffeine co-founder and CEO Tarun Sharma said, "In this round, we had three term sheets and chose Amicus Capital as we loved the long term, product focused approach of the fund. We are extremely happy to have them alongside us while we build mCaffeine from Rs 100 crore to Rs 500 crore brand in the next three years." Amicus Capital co-founder and Partner Sunil Theckath Vasudevan said, "Amicus Capital has a strategy of investing in emerging consumer brands with sharp positioning and strong online presence. "Within a short period, the founders have built mCaffeine into a leader in personal care products based on a very unique proposition of caffeine based products." RPSG Ventures Head and CIO Abhishek Goenka said mCaffeine has built a solid differentiation around caffeine-based personal care products which is demonstrated in its strong growth profile and superior capital efficiency.

The follow-on investment resonates well with RPSG Venture's philosophy of backing its portfolio companies from a long term perspective, he added. Pep Technologies said it has bounced back from COVID-19 disruptions to surpass its pre-COVID-19 revenue run rate.