What the business is
Omnichannel D2C snacking brand selling popped potato chips, gourmet dips and cookies on its website, ecommerce platforms and in stores.
The bet
Reliance Consumer is betting a small D2C snack brand is worth acquiring for about $3.5M, even after its production reportedly stopped.
Starting capital
About $3.2M raised in total, including $1.2M seed in 2020 from angels and a $2M pre-Series A led by 9 Unicorns.
How it started
Anish Basu Roy and Sagar Bhalotia founded TagZ in 2019. It raised $1.2M seed from angels in 2020, then $2M pre-Series A led by 9 Unicorns, and later an undisclosed sum from Shikhar Dhawan, who became its brand ambassador.
What happened
In FY23 TagZ reported a net loss of INR 10.7 Cr on operating revenue of INR 9.6 Cr. Sources told Inc42 the brand halted production a few months before the deal, its products disappeared from ecommerce marketplaces and retail stores, and a number of employees quit.
How it ended up
On 13 November 2024 Inc42 reported that Reliance Consumer Products, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reliance Retail, was acquiring TagZ for INR 28 Cr (about $3.5M), a price a regulatory filing said could change after due diligence. Reliance and TagZ had not answered questions.
What has to be true
TagZ was struggling to scale its business, per Inc42's sources.
FY23 losses of INR 10.7 Cr exceeded its revenue of INR 9.6 Cr.
Production reportedly stopped and employees left, leaving little to hold the brand together.
Large FMCG companies have been buying D2C brands in India.
What can be applied
A small D2C food brand that cannot hold supply and shelf presence can still exit to a large buyer, but at a price near what it raised rather than a venture-scale outcome.
Aftermath
As of 2024-11-13 the acquisition was reported from a regulatory filing, with the price subject to due diligence and neither company commenting. The distress-sale and production-halt claims were from anonymous sources.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE