BRND.ME is now profitable, with ₹15–20 crore in net cash this financial year, said Founder & CEO Ananth Narayanan. This is big news for India’s D2C space, which has been dealing with survival mode, cash problems, and slow funding. It changes the conversation.
Narayanan said that actual cash generation, including working capital, is what matters now, not just theoretical EBITDA. The company burned ₹25 crore last year but generated ₹15–20 crore this year. This makes BRND.ME one of the first major VC-backed D2C brands in India to report post-scale, cash-positive operations publicly.
The unicorn already had ₹557.6 crore in FY24 operating revenue, cutting losses to ₹155.8 crore. Now, it’s planning to move its domicile from Singapore to India, which makes sense before a future D2C IPO when public markets value profit, not just GMV. He didn’t say when they would list, but the move shows their intentions.
BRND.ME is still looking at acquisitions, but only if the brands are a fit for a profitable portfolio and have proven product-market fit. Many brands from the 2021 roll-up commerce wave in India have poor unit economics. This signals a move to strategic compounding, not just rapid stacking.
Narayanan shared that India’s online buying pool is limited to 70–100 million users. Since the number of D2C brands is growing faster than the number of buyers, customer acquisition costs (CAC), marketplace ad pressure, and bidding wars are all limiting growth.
His advice: go global early.
For example, the peanut butter market in India is about ₹1,500 crore, but it’s about ₹4,500 crore in the Middle East for the same product.
This shows a new playbook where cross-border commerce, logistics-enabled export arbitrage, and globally relevant product categories drive revenue growth. BRND.ME already owns MyFitness, one of India’s biggest peanut butter brands.
This profitable unicorn proves that the roll-up idea can be cash-positive, and it’s a turning point. In 2021, the goal was to raise money faster than competitors. In 2023–24, it was about survival. In 2025, the benchmark is cash flow.
Profitability is now the ONLY key goal.
BRND.ME just changed the tone for the D2C industry.
