CEO turned founder Ananth Narayanan holds the tag as the man who built the ‘fastest unicorn’ in India. He left his highly lucrative top executive job at an ecommerce giant in 2019 to begin a venture which turned into a billion dollar company in just 6 months. Narayanan’s Mensa brands has around 30 brands worth over Rs 1000 crore. Narayanan plans to take this number to 300 in the next 10 years.
Narayanan, a top executive, was the CEO of online fashion company Myntra. He is an alumnus of University of Madras and University of Michigan. Narayanan has worked for leading MNCs like McKinsey and Company before leading Myntra-Jabong as its CEO. He later joined Medlife.com as co-founder and ran it as CEO before it was bought by Pharmeasy.
Ananth Narayanan then founded Mensa Brands, which became the country’s first e-commerce roll-up company which is valued at $1.2 billion. The company was founded amid Covid in May 2021 and achieved the unicorn status reaching valuation of Rs 7,447 crore after raising around Rs 1,005 crore later that year in November, according to a BQ Prime report.
Mensa, modeled on the business idea that gave US the $5 billion valued Thras.io, is creating a cluster of brands with digital-first identity. The firm has 100 percent year-on-year growth rate and touched revenue rate of Rs 1,500 crore. In December 2022 at a Hyderabad summit, Narayanan had revealed that Mensa Brands is aiming for 300 brands in excess of Rs 1000 crore in the next 10 years, according to a Business Today report.
