Meet Nitin Agarwal, IIT alumnus CEO who built billion-dollar company in just 7 months

Former top corporate executive turned entrepreneur Nitin Agarwal can be credited with building one of the fastest unicorns in India. From starting out in April of 2021, he built GlobalBees into a $1 billion firm by December of the same year. GlobalBees is a roll up e-commerce company, second in its segment to earn unicorn status in India after Mensa Brands.

GlobalBees is an investment platform. It is modelled on Thrasio, a US based startup which is among the biggest firms buying up third-party sellers on Amazon. Agarwal built a portfolio with a variety of brands for GlobalBees, in categories like fashion, jewellery, wellness, personal care, lifestyle and eyewear in around just half a year of the company's inception.

Nitin Agarwal was formerly President and Group CEO, CTO and Chief Digital Officer at Edelweiss Financial Services before co-founding GlobalBees with FirstCry founder Supam Maheshwari. An engineer from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Delhi, Agarwal started his career with Citibank before going on a career where he held roles like Chief Operations Officer for multiple firms. He was twice the founder of companies. After over a decade as a corporate leader, he left his high-paying Edelweiss job to found GlobalBees.

In just 3 months of inception, Agarwal’s company bagged its first funding of $150 million in Series A led by FirstCry and some other investors. In Series B funding it raised $111.5 million led by Premji Invest, the private equity firm of legendary billionaire Azim Premji. Other investors in GlobalBees include Softbank and Steadview Capital. As of December 2021, the company had a valuation of $1.1 billion, nearly Rs 9,000 crore in April 2023.

Nitin Agarwal’s GlobalBees has invested in around 26 firms and its portfolio holds more than 55 brands. It has one online store and plans to open 10 more this year, Agarwal recently told Economic Times. He added that GlobalBees is currently achieving shipped gross sales to the tune of Rs 140-150 crore per month. Among the largest third-party cross category sellers, GlobalBees has 22 certified warehouses. Agarwal aims to turn the company profitable with $1 billion revenue by 2026.