Deepak Gupta, COO and Co-founder of the Indian grooming brand, outlines 18–24 month IPO plan, targets higher margins as quick commerce fuels growth, in a conversation with BW Retail World
Bombay Shaving Company is charting a profitability-first path to the public markets, targeting Rs 150 crore in Ebitda ahead of a planned IPO within the next 18 to 24 months, a senior company executive said. The Gurugram-based grooming and personal care brand, which turned profitable last year and currently generates around Rs 700 crore in annual revenue, is focusing on improving margins and scaling operations before filing its draft papers.
Speaking to BW Retail World on the sidelines of ad:tech 2026, Deepak Gupta, co-founder and COO, said the IPO remains a strategic milestone. “Being a consumer company, we like to have an IPO as a milestone in this journey. Two to one-and-a-half years, we should get ready,” he said.
Gupta added that the company is working towards a Rs 150 crore Ebitda benchmark, alongside double-digit margins and crossing four-digit revenue in annual revenue. “That will be a good number to kind of do this,” he noted, highlighting profitability and scale as key pillars of its listing strategy. He further said the company aims to build a “critical mass of consumer penetration” before going public, signalling a shift from growth-at-all-costs to sustainable expansion.
Bombae To Anchor Next Phase Of Growth
A key pillar of future growth is the company’s women’s grooming label, Bombae, which contributes 40–45 per cent of overall growth. Introduced in 2022, the brand has since expanded beyond its core hair removal segment into the broader women’s styling category.
“Bombay in itself should become as big as what we are in three years’ time as an entire organisation,” the Co-founder said, suggesting that the women’s portfolio could significantly reshape the company’s revenue mix ahead of its public listing.
On gender-based pricing, or the ‘pink tax’, Gupta said increased consumer awareness is making such practices unsustainable.
“Consumers are smart, and information asymmetry is broken now. So if any brand tries to fool the consumer through the pink tax, I think the consumer will realise it. It’s just because the information is easily accessible and available now. So there’s no point doing it. Make sure you deliver value to the consumer. That’s more important than trying to tax the consumer because they are of different gender. Selling the same product is my view,” he said.
Digital-first, Quick Commerce Surge
Despite a growing offline presence with around 20 physical stores in metro malls and high streets, Bombay Shaving Company remains overwhelmingly digital in its revenue composition. “We continue to be a very digital-first organisation. Still, 85–90 per cent of revenue continues to come from online channels,” the COO said. The company’s own D2C brand store remains its single largest revenue platform.
Quick commerce, led by platforms such as Blinkit, Zepto and Swiggy Instamart, has emerged as a key growth channel, contributing around 30 per cent to overall revenue. It is also aiding geographic expansion into tier 2 cities, where the company currently has no plans to open exclusive stores.
“Quick commerce is now giving a lot of penetration to tier 2 cities. There are platforms like Meesho which give access to those markets,” he noted, signalling a capital-light strategy to reach non-metro consumers without the overhead of exclusive physical retail.
Gupta noted that Blinkit enables premium product discovery and higher average order values, while Swiggy Instamart is stronger for repeat purchases and basket building. Zepto, on the other hand, is attracting younger consumers and driving impulse buying, while Flipkart Minutes is helping the brand tap more value-conscious segments.
Importantly, he does not view quick commerce as a competing channel but as an inevitable evolution in consumer expectations. “We now don’t see quick commerce as a challenge. We see quick commerce as a point of decision or a feature,” he said, adding that faster fulfilment is increasingly becoming a baseline requirement across platforms.
The company is targeting around 50 per cent growth, while remaining bullish on the broader industry’s expansion. Gupta expects the sector to grow significantly faster, driven by digital adoption and evolving consumer behaviour.
Beyond distribution, the company continues to focus on solving specific consumer pain points through product innovation. “Just the ability to understand the consumer and then innovate is what we continue to do,” Gupta said
