A personal care startup brand Mamaearth has raised Rs 130 crore in a funding led by Sequoia Capital India and from its existing investors, Fireside Ventures, Stellaris Venture Partners and Sharp Ventures.
Mamaearth was founded in 2016 by the husband-wife duo, Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh. The firm claimsthat it is Asia’s first made-safe certified brand, that offers 100 per cent toxin-free and natural skincare, hair care and baby care products. The company is working on building its new range of direct to consumer brands that use the internet-first approach to reach the target audience.
The company has plans to use the freshly acquired funds over the next three years to continue its growth and building the firm into a Rs 500 crore brand by acquiring 5 million new consumers with its internet-first approach, focusing on the millennial consumers. These funds will also be used to launch more brands under the Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. (Mamaearth’s parent company). Apart from this, the company plans to utilize the funds to hire talent as the organization would scale rapidly and expand into key markets in Southeast Asia.
“Our vision is to create the FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) conglomerate of the future by building brands that connect strongly with millennials and Gen Z customers using the combined power of digital marketing and e-commerce at large scale,” said Varun Alagh, founder and CEO of Mamaearth. He further said,“Sequoia India’s investment at this stage of our journey validates this vision of building a global brand of the future.”
Varun Alagh’s vision is to create a multi-brand, cross geo FMCG company over the next decade.
Ishaan Mittal, Principalat Sequoia Capital India LLP said that,“Out of India’s $15 billion personal care market, online channels contribute to only 3-5 per cent.” He further said, “With 15-20 per cent of Indian shoppers influenced digitally and expected to double in next 7-8 years, digital-first brands have the potential to redefine the architecture of tomorrow’s FMCG companies.
This Gurugram-based startup, Mamaearth, said some early angels have exited the company in this round with a return of over 20X on their initial investment.“From day one we have ensured we listen to our consumers and provide products which they were looking for. This led us to develop and launch over 80 products in under three years,” said Ghazal Alagh, co-founder at Mamaearth.
In these recent years, Mamaearthhas launched a range of over 80 natural products and has reached over 1.5 million customers in 500 Indian cities. These products are available across major e-commerce platforms such as Amazon, Nykaa and Flipkart.
nwagen.com