Mamaearth's parent company Honasa Consumer becomes the latest entrant in India's Unicorn club with the company raising $52 million led by Sequoia Capital in the current round of raising capital. Sequoia Capital led the fundraising round, and the company is currently valued at $1.2 billion.
Honasa is also the parent company of The Derma Co, a personal care brand. Sofina Ventures SA, a Belgian investment firm, and Evolvence, a UAE-based India-focused fund, both participated in the round. Employees were also able to cash in on their vested ESOPs during the round.
In an official statement, Varun Alagh, Co-Founder and CEO, Honasa Consumer, said, "We will be deploying the funds towards brand launches, expanding distribution, inorganic growth, and expanding the current portfolio across borders." He further went on to add, "Sequoia, Sofina, and Evolvence have unique strengths the in US, Europe & GCC, respectively, which will help us grow internationally & learn from others in these markets."
Mamaearth Journey
Mamaearth, founded in 2016 by husband-and-wife team Varun and Ghazal Alagh, has quickly become one of India's most popular new-age consumer brands, riding the so-called direct-to-consumer (D2C) wave, in which brands sell to consumers directly from their website or via e-commerce platforms rather than taking the more traditional and costly offline route. It includes bamboo-based baby wipes, face masks, lotions, and hair care products among its more than 80 toxin-free, natural goods. Derma Co, a second brand, was launched in late 2019.
One of the few new-age consumer brands to achieve so, their products have an annual sales run rate of over Rs 500 crore. It intends to use the capital to develop its portfolio of direct-to-consumer (D2C) personal care brands. It will also continue to expand Mamaearth and The Derma Co distribution, as well as look for strategic inorganic development possibilities in the personal-care sector.
