Sugar Cosmetics is currently one of the leading cosmetic brands in India, with R&D and manufacturing in Germany, Italy, India, USA and South Korea, before shipping its best-selling lip care, eye care, face care and nail care categories around the world . While Sugar Cosmetics has led the way in the Indian cosmetics market, the company has also infused the brand with a feminine power through its co-founder Vineeta Singh.
Recently, Sugar Cosmetics, one of the largest omni-channel beauty companies in India, has completed a USD 50 million (approximately RMB 330 million) Series D financing
led by L Catterton Asia, an Asian private equity fund under LVMH. L Catterton has extensive experience investing in beauty and personal care globally, with current and past investments in the field including The Honest Company, TULA, ELEMIS, ETVOS, Function of Beauty and more.
Anjana , Managing Director of L Catterton Asia, to join Sugar Cosmetics’ Board of Directors Sasidharan said: “With its product-first philosophy and deep understanding of its target consumers, Sugar Cosmetics’ leadership team has established a solid position in the Indian cosmetics market, which is at an inflection point of expansion. L Catterton will leverage its partnership with the Americas, Europe and the The experience of working with more than 20 beauty and personal care companies in the Asian portfolio has unlocked Sugar Cosmetics’ international reputation and further promoted the brand’s growth.”
01 founder once rejected an offer of tens of millions of annual salary
as some of the top schools in India—— An alumnus of New Delhi Public School RK Puram , Madras Institute of Technology and Ahmedabad School of Management, Sugar Cosmetics co-founder Vineeta Singh has a strong academic foundation .
At the age of 23, she became the first and youngest business school graduate in India who refused an offer of tens of millions of annual salary and chose to start her own business. A global investment bank invited her to provide 10 million rupees (about 850,000 yuan). Annual salary, but Vineeta rejected the offer on the grounds of starting his own human resources service company, and also appeared on the cover of British “The Week” magazine.
After graduating from Madras Polytechnic in Electrical Engineering, she started studying business studies at the Ahmedabad School of Management. During her MBA degree, she made up her mind to start her own business. In an interview, Vineeta shared, “I’ve always wanted to build products with women at my core, and when my first startup couldn’t scale, I decided to work with my husband and co-founder Kaushik . Mukherjee started a beauty subscription company together. Sugar Cosmetics is Vineeta ‘s third startup. Her first company, Quetzal, a human resources services company she founded in 2007, was a “huge failure.” The business was commoditized solely on price rather than value Grow.” A business like this doesn’t work in India because there will always be someone cheaper than you. ” explained Vineeta .
In 2012, India’s e-commerce industry was booming, and women were increasingly earning disposable income. Vineeta , in keeping with the times, started a beauty subscription company, Fab Bag, which provides women with a small monthly fee. Various beauty products. In her ninth year running the company, the company has amassed more than 200,000 customers.
In this beauty community, consumers share their beauty preferences, skin concerns with each other. When Vineeta collects data, she Realize that existing cosmetic brands, whether foreign or local, do not cater to Indian skin tones or Indian lifestyles. “Makeup must be long-lasting and matte so that it doesn’t come off easily. But in fact, Indian consumers are not alone in having such a demand for cosmetics. Consumer information collectedthrough the Fab Bag became the core of the later development of Sugar Cosmetics, which was launched in 2015 as a DTC cosmetics brand.
02 Winning investment with consumer research
Vineeta recalls her and husband Kaushik It took Mukherjee nearly five years to get the brand from seed funding to Series A funding. It was a difficult transition period, and the couple took out their last 3 million rupees (about 257,000 yuan) in fixed deposits to struggle in the fierce market.
Unlike most DTC beauty brands, Sugar Cosmetics grew its omnichannel business early. “Soon after the brand was established, we decided that we wanted our products to appear where our customers shopped, whether it was in local stores, India’s integrated e-commerce platform Shoppers Stop or Indian beauty e-commerce store Nykaa .
Consumer education is at the heart of the business, “Education is a critical step before commercial development. Women need to know how to use a product effectively before buying,” Vineeta said. So the brand uses YouTube, Instagram and the brand’s own app to reach customers.
The company targets a 20- to 35-year-old audience around social media marketing. While the market and product are ready, Sugar Cosmetics still faces many hurdles to launch in the digital beauty market, “When we tried to raise money, I was told that DTC beauty is a small market and it would not be possible without raising high capital. Compete with big FMCG companies,” the brand founder said in an interview.
In 2017, early investors India Quotient and Singapore -based venture capital firm RB Investments extended the lifeline for Sugar Cosmetics in an undisclosed Series A funding round.
After overcoming all the hurdles, Sugar Cosmetics is now climbing to new heights and carving its name in the cosmetics industry. The brand is now one of the fastest growing beauty brands in India, with its iconic polygonal packaging and best-selling skincare and beauty products, it has become the cosmetic of choice for edgy independent women who reject stereotypes. As of January of this year, the brand has raised millions of dollars and is selling more than 650,000 products a month. Sugar Cosmetics’ app has over 1 million downloads and a huge following.
In addition to online channels, Sugar Cosmetics has brick-and-mortar stores in more than 4,000 locations in more than 550 cities. The brand’s revenue in fiscal 2020 reached 1.05 billion rupees (about 89.78 million yuan) and raised $21 million (about 140 million yuan) in venture capital led by early-stage venture capital firm Elevation Capital. The valuation is 7.5 billion rupees (about 640 million yuan).
Sugar Cosmetics has gained international attention because it recently received a Series D financing led by L Catterton Asia, an Asian private equity fund owned by LVMH. The round also saw continued participation from existing investors A91 Partners, Elevation Capital and India Quotient.
Sugar Cosmetics has quadrupled its sales in the past three years,according to L Catterton , which in a statement attributed this to the brand’s high-quality products and “influencer-focused content marketing.”
03 Inherited from her father’s “irrational enthusiasm”
until now, Vineeta Singh is still one of the most successful businesswomen in India, appearing on the Indian version of the business reality show “Shark Tank India”.
Vineeta Singh spoke fondly of her father in the interview. Tej Singh, 73 , is a scientist at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences who has devoted his life to studying the structure of proteins to develop drugs to treat cancer and other diseases. “He worked 365 days a year, 24/7. As a kid, I would see him back in the lab after dinner to work all night. His goal was to discover 600 protein structures in his lifetime.
” Understand his ‘irrational enthusiasm’ for his work.” Vineeta continued: “He was only able to discover 15 protein structures a year, and it would be difficult to reach the goal of 600.” But in 2020, after 30 years After years of hard work, her father achieved the goal he set. “I asked him how he felt about reaching his goals? Would he take a back seat and enjoy his retirement? He said he still had the energy to do more research in the future and felt as excited as the first day of research.
” Understand him because I feel the same way about SUGAR Cosmetics,” Vineeta said. From annual sales of just under 20 crore rupees (approximately RMB 1.71 million) in the early years to now generating 20 crore sales per day, this digital-first cosmetics brand has come a long way.
In addition to his exciting commercial success, Vineeta is a marathon and triathlete whose accomplishments include completing the 89km marathon in South Africa for three consecutive years. Still, Vineeta says she’s just getting started. “We’re chasing the Indian beauty market worth hundreds of crores,” she quipped. “All I want to do is keep building a business, and I realize now how similar I am to my father, this irrational passion must be inherited. ”
Post time: 08-11-2022
