Gurugram-based Innovist (formerly Onesto Labs), which runs brands like Bare Anatomy, Chemist at Play and SunScoop, on Wednesday said it has secured pre-Series A funding of $3.5 million (around Rs 27 crore) led by Accel Partners and 72 Ventures.
The fundraise also saw participation from investors including Sauce (Manu Chandra) and Arihant Patni (Patni Family Office), Jani Ventures Inc, Nihir Parikh, Rashmi Kwatra (Sixteen Street Capital), Kunal Shah (Cred), Alok Mittal, and Shripad Nadkarni (Maverix Platforms & Fingerlix).
Innovist plans to use the fresh money to further strengthen the company’s research and development capabilities, marketing, hiring and distribution channels.
Founded in 2018 by Rohit Chawla, Sifat Khurana, and Vimal Bhola, Innovist is a house of brands focused on beauty and personal care. Its brands Bare Anatomy, Chemist at Play, and SunScoop sell beauty and personal care products designed with ingredients and are backed by scientific research.
“The name Innovist was coined because we are a science and innovation-led platform and we wanted the name to reflect that. The journey so far has been incredible. With the new capital, we are confident that we can bolster our infrastructure substantially and grow further,” said Rohit Chawla, founder and chief executive officer of Innovist.
Onesto Labs was also part of Accel’s Atoms first cohort, launched last year to support early-stage startups.
“Innovist is a brand entirely driven by science and safe, clean ingredients and is anchored on transparency. From a business standpoint, a vertical house of brands enables us to extract the best possible value from demand and supply by innovating high-quality products while managing cost and operational efficiencies. We look forward to Rohit and team continuing their stellar work and launching world-class products in the BPC category for India and its adjacent markets,” said Radhika Ananth, vice president, Accel Partners.
Accel which typically comes in at a seed stage and then makes follow-on investments, has been the first institutional investor in more than 87% of all portfolio companies. Flipkart and Freshworks are examples of companies backed by Accel from their initial seed rounds through all subsequent financings.
In 2019, Onesto Labs raised $500,000 in a seed funding round led by consumer-focused private investment firm Sauce Venture Capital.
