Fireside Ventures-backed direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand The Ayurveda Experience, operated by Transformative Learning Solutions on Tuesday, announced that it has raised Rs 50 crore (about $6 million) in a fundraise round led by Anicut Capital.
The round also saw participation from Sharrp Ventures (Mariwala Family Office), Singularity Ventures, among others.
“These funds will be deployed to enter new geographies and expand our base in existing markets, it will also be used for the group’s R&D (research and development), supply chain and manufacturing strength,” said Rishabh Chopra, the founder and chief executive officer of the D2C brand.
According to Chopra, this is The Ayurveda Experience’s third capital raise round. So far, the company has raised about Rs 105 crore ($12.7 million) of primary capital, according to a press statement.
The Gurugram-based Ayurvedic health and wellness platform was founded in 2010, and has product offerings in segments including skincare, body care, personal care, food & beverages, among others, through brands including iYURA, Ajara, Ayuttva. The house of brands claims to have a customer base of around 840,000 customers through its a geographical presence in North America, Europe, Australia and India.
Some of its other investors apart from Fireside Ventures include The Kalpvriksh Fund, (Centrum Group), Riverwalk Ventures, and Emerge Capital, among others.
The firm competes with the likes of The Ayurveda Co, Upakarma Ayurveda, Vedix, Kama Ayurveda, Kapiva, among others.
Funding rounds in Ayurveda-based health and wellness brands have gained momentum recently as some of its peers raised funding.
In its Series A round, Gurugram-based D2C brand The Ayurveda Co raised about Rs 5 crore from actor Kajal Aggarwal, while it had plans to raise about Rs 122.6 crore in the capital raise round.
Among other developments in the Ayurveda-based health and wellness space, pharmaceuticals giant Mankind Pharma Ltd, last month acquired a majority stake in Upakarma Ayurveda Pvt Ltd through one of its subsidiaries for an undisclosed sum.
Consumer focused venture capital firm Fireside Ventures’ Kawaljeet Singh, in an interview with VCCircle said that the VC firm was considering investments in firms focusing on a target solution like the area of Ayurveda, or problems like preventative health. It added that In the house of brands, we look to back those companies which are creating multiple sub-brands, each independent of the other, for a target set of audiences.
