The Good Glamm Group has become the latest entrant in the growing list of Indian unicorns as it raised $150 million (Rs 1,110 crore) in its Series D round of funding co-led by marquee investors including Prosus Ventures and Warburg Pincus, even as it plans to make four more acquisitions in the haircare, naturals and personal hygiene sectors by the end of this year.
The company’s existing investors- L’Occitane, Bessemer Venture Partners, Amazon, Ascent Capital and the Mankekar Family Office participated in this transaction, which is a mix of primary and secondary component. Venture debt investor Alteria Capital is also said to have contributed to this round.
The company, which claims to have become the first beauty and personal care D2C(direct to consumer) brand to enter the coveted unicorn club, has been valued at $1.2 billion(Rs 8,886 crore) following this transaction. India has seen 35 startups become unicorns in 2021 till date.
The Good Glamm Group plans to use these funds to primarily invest in product development, support data science and technology research, increase offline expansion, and also to fund working capital requirements.
“Entering the Unicorn Club marks Day 1 for all of us at the Good Glamm Group. And we couldn’t be more excited and privileged to embark on the journey from 1 to 10, with Prosus and Warburg, who bring incredible strength and experience to our company,” said Darpan Sanghvi, Group founder and CEO at Good Glamm Group.
The Good Glamm Group is also set to make four acquisitions in haircare, naturals and personal hygiene category by the end of this year, according to Sanghvi. He added that the company is likely to spend around $270 million for all the six acquisitions (including MomsCo and ScoopWhoop). In October, the company acquired digital media and lifestyle content platform Kalaari Capital-backed ScoopWhoop Media Pvt Ltd. It also bought out baby-care products startup The Moms Co for an undisclosed sum the very same month.
Sanghvi Beauty and Technologies, which operates direct-to-consumer (D2C) beauty products brand MyGlamm, unveiled The Good Glamm Group in September under which it has consolidated its various businesses in a bid to strengthen its position as a ‘digital house of brands’ powered by a content-to-commerce strategy. Beauty and personal care brands owned by the Good Glamm Group include MyGlamm (cosmetics brand), MomsCo (premium mom and baby brand), POPxo (cosmetics brand for tweens) and Baby Chakra (baby products brand).
“We are delighted to back Darpan and the entire team at the Good Glam Group. With a strong portfolio of D2C brands and proprietary content assets, the group is well positioned to scale rapidly and create a large digital-first business in the beauty and personal care space,” said Vishal Mahadevia, MD and India Head at Warburg Pincus.
“We are very excited to partner with the Good Glamm Group to disrupt the beauty and personal care industry and this marks our first investment in the DTC category. The Good Glamm team has paired desirable, homegrown brands with compelling content, building an incredibly engaged community and positioning them well for future growth in India and beyond,” said Ashutosh Sharma, head of investments(India) at Prosus Ventures. Prosus Ventures is the the Euronext listed entity that holds South African conglomerate Naspers’ international internet assets.
The Good Glamm Group is particularly bullish on haircare, particularly hair colour, as it feels that e-commerce penetration in hiarcare is less than 3.8% despite the broader category touted at $3 billion. Sanghvi is equally optimistic that The Good Glamm’s content to ecommerce moat and superior products can also be helpful to get deeper in skincare as well. He said that currently the e-commerce penetration of skincare is less than 4.5% whereas the category’s size is at $2 billion.
Sanghvi said that the company hopes that e-commerce penetration of all these categories will cross 40% in the years to come.
The company is targeting to go public by Diwali 2023. Sanghvi has no plans to list abroad. “See the multiples of consumer companies which have got listed on Indian bourses. They have one of the best multiples.”
MyGlamm was founded in 2017 by Sanghvi and Gill. The company claims to be India’s fastest-growing D2C beauty brand, with a range of over 800 cruelty-free and vegan products across categories such as makeup, skincare, and personal care. It also has over 30,000 offline points of sale across 70 cities of India.
In September, MyGlamm topped up its Series C fundraise with a $34 million (Rs 255 crore) infusion led by an equity investment from the Trifecta Leaders Fund and structured financing from Trifecta Capital and Stride Ventures. Earlier this month, VCCircle reported that MyGlamm is in advanced discussions to pick up controlling stakes in two personal care companies.