Slick Organics Pvt. ltd, which operates premium personal care brand Arata, has raised $1 million (Rs 7.42 crore at current exchange rates) in a pre-Series A funding round.
Participants in this round include Sixth Sense Ventures founder Nikhil Vora and Rohan Vaziralli. Existing investors including consumer-focussed venture firm DSG Consumer Partners also took part in the round.
Vaziralli, general manager at personal care company Estee Lauder India, invested in his personal capacity.
Siddharth Kothari, an angel investor and chief investment strategist at Om Kothari Group; and Chirag Jain of the financial services-based Ashika Group also participated in this round.
Boutique investment banking firm Dexter Capital Advisors acted as the exclusive financial adviser to the transaction, Arata said in a statement.
The company was set up in February 2018 by Dhruv Madhok, a former strategy consultant in the US and the UAE, and Dhruv Bhasin, a former finance executive in the UK and India.
Arata operates as a community-led lifestyle brand. It sells plant-based unisex hair and skincare products.
It will use the capital raised in this pre-Series A round to create brand awareness, invest in its research and development, launch new products, increase marketing and build out inventory.
“One of the biggest themes to play out in India is wellness in everything that a future consumer will look out for. Arata can potentially be a path breaker here with its ethos lying in 100% natural, plant-based, chemical-free products,” Vora said.
Separately, Madhok and Bhasin said the fundraise will help the brand scale itself with unique offerings. “Our revenues have grown two times in the past seven months,” they added.
Arata’s products are sold on e-commerce platforms including Amazon and Nykaa, as well as the company’s own website. The company says its products are priced between Rs 249 and Rs 899. It claims to have a customer base of over one lakh in the country.
In January last year, Arata raised Rs 3.5 crore in a seed round that was led by DSG Consumer Partners. AngelList India’s Utsav Somani and Godrej Consumer Products Ltd executive Rajan Raghavachari also participated in the round.
