Early-stage venture capital fund Sauce.vc has invested Rs 3.5 crore ($489,000) in a personalised hair care brand, Bare Anatomy, a top company executive told VCCircle.
The Gurugram-based company will use the funds for research and development apart from recruitment and upgrading technology, Rohit Chawla, one of the co-founders said.
Bare Anatomy currently offers five products in hair care - shampoo, conditioner, hair oil, hair mask and serum. “All products are personalized as per the customers’ unique needs and are made powered by our propriety formulations after receiving the order,” Chawla added.
Chawla said customers have to take a small quiz on the website, which asks questions related to their hair profile and preferences. “One can pick the hair goals they want to achieve, pick the color and fragrance of their products, so much that customers even get to put their names on their bottles,” he said.
An alumnus of Carnegie Mellon University, Chawla was one of the co-founders of The Man Company, a men grooming and essentials brand. He had earlier also launched an incubator called iLabs Ventures.
He said the pricing is a bit premium as the ingredients involved are originally imported from source countries, besides different storage format.
Bare Anatomy was launched in March this year by Rohit Chawla, Vimal Bhola and Sifat Khurana. The company, which is selling its products through its own website, has already managed more than 10,000 consumers from metros and tier 2 cities. It claims to be receiving 200 orders per day.
Manu Chandra, founder at Sauce.vc, said Bare Anatomy gains a deep understanding of its customer first and then creates products that suit their preferences, needs and goals.
“Rohit has a very clear vision to make this a beauty technology company rooted in deep consumer engagement and we are proud to back him in this journey,” he said.
Investor
Manu Chandra, an alumnus of IIM Ahmedabad, was earlier associated with UK-based private equity firm 3i. He bet on yogurt maker Epigamia and health drink brand &ME among others in his personal capacity.
Sauce.vc invests in companies in the food and beverage, apparel and lifestyle, and personal care sectors. Sauce.vc invested in Surat-based XYXX Apparels Pvt. Ltd, which runs an eponymous innerwear brand.
Sauce.vc earlier invested in food and beverage brand &ME in March.
Deals in personal-care segment
In June, Scentials Beauty Care and Wellness Pvt. Ltd, which mainly offers beauty products endorsed by celebrities, raised Rs 25 crore ($3.6 million) in its Series A round of funding from Unilever Ventures, the venture capital arm of consumer goods giant Unilever Plc.
In the same month, personal care brand mCaffeine raised $2 million in a Series A round of funding from a clutch of investors led by RP-SG Ventures.
Mid-market private equity firm Samara Capital recently inked back-to-back deals in the personal care segment. It invested in Delhi-based cosmetics firm Blue Heaven and Nature’s Essence.
In January, early-stage investment firm DSG Consumer Partners invested in personal-care products maker Arata Zero Chemicals.
