Honasa Consumer (HCPL) — the parent company of Mamaearth, The Derma Co. and personal care House of Brands — on Saturday announced that it has raised $52 million in its latest funding round led by Sequoia at a valuation of $1.2 billion.
With this, the company is the latest to join the unicorn club in India. The round also witnessed participation by Sofina Ventures SA, the Belgium-based investment company, and Evolvence, a UAE-based India-focused fund.
With the latest funding round, employees received the opportunity to monetise their vested ESOP.
The company plans to utilise the funds towards expanding their portfolio of personal care D2C brands and venturing into new avenues with unique propositions.
The newly acquired funds will be directed towards product innovation, distribution, and marketing of its brands. Along with launching new brands, Honasa will continue aggressively expanding distribution for existing brands Mamaearth and The Derma Co. and explore strategic inorganic growth opportunities in beauty and personal care segment, it said.
Varun Alagh, Co-Founder and CEO, Honasa Consumer, said, “We have been on a constant quest to becoming a company that is the first choice of evolving Indian millennials in the beauty and personal care segment.”
“Looking at the scale of Mamaearth and success of The Derma Co., we are confident that we have the expertise to build brands with a millennial connect. We will be deploying the funds towards brand launches, expanding distribution, inorganic growth and expanding the current portfolio across borders. Sequoia, Sofina and Evolvence have unique strengths in US, Europe & GCC respectively which will help us grow internationally & learn from others in these markets,” added Alagh.
The company has recently forayed into a new segment with the launch of Aqualogica, a hydration-based skin care brand.
Ghazal Alagh, Co-Founder and CIO, Honasa Consumer, said, “Millennials personal care concerns are dynamic and with our direct-to-consumer approach we are updated on the changing consumer demands. With this thought, we have been able to build an extensive portfolio of products across baby care, skincare, haircare and colour cosmetics under Mamaearth and a portfolio of 40+ products under The Derma Co.”
“The launch of Aqualogica is an extension of our philosophy of millennial problem-solving products. The recent round will empower us to fuel our innovation funnel and provide a wider assortment of problem-solving personal care products for millennials we closed will further provide impetus to our innovation funnel and help us serve our consumers with a wider assortment of products,” Ghazal added.
Ishaan Mittal, MD, Sequoia India, said, “As discovery and consumption of FMCG brands is getting more influenced by digital channels, it is providing a unique opportunity to founders to build brands of the future. Mamaearth has established itself as a clear market leader in this digital-first consumer goods space and team Sequoia is delighted to double-down on the partnership with Ghazal and Varun in this journey.”
Rohit Batra, Managing Partner, Evolvence Capital, said, “We have been very impressed with the remarkable growth that Honasa has witnessed and the deep connect and trust it has established with its customers. We believe the GCC market will be very receptive to the Honasa brands, especially Mamaearth and initial signs have been very encouraging as we scale in the region.”
“We have been privileged to witness the spectacular growth of the company over the last few months, which only reinforces our initial view that Honasa is led by exceptional entrepreneurs and boasts best-in-class brand building and innovation capabilities,” said Yana Kachurina, Investment Manager, Sofina Ventures SA.