Honasa Raised USD 52 Million Led By Sequoia At 1.2 Billlon Valuation

Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. (HCPL), parent company of Mamaearth, The Derma Co. and the fastest growing personal care House of Brands, closes the latest USD 52 Million round led by Sequoia, accelerating the company’s leadership in D2C personal care segment.

The round witnessed participation by Sofina Ventures SA, the Belgium-based investment company, and Evolvence, a UAE based India focused fund. The round also gave employees an opportunity to monetize their vested ESOP.

The company plans to deploy the funds towards expanding their portfolio of personal care D2C brands venturing into new avenues with unique propositions. With the recent launch of Aqualogica, a hydration-based skin care brand, the company has forayed into a new segment catering to unique requirements of Indian skin and tropical weather. The newly acquired funds will be directed towards product innovation, distribution, and marketing of brands in Honasa’s stable. 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.

Commenting on this, Varun Alagh, Co-Founder and CEO, Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd.  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. Our flagship brand, Mamaearth has established itself as a leader in D2C personal care with a strong purpose of Goodness Inside. 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."

Commenting on investment, Ghazal Alagh, Co-Founder and CIO, Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. said, “Our company is built on the proposition of Honest, Natural and Safe and that has contributed to the exponential growth of Mamaearth as consumers buy into the philosophy of the brand while purchasing the product. 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 color 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. With the launch of Aqualogica, we are the first ones to launch a brand on the Noble prize winning Aquaporins based approach to hydration and the brand is already showing great receptivity by the consumers. 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.”

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.”

Yana Kachurina, Investment Manager, Sofina Ventures SA, said, “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”