Last year was a roller coaster ride for startups and businesses. Several companies were forced to shut down because of pandemic, and a few of them developed with shining stars. Mama earth is among the companies that developed despite the odds and made it to the unicorn club. Honasa Consumer Pvt. (HCPL), Mamaearth's parent company, has become the first Unicorn for 2022 after raising a $52 million funding led by Sequoia Global.
Raising capital as a small business owner is important to be on the unicorn list. Industry experts and researchers have already predicted that 2022 will see a significant increase in the number of unicorns. Let’s know a bit about the brand.
About Mamaearth
Mamaearth is an Indian brand that works on toxic-free products. It was founded in 2016, by Ghazal Alagh and Varun Alagh. Mamaearth stands out in the Indian beauty industry as an online platform that offers non-toxic natural skincare products. The brand focuses on babies with an exclusive range of products that cover baby care, hair care, skincare, and more with over 80 natural products under its roof.
In an interview with Startup Talky, Ghazal Alagh said, “We are a 'mum-powered' company and work with a large number of mothers who are involved in the process, right from ideation, conceptualization to the actual product launch. We believe this connection with mothers will continue to be the biggest driver of success. We have more than 200 young moms on board who help us in conceptualizing and formulating the products. The moms then test these products, and only those with great feedback are approved for mass production.”
Statements by the Authorities
The company said, “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 to aggressively expand distribution for existing brands -Mamaearth and The Derma Co. and explore strategic inorganic growth opportunities in the beauty and personal care segment.”
Ghazal Alagh, on the investment, commented, “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."
The co-founder of Honasa, Varun Alagh also stated, “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 the success of The Derma Co., we are confident that we have the expertise to build brands with a millennial connect.”
The Unicorn Club of India
In 2021,42 startups in India made it to the list of unicorn clubs. In the last decade, India has witnessed the entry of a total of 84 startups to the list of unicorn clubs. At this rate, India will be able to get over 100 unicorns by 2022. From the list of the unicorn club, we have listed a few of them.
Meesho
Founded in 2015 by IIT Delhi graduates Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Meesho is an online retailer network for individuals and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to sell products within their network on social channels such as WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. The platform has around 13 million sole business owners bringing e-commerce benefits to 45 million customers across India.
PharmEasy
Founded in 2015, PharmEasy was created by Darmil Shet and Dr. Daval Shah. It offers a wide range of services including teleconsultation, medicine delivery, and sample collection for diagnostic testing. It connects more than 60,000 general pharmacies and 4,000 doctors across 16,000 postal codes across India.
Groww
Founded in 2016, Groww allows users to invest in stocks, mutual funds, and IPOs.The platform is available via mobile application and web platform. The company was founded by ex-Flipcart employees Lalit Keshre, Harsh Jain, Neeraj Singh, and Ishan Bansal. The company has over 15 million registered users. Although, The company claims, More than 60 % of Groww users come from smaller cities and towns in India and have never invested.
Gupshup
Founded in 2004 by Beerud Sheth. Gupshup is an instant messaging platform that serves businesses in many industries including banking, e-commerce, hospitality, and consumer goods. The company says more than 80% of its business comes from India, followed by the United States and Latin America.
Chargebee
Founded in 2004, the company integrates with payment gateways to automate payment collection, invoicing, and email notification. The company was founded by Rajaram S, Thiyagarajan T, KP Saravanan, and Krish Subramanian.
Chargebee claims to serve 2,500 companies in 53 countries. Its customer portfolio includes access management companies Okta, Freshworks, Calendly, Study.com, and more
Conclusion
India is a developing country, the startup trend is new to the country. Apart from the above list, many businesses are in the unicorn club. With this rate soon the country will be one of the developed countries around the globe.
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