Mumbai-based MyGlamm to open beauty training academics across India, raises $6M in a Series A from France-based L'Occitane

In one of the biggest rounds of funding in the on-demand beauty space, Mumbai-based MyGlamm has raised a $6-million Series-A round from France-based natural beauty products chain L'Occitane. Existing investors Tano Capital and Brand Capital have also participated in this round.

The startup will utilise the funds to expand its footprint to other metros, such as Bengaluru, NCR, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur, Indore and Ahmedabad this year. It also has plans to expand to the Middle East by 2017. Additionally, it will set up new training academics across India for providing training and certifications to beauty professionals. Currently, it has two training centres in Mumbai and Pune managed by 12 trainers.

Founded in July 2015 by Darpan Sanghvi, MyGlamm has a team of 75 people spread across its Mumbai and Pune office. The startup initially started with 450 services and today it has 15,000 services with a pool of 1,800 beauty professionals in Mumbai and Pune. It delivers close to 600 services a day. According to Darpan, 65 percent of the orders come from Mumbai and 35 percent from Pune. The gross margins are in the range of 40-50 per cent.

“Out of 1,800 professionals, 550 have visited our academies and 300 have finished certification with us and are active on MyGlamm,” says Darpan, who is a mechanical engineer from the Maharashtra Institute of Technology, Pune. He has an MBA from University in Barcelona, Spain. He also runs another brick-and-mortar spa and salon venture, Sanghvi Brands, founded in 2010. Currently operational in India, US and the Middle East, Sanghvi Brands has the master franchise for brands such as Spa L'Occitane, Warren Tricomi Salons, ELLE Spa & Salons, and Holyfield Gyms. The Chuck Johnson-led Tano Capital bought a significant stake in Sanghvi Brands in 2014.

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The market size of beauty services is estimated to be around $4.8 billion, driven by busy lifestyles, rise in consumerism, and better incomes. The rise in income levels is directly related to the growth of the market as more and more people visit spas and salons.

Investors were very keen on funding on-demand beauty services last year. Beauty and e-commerce platform Purplle raised over $5 million in its Series-A round from IvyCap Ventures January last year. On-demand beauty marketplace VanityCube had secured $250, 000 angel funds, while Vyomo raised around $2 million in pre-Series A funding from Berlin-based Rocket Internet. Bengaluru-based StayGlad had raised an undisclosed amount in Series-A fund. Stylofie raised a seed round of $250,000 from Hong Kong-based Swastika, while BigStylist raised $1-million pre-Series A funding from Info Edge.

However, Mumbai-based MyGlamm is the first one to grab investment from an overseas company.  The training and certification arm of the startup would be its USP, while also contributing towards Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Skill India initiative.

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