A digital-first D2C brand for women

Good morning!

No industry knows colours better than the cosmetics industry. The Indian cosmetics market was valued at more than $13 billion in FY20, and is expected to grow at double-digit CAGR to reach almost $29 billion over the next five years.

However, 95 percent of this market is offline. 

Targeting this massive potential, life partners turned co-founders Vineeta Singh and Kaushik Mukherjee founded SUGAR Cosmetics in 2015 as a digital-first D2C brand, which specifically caters to Indian women. 

But not everything was smooth at first. The Mumbai-based D2C brand did not even have enough money to even import its first batch of lipsticks that were manufactured in Germany.

It also took the company 58 months to go from seed to Series A funding.

“Most VCs are men; they don’t understand why a consumer might need a lipstick that lasts three hours longer,” says Vineeta.

Six years later, in February 2021, the cosmetics brand raised $21 million in a Series C round, has a presence in 10,000-plus retail outlets across 130-plus cities, and recorded about 6X growth in its revenues. 

Last but not least, wishing you a very Happy Holi!

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News & Updates

• Fantasy sports unicorn startup Dream Sports, which owns Dream 11, has raised $400 million in a second investment led by TCV, D1 Capital Partners, and Falcon Edge. This round valued Dream Sports at $5 billion.

• Elon Musk announced that customers can purchase Tesla vehicles with Bitcoin as payment. He said the Bitcoin paid to Tesla will be retained as Bitcoin, and will not be converted to fiat currency.

• India is home to 100 unicorns across sectors that are collectively valued at over $240 billion, Credit Suisse said. These unicorns are across industries, beyond technology and tech-enabled sectors as well, like pharmaceuticals, and consumer goods.

• The Supreme Court of India ruled in favour of the Tata Sons’ decision to remove Cyrus Mistry as executive chairman in 2016. A three-judge bench ruled out oppression and mismanagement at Tata Sons, as alleged by Cyrus Mistry.

• Sequoia Capital India has closed a new $195 million seed fund to invest in very early-stage startups. This latest seed fund will focus on Sequoia’s Surge programme which was launched in 2019 to offer $1-2 million capital in pre-Series A funding rounds.

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

“Wake up, show up and try again… Every single day!”

— Mona Singh, Co-founder, India Accelerator

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