Why SUGAR wants to win the offline game

SUGAR also managed to raise $21 million funding in February 2021, which reinforces its strong fundamentals backed by its investors, who are pushing for more retail presence during the pandemic.

Saturday June 19, 2021 , 4 min Read

While most cosmetic brands in India were struggling during the pandemic, SUGAR Cosmetics claims to have recorded its highest sales of more than 60 percent in November 2020 compared to its pre-COVID-19 sales by focusing on ecommerce.

The brand saw 70-80 percent of its sales coming from online channels, as malls and retail stores across the country continue to remain shut.

In fact, SUGAR’s retail sales have been down to less than 10 percent. But Vineeta Singh, CEO and Co-founder of SUGAR Cosmetics, says that SUGAR’s focus on retail will continue to dominate the sales channel over the next few years.

The startup also managed to raise $21 million funding in February 2021, which reinforces its strong fundamentals backed by its investors, who are pushing for more retail presence during the pandemic.

With more than 10,000 retail touchpoints, including a presence across modern trade stores and kiosks, SUGAR strongly believes that it gets good brand visibility due to its offline presence.

In a conversation with YourStory, Vineeta talks about having a strong retail presence, building a brand, taking care of her employees during the pandemic, and the vision to become one of the top three makeup brands in India in the next five years.

Read all about how the Indian startup ecosystem is battling the second wave of COVID-19 here.

Here are some useful tools to help you find the nearest vaccine centres in real-time.

You can also share a tribute to COVID-19 warriors, saviours, and survivors here.

The Interview

Both the first and the second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic have hit the economy hard, with India's GDP for FY21 contracting by over 7 percent.

Ankit Mehra, Co-founder and CEO, GyanDhan, and Sanjeev Chhabria, a mentor and startup consultant, talk about what is the health of the startup ecosystem, how the financial services sector was affected, and how we can recover.

Editor’s Pick: The Turning Point

Ecommerce company Udaan began with an idea to enable B2B transactions by bringing together all participants, including the wholesaler, distributor, producer, and the small retail shop owner, onto a single platform, such as a smartphone app.

Today, Udaan has operations across categories, including lifestyle, electronics, home & kitchen, staples, fruits & vegetables, FMCG, pharma, toys, and general merchandise. The startup is now valued at more than $3 billion. Read more.

Startup Spotlight

Teaching AI using gamified and experiential learning

In the last academic year, CBSE partnered with IBM to build an AI programme for Class XI and XII students across 200 schools in India. This year, it conducted an AI training programme for teachers as well, highlighting the need to inculcate AI and ML in education.

To achieve that, Swati Ganguly founded Delhi-based edtech startup Edufiq that imparts AI education through game-based and experiential learning. Its courseware is targeted at public and private K-12 schools, and is designed for kids from Classes V-X. Read more.

News & Updates

Paytm's parent company, One97 Communications is looking to raise $1.6 billion (Rs 12,000 crore) in a primary fundraise, with a secondary raise to follow soon, sources close to the matter told YourStory. This fundraise comes just months ahead of the fintech giant's IPO — the biggest in the country.

ShareChat — the Indian language social media platform under parent company Mohalla Tech, which also houses short video app Moj — announced its first ESOP buyback of up to $19.1 million worth of vested stock options held by both its existing and former employees.

BharatPe has seen its revenue and transaction volume jump manifold in FY21, as the pandemic has forced people and businesses to adopt digital transactions and led fund-starved small businesses to seek more credit avenues.

Flipkart has introduced a 'Back to College' programme to facilitate numerous educational courses and computer devices for students. Under this programme, it will provide a wide selection of computing devices and bundled education content through tie-ups with leading edtech players, including Edukemy and Simplilearn.