Vellvette Lifestyle Pvt. Ltd., the parent company of Sugar Cosmetics, has initiated a joint venture with renowned actor Kareena Kapoor Khan, focusing on its skincare brand, Quench Botanics. Khan’s involvement as a strategic investor and co-owner is anticipated to leverage her significant social media presence to elevate the brand’s prominence.
The Quench Botanics skincare brand was introduced by Vellvette Lifestyle last year, with a mission to introduce Korean beauty products and regimens to Indian consumers. These products are currently manufactured in Korea and are available through a network of 1,000 offline retail stores.
This collaboration materialized during discussions earlier this fiscal year when Kareena Kapoor Khan, who also represents Reliance Retail’s beauty platform, Tira, expressed her interest in becoming an investor and co-owner of the Quench Botanics brand.
Vineeta Singh, the co-founder and CEO of Sugar Cosmetics, elaborated on the joint venture, saying, “What we bring to the table is the education and the distribution, and Kareena brings the passion for the category. That’s why we decided to come together in this joint venture—so she’s coming as an investor and a strategic partner.”
Singh anticipates that skincare products could contribute to approximately 15% of the company’s overall revenue within the next two to three years. This development aligns with the company’s projected listing on the public market. While the brand Sugar primarily specializes in colored cosmetics like lipsticks, eye shadow sticks, and cream concealers, Quench Botanics focuses on skincare products such as creams, skin patches, and serums.
The trend of celebrities launching their beauty products or collaborating with companies to lend their names to brands is gaining momentum, driven by the rapid growth of the beauty market. The Indian beauty and personal care (BPC) market is poised to reach $30 billion by 2027, as reported by consulting firm RedSeer.
Vineeta Singh highlighted this trend, stating, “India is the only market in the world where the beauty and personal care market is set to grow in double-digits over the next decade. Celebrities see that there will be large brands that didn’t exist five years ago. I feel they’ve realized that partnering with companies, which will create the brands of the future, will help them have a long-term impact, as opposed to say annual endorsement opportunities which are really linked to a celebrity’s career in that given year.”
In May of last year, Sugar Cosmetics secured $50 million in a Series D funding round, led by the Asia fund of L Catterton. Existing investors, including A91 Partners, Elevation Capital, and India Quotient, also participated in the round. Additionally, Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh acquired a minority stake in the beauty and personal care company in September 2022.
Sugar Cosmetics currently doesn’t have plans for another funding round and aims to navigate the current funding climate effectively. Singh mentioned, “As of now, we are not looking at raising funds. We just raised a round from L Catterton last year. We are also expecting that from next month onwards we would be profitable. The idea is to actually manage our cash flow and working capital as well as our bottom line in a way that we don’t need to raise money in a relatively tougher market.”
Exciting news! We’re now on WhatsApp Channels too. Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest insights in the startup ecosystem! Click here!
Sugar Cosmetics initially launched as a direct-to-consumer beauty brand in 2015. Apart from online sales, its products are available in over 45,000 retail outlets across 550 cities, with 50% of its sales attributed to e-commerce.
