Good Glamm Group India’s first unicorn in DTC beauty and personal care biz

The Good Glamm Group, South Asia’s largest content-to-commerce conglomerate, has raised $150 million funding in its Series D round, including both primary and secondary sales, co-led by marquee tech and private equity investors Prosus Ventures (Naspers), Warburg Pincus. There was participation from Alteria Capital and existing investors L’Occitane, Bessemer Venture Partners, Strides Ventures, Amazon, Ascent Capital and the Mankekar Family Office.

The Mumbai-based firm has been valued at $1.2 billion in the latest round of funding, up from $310 million in the previous round, making it the newest member of the coveted unicorn club. It is the 35th startup to achieve unicorn status in 2021 alone and the first direct-to-consumer (DTC) beauty and personal care company to reach such status in the country.

“You are going to see the Good Glamm Group emerge as one of the largest FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) conglomerates from this part of the world. That is our vision,” said Darpan Sanghvi, Group founder and CEO, Good Glamm Group. “This Series D investment, the arrival of Prosus and Warburg and our entry into the unicorn club, all of this just gives us a great foundation to fulfil that vision. I think there is an opportunity to build a $10 billion FMCG conglomerate out of India. Today marks the beginning of that journey.”

The Good Glamm Group comprises a portfolio of proprietary beauty and personal care brands that are powered by a digital ecosystem of content, community and creator assets. The firm will be utilising its latest funding to invest in product development, support data science and technology research, increase offline expansion and fund working capital requirements. The Group will also continue to make investments in more beauty and personal care brands. The funding is also expected to help the company compete with traditional players and new-age beauty platforms such as Sugar, Nykaa, Plum, Purplle and Wow Skin Science.

According to data platform Statista, India’s BPC (beauty and personal care) market, estimated at $25.9 billion in 2020, is projected to reach $32.7 billion by 2023, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.1 per cent.

Priyanka Gill, co-founder, Good Glamm Group, said the company has been growing 8X year-over-year. She said half of this growth is organic and the other half is inorganic.

“We are at a $120 million revenue run rate (annual recurring revenue or ARR) right now and expect to cross $250 million revenue run rate by March 2022,” said Priyanka Gill, co-founder, Good Glamm Group. “ Also offline (business growth) has doubled for us from last year.”

Beauty & personal care brands owned by the Good Glamm Group include MyGlamm (cosmetics), MomsCo ( mother and baby), POPxo (cosmetics for tweens) and Baby Chakra ( baby products co-created with mothers). POPxo is the largest female content platform with 88 million users and ScoopWhoop is the largest male content platform with 100 million users. BabyChakra is a leading parenting platform with 20 million mothers and a network of 10,000 doctors) and Plixxo is a leading creator and influencer management platform with 220,000 influencers onboarded.

“There are over 220,000 influencers who are part of the Good Glamm Group and they are growing,” said Gill. “That’s the sales and volume driver for us today. This is an India first concept for the world as the content to commerce strategy (playout) in the beauty and personal care category at this level has not happened before.”

This unparalleled digital reach, combined with over 30,000 offline retail points of sale of the Group’s flagship beauty brand, MyGlamm, gives all the brands under the Good Glamm Group an unprecedented opportunity to scale both online and offline.

“About 25 per cent of the Group’s revenues actually come from offline. So, we’re actually where the consumer is. This is very unique when you talk about other brands in the ecosystem. I think we’re one of the few brands who have been able to scale up our offline and online (presence) with such a magnitude,” said Naiyya Saggi, co-founder, Good Glamm Group. “About 60 per cent of our consumers come from tier-2, tier-3 and tier-4 (cities and towns). So the aspiration is universal. You are seeing the millennials and Gen Z coming online and having these conversations on beauty and personal care, in a very unprecedented way.”

This is further amplified by the Group’s deep expertise in DTC growth, new product development and technology and data science. Access to these value engines are attracting India’s leading new age, innovative and fast-growing beauty and personal care brands to join the Good Glamm Group. Towards this, the Group has already made acquisitions and investments worth $270 million to date.

“With a strong portfolio of D2C brands and proprietary content assets, the Group is well-positioned to scale rapidly and create a large digital-first business in the beauty and personal care space,” said Vishal Mahadevia, managing director and India Head at Warburg Pincus, about its investment in Good Glamm Group.

Ashutosh Sharma, head of Investments, India, Prosus Ventures said the funding marks the organisation’s first investment in the DTC category. “The Good Glamm team has paired desirable, homegrown brands with compelling content, building an incredibly engaged community and positioning them well for future growth in India and beyond,” said Sharma.