NEW DELHI: Organic brand Juicy Chemistry has raised $6.3 million in a Series A funding round led by Belgium based investment firm Verlinvest. This marks the largest Series A raise in the d2c beauty and personal care space. Veda Corporate Advisors was the exclusive financial advisor for the transaction.
Starting from a 10x10 make-shift kitchen, with five thousand rupees and a dream to change how the beauty and cosmetics industry was perceived in India, Juicy Chemistry was founded in 2014 by husband-wife duo Megha and Pritesh Asher. The brand offers a complete range of certified organic products across face, body and hair care, formulated with quality organic ingredients sourced from around the world.
“It is an incredibly exciting time for us. The investment will enable Juicy Chemistry to further strengthen its position as a leader in the clean and organic beauty segment,” shared Juicy Chemistry co-Founder & CEO Pritesh Asher. “We are keen to leverage this capital for the rapid expansion of Juicy Chemistry’s thriving e-commerce platform and omnichannel distribution capabilities, to reach new and existing geographies, to hire talent, for brand building and to cater to the increasing demand for products both domestically and in the international market.”
Boot-strapped until 2019, the firm raised an angel round from investor Amit Nanavati, who believed in the brand and its unique product offering. This gave the much-needed resource to scale operations and dream bigger. The Coimbatore-based homegrown brand has seen a 300 per cent jump in revenues for this fiscal year with a growing customer base, who are torch bearers for the brand with high repeat cohorts.
“Our colleagues at Juicy Chemistry have been the pillar of strength, and their sheer commitment and dedication to the brand has made this possible. It’s a privileged position for us to be in, as this new round of funding from the strongest purpose-led, consumer focused investor will tremendously accelerate our expansion plans and help us penetrate the market deeper and reach more consumers to spread the message of Organic beauty care. We look forward to building the brand full steam ahead, keeping the core ethos and values unaltered as we scale the business over the next phase,” said Juicy Chemistry co-Founder & COO Megha Asher.
“We are excited to start our journey with Juicy Chemistry, which forms part of our global effort in backing unique digital-first beauty brands for the long term. Verlinvest looks for authentic and passionate entrepreneurs who are creating a consumer revolution using their product and brand stories and we saw like-mindedness with the way Pritesh and Megha are building their business,” remarked Verlinvest Executive Director Arjun Anand.
“India is on track to become one of the largest beauty markets in the world. An increasingly conscious customer is shaping the trend towards clean beauty,” added Verlinvest Investment Professional Manvitha Janagam. “Megha and Pritesh, with their deep knowledge of organic beauty, have been able to craft the perfect beauty brand that strongly resonates with this conscious consumer. By emphasising on sourcing unique organic ingredients from across the world and manufacturing at highest ECOCERT standards, they are creating nothing short of a revolution in the organic beauty segment in India. I started my journey with Juicy Chemistry as a consumer a year ago and now I am absolutely thrilled to be a part of their future growth as an investor.”
