D2C Skincare Brand Minimalist Raises INR 110 Cr Funding Led By Sequoia Capital

Skincare brand Minimalist announced today that it has raised a Series A funding of INR 110 Cr, ( $15 Mn) led by Sequoia Capital India, with participation from Unilever Ventures. The round also saw multiple international investors within the nine months of its inception.

The company stated that the funds would be deployed to enhance its infrastructure and R&D capabilities, expand to global markets, as well as increase its content creation efforts by sharing well-researched knowledge about skincare and related fields with its consumers.

Founded in 2020 by Mohit Yadav and Rahul Yadav, the homegrown brand retails its products through online marketplaces such as Amazon, Nykaa, Flipkart and Myntra, besides its own website too. “We are exploring offline retail as well,” Yadav said. “We will create a roadmap for offline. The plan is to sell through our own retail stores in due course.”

Currently, Minimalist offers around 20 products ranging from serums and toners, to face acids, and moisturisers. It also stated that so far it has over 1 Mn customers.  Speaking on the deal, Mohit yadav, cofounder, Minimalist added “Consumers today are looking beyond marketing claims and are seeking efficacy based skincare products. Our growth so far proves that a radical change in the skincare industry is underway. Together with our customers, we are creating ‘Skincare 2.0’ by offering proven solutions driven by scientific innovations.”

Being a D2C skincare brand, Minimalist competes with brands such as Nykaa, Sugar, Mamaearth, Wow Skin Science, Skinkraft and Plum that have gained popularity in fields across beauty, cosmetics and personal care. Currently, India has over 80 D2C brands in these sectors. 

D2C startups have lately received larger investor attention. According to Inc42 Plus’ latest funding data, in the quarter of the year ended March 2021 (Q1 2021), D2C startups raised $142 Mn, which was 27% of the total funding for ecommerce startups. More importantly, between Q1 2020 and Q1 2021, the funding amount for D2C startups has registered a 93% average quarterly growth.

Examples of D2C startups in the personal care and beauty sector that raised funding include Sugar Cosmetics, which raised $21 Mn in a Series C round led by Elevation Capital, and personal care brand Juicy Chemistry, which raised $6.3 Mn in a Series A round led by Belgium-based family-owned private investment firm Verlinvest.