Akshay Kumar To Enter Men’s Personal Care Space With The Good Glamm Group

Content-to-commerce unicorn The Good Glamm Group has signed a joint venture with actor Akshay Kumar to foray into the men’s personal care and wellness category.

As part of the deal, both Kumar and the startup will launch a D2C personal care brand for men. The two parties will invest capital and will work together to scale the business. 

The agreement will leverage the Group’s sister entities, from content to commerce, to drive revenue for the upcoming platform. Besides, the unicorn will also deploy its offline distribution network and resource base in the area of R&D to scale the new brand. 

“Akshay epitomises hard work, discipline and age-defying looks based on natural principles of holistic wellness. We couldn’t think of a more authentic, trusted and knowledgeable partner to develop and launch this unique product line with,” said group founder and CEO of The Good Glamm Group Darpan Sanghvi.

Akshay Kumar said, “The Good Glamm Group has built some of India’s largest and most loved DTC beauty & personal care brands and is very unique in its content-creator-commerce strategy. I am really excited about the products we will be developing and the business that we will be building together.”

In a statement, the Group said that it will develop products formulated using active, natural and efficacious ingredients with a high degree of innovation.  

The Good Glamm Group is the umbrella company for its four key verticals – The Good Brands Co which includes a portfolio of D2C beauty care brands; digital media platform The Good Media Co; influencer vertical The Good Creator Co; and the Good Community which operates at the intersection of content, creator and commerce. 

Darpan Sanghvi founded the D2C brand MyGlamm in 2017, Priyanka Gill founded the digital media platform POPxo in 2013 and Naiyya Saggi established the online parenting platform BabyChakra in 2015. The three platforms merged and rebranded the consolidated entity as The Good Glamm Group in September 2021.

As per the unicorn, its Good Media Co vertical counts more than 25 Cr monthly active users (MAUs) and drives 300 Cr engagements every month. The company also has access to more than 10 Lakh influencers through the Good Creator Co.

While The Good Glamm Group has scaled rapidly, it has come at a cost. The startup saw its net loss zoom more than 6X to INR 273 Cr in FY22 from INR 44 Cr in FY21. 

On the other hand, this is not the first time that a Bollywood actor has launched their brand. Anushka Sharma set up her own D2C apparel brand, NUSH, while Samantha Ruth Prabha cofounded the D2C fashion startup Saaki. Alia Bhatt owns a sustainable kidswear and maternity wear brand called Ed-a-Mamma and Sonu Sood cofounded the online job portal Pravasi Rojgar.

Overall, the Indian men’s personal care industry is very small compared to the women’s market and has fewer products and options. However, with more disposable income and increased awareness, the space is growing rapidly. According to a report, the homegrown male grooming products market is projected to reach $3.1 Bn by 2028.