On Tuesday, Mumbai-based Direct-to-customer brand SUGAR Cosmetics announced that they have raised $50 million in a Series D round led by the Asia fund of L Catterton. L Catterton is one of the biggest global consumer-focused private equity firms.
Along with existing investors such as A91 Partners, Elevation Capital, and India Quotient, the upsized round also got multiple private equity funds having their eyes on them, The company said. The founders of SUGAR Cosmetics are a husband-wife duo, Vineeta Singh and Kaushik Mukherjee, together they founded the company in 2012.
SUGAR Cosmetics is extremely popular among millennials today. They offer premium quality make-up products that are designed keeping the Indian skin in mind. Having recently ventured into the skincare market with its own line of moisturizers and sheet masks, the brand is already established itself as a go-to in terms of buying lipsticks, eye brushes, eyeliners, and more. Currently, the brand’s products are available in around 30,000 outlets and they plan to expand the number further. They also added that providing their products online helped them quite a lot in market penetration as they were able to reach out to even second and third-tier cities.
“At SUGAR, we are devoted to creating innovative products that meticulously cater to the preferences of women with diverse skin tones and types who believe in expressing themselves with high-quality cosmetics and skincare products that complement their inner beauty. L Catterton shares our ethos of truly understanding what matters most to consumers,” stated Chief Executive Officer Vineeta Singh.
Another thing to be noted here is that this is going to be L Catterton’s first deal in India. Anjana Sasidharan, L Catterton’s Asia Managing Director will be joining SUGAR’s board after this investment. Talking about the same she said, “We have been impressed with how SUGAR has sustained its momentum of rapid growth across online and offline channels while maintaining healthy operating metrics,”
SUGAR Cosmetics directly competes with Wow Skin Science, MyGlamm, and Mama Earth among others. Even after a funding slowdown, these companies have managed to grow exponentially over the past few years. L Catterton too has great experience in investing globally in personal care brands namely TULA, Bliss, Function of Beauty, and a lot more.
