Sugar Cosmetics has secured $50 million in a new round of funding. The Asia fund of L Catterton led the round in the direct-to-customer brand. Notably, this is L Catterton’s maiden deal in India, after the hiring of Anjana Sasidharan from Sequoia Capital India as head of investments in India and Southeast Asia last year.
SUGAR Cosmetics, a direct-to-consumer business, has secured $50 million in a Series D round headed by L Catterton’s Asia fund. According to sources, the financing was worth close to $500 million. The round was also attended by A91 Partners, Elevation Capital, and India Quotient.
This comes at a time when investment rounds are taking longer to conclude, and businesses have resorted to closing non-core verticals, rationalizing marketing and advertising spending, and going on hiring freezes.
Earlier this month, the media claimed that SUGAR Cosmetics is in discussions to fund more than $50 million at a valuation of $500 million, a 5x increase in a year. The cosmetics company has now raised $85.5 million in total.
Kaushik Mukherjee and Vineeta Singh co-founded the D2C business, which offers lipsticks, eyeliners, face and eye brushes, and has lately moved into the skincare market, selling moisturisers and sheet masks. According to media reports, it presently has an annualised income of around Rs 320-350 crore, or around Rs 27-30 crore in net revenue every month.
The company has also expanded its physical presence, with over 100 owned outlets around the country. Notably, this is L Catterton’s maiden deal in India, after the hiring of Anjana Sasidharan from Sequoia Capital India as head of investments in India and Southeast Asia last year.
SUGAR Cosmetics co-founder Vineeta Singh stated, “We intend to strengthen and extend our three major pillars: distribution, product, and community. Our retail footprint will be strengthened through improving retail marketing and visual merchandising, as well as our product line and distribution. We also want to strengthen our omnichannel strategy by concurrently expanding our distribution channels in India and abroad, as well as building an even stronger foundation on our D2C platforms.”
She continued, “We will also focus on providing high-quality material to continue educating and engaging our SUGAR community across all platforms — digital and otherwise. We will also strategically collaborate with like-minded individuals, IPs, and events. While the path to being one of the Top 3 Makeup brands in India has been incredible, I do anticipate employing more than 10,000 people and going public.”
SUGAR, which was created in 2012, competes with companies such as Mamaearth, Nykaa, Wow Skin Science, and MyGlamm.
While the fundraising scene has cooled, direct-to-consumer (D2C) was one of the hottest investment concepts last year. These businesses, which are popular among millennials and Generation Z, raised more than $2 billion.
