Magnificence e-commerce in India is about to blow up over the following three or 4 years, following a sample established within the US, the world’s largest magnificence market.
Additionally in right now’s letter:
💰 Tiger raises its biggest-ever fund
🚨 Coinbase set for IPO
🆕 Pak lifts TikTok ban
Magnificence e-commerce set to bloom in India
It isn’t typically that you just see representatives of the world’s largest cosmetics model and probably the most outstanding Indian magnificence e-commerce firms in the identical room. However that’s precisely what occurred yesterday on The Rundown by ETtech, our weekly chat present on Clubhouse, by which we discussed the rise and way forward for magnificence e-commerce in India.
Get this: Direct-to-consumer magnificence manufacturers and marketplaces in India have raised $80.9 million in fairness funding throughout six funding rounds this 12 months, exceeding the $80.4 million they raised in 14 rounds in 2020, in response to knowledge from Tracxn.
Whereas one may debate the explanations for the increase — heightened digital adoption, elevated client savviness, product innovation, and the rise of social influencers — one factor was clear from our present — the business is about to develop by leaps and bounds within the coming years.
What does the long run maintain?
Acquisitions: “For us, each alternatives exist. We’ll deliver manufacturers that meet the wants of the buyer both by our personal innovation or by acquisition,” stated Kavita Angre, director of client & market insights and media at L’Oreal India.
Within the US, the world’s largest magnificence market, direct-to-consumer manufacturers have been a favorite purchase of legacy magnificence firms similar to L’Oreal, Unilever, and Procter & Gamble. Unilever, as an illustration, purchased razor blades subscription firm Greenback Shave Membership for a whopping $1 billion in an all-cash deal in 2016.
Whereas the jury remains to be now out on whether or not that was a clever choice, as this TechCrunch article encapsulates, buying these manufacturers has been a go-to technique for these firms. Our panelists stated that the Indian market may very well be headed down the same path over the following 3 to 4 years.
Sakshi Chopra, principal at Sequoia India (additionally on the board of magnificence market Purplle) put it greatest: “In the event you take a look at the US market, virtually 80% of magnificence manufacturers that get to $80 million to $100 million in income are lapped up by 4 or 5 pure acquirers. So if these indie-brands are rising at a pleasant clip, a few of the bigger acquirers are keen to provide them a two-year ahead a number of and purchase them out. As manufacturers begin to hit this scale, mergers and acquisitions will turn into extra frequent in India.”
Omni-channel: Natural magnificence model Juicy Chemistry had massive plans to launch offline shops earlier than Covid hit. Whereas that plan has been shelved for now, its cofounder Pritesh Asher advised us it’s nonetheless on the playing cards.
“Even right now it is a very touch-and-feel type of market,” he stated. “The vast majority of retail in India nonetheless occurs offline. So if the scenario does enhance, we positively wish to be omni-channel.”
Sugar cosmetics co-founder Vineeta Sigh concurred, saying: “Being current in retail and e-commerce and being aggressive in each goes to remain. We’re going to be lengthy on retail for positive.”
Males’s grooming: In 2020, Indian FMCG main Marico acquired males’s grooming startup Beardo. Asher stated the variety of natural merchandise for males is negligible, which is why the corporate has a full line of males’s grooming merchandise within the pipeline. “We see this class bringing… about 15% to twenty% of our income within the subsequent 12 months,” he stated.
Make sure to tune in to the following episode of The Rundown with ETtech on Clubhouse at 9 pm IST this Thursday, once we’ll be interviewing the founding father of a unicorn startup.
Tiger International raises its biggest-ever fund
New York-based funding agency Tiger International has raised $6.65 billion in its thirteenth world fund, its largest to this point.
It’s additionally a major leap from Tiger International’s preliminary goal of $3.75 billion, which it introduced in January. It comes virtually a 12 months after the corporate racked up $3.75 billion in its twelfth fund.
India funding spree: Tiger International has been on an enormous funding spree in India over the previous two years. Within the first three months of 2021 alone, it has pumped $189 million into six firms, similar to Innovaccer, Infra.Market, Ally, Cred and Zomato, in response to knowledge from Enterprise Intelligence. It had invested $677 million in Indian firms final 12 months, which accounted for 20% of its complete investments internationally. Up to now, the fund has invested $3.4 billion in 83 firms in India.
And there are extra offers within the works. ET reported earlier that Tiger is in fundraising talks with on-line funding platform Groww, healthcare startup Pristyn Care, and fintech startup Cleartax. It additionally just lately participated in location-based social community Public App’s $41 million fundraise.
Additionally learn: Funding frenzy fires up early-stage startups
Tweet of the day
Indian pharma majors purchase Pharmarack
Indian pharma majors are partnering to amass business-to-business healthcare platform Pharmarack and market analysis agency AIOCD Pharmasofttech AWACS to construct the mandatory IT infrastructure and provide chain for distribution.
How is the deal structured? The acquisition is being executed by DigiHealth Applied sciences, a subsidiary of newly shaped ABCD Applied sciences, which can quickly be renamed IndoHealth Companies. Its buyers embrace pharmaceutical companies similar to Alkem Laboratories, Cadila Healthcare, Cipla, Dr Reddy’s, Lupin, Mankind Pharma, Solar Pharma and Torrent Pharma. We reported on Wednesday that extra pharmaceutical firms may take part.
There are additionally plans to build an online pharmacy sooner or later to compete with Reliance Industries, Tata, Amazon and others. The important thing problem for the entity might be to make sure that the platform stays impartial to make pharma firms working with it extra comfy, individuals within the know of the deal advised ET.
Why does it matter? The web pharmacy sector has clocked huge progress in the course of the pandemic. E-pharmacies made inroads into about 9 million households in India, and are anticipated to achieve 70 million households by 2025, in response to Frost & Sullivan. Earlier than the pandemic, solely 3.5 million Indian households had used e-pharmacies.
Incoming: Coinbase IPO
Cryptocurrency trade Coinbase is set to go public by a direct itemizing on April 14, after receiving clearances from the US Securities and Alternate Fee. The remote-first firm had confidentially filed for IPO with the SEC final December and was anticipated to go public in March. However this was later postponed to April.
- This would be the first main direct itemizing on the Nasdaq. Earlier direct listings, together with Spotify, Slack, Asana and Roblox, have been executed on the New York Inventory Alternate.
Final week, Coinbase said it deliberate to arrange services in India to accommodate a few of its IT providers, together with engineering, software program improvement and buyer assist operations. Whereas the corporate will let staff work remotely, it’s organising an workplace in Hyderabad.
In the meantime, this was additionally per week of enormous funding rounds in India’s tech and startup ecosystem, with three companies elevating over $100 million every.
Pakistan lifts TikTok ban
A Pakistan excessive court docket has directed its communications regulator to reinstate access to Bytedance-owned brief video app TikTok, practically three weeks after it was banned within the nation for “immoral and indecent” content material.
Throughout a listening to, the pinnacle of the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) stated TikTok has assured the authorities it might do a greater job of filtering and moderating content material.
Not the primary time: TikTok had confronted the same suspension in Pakistan final October. That ban was revoked 10 days later, after the corporate pledged to average content material to adjust to native legal guidelines. With 39 million downloads, TikTok was the third most-downloaded app in Pakistan final 12 months.
Again residence: India suspended TikTok together with 58 different Chinese language apps final June, and made the ban permanent in January. Following this, Bytedance shut down TikTok’s India operations. It nonetheless has about 1,300 staff within the nation, who work largely on content material moderation and servicing its worldwide operations.
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