When considering the beauty industry, the steps used in the making of these goods are what interests buyers most. You can easily tell how popular these organic items are because we can see they do not bring any destruction to our skin, hair, stomach, and generally, to us.
Leveraging this drive for organic products, Mamaearth has catapulted itself into a promising startup in the cosmetics industry that comes with the American Made Safe Certification, the first nontoxic seal for the products in use today.
Let’s delve into Mamaearth’s success story to get an insight into its founders, mission, revenue model, fundraising, growth, acquisition, partnership, challenge, competitors, and awards too.
Who is Mamaearth’s founder and what are its team details?
In 2016, a company called Honasa Consumer Private Limited was started by Ghazal Alagh together with her husband, Varun Alagh.
Next, they founded Mamaearth, a firm that manufactures chemical-free commodities.
They began selling these products in December 2016. The couple wanted to make sure all babies in India could have safe products without bad chemicals.
Currently, natural products for babies, mothers, fathers, grandparents, as well as all others are made by the organization.
Varun Alagh
Varun Alagh co-founded Mamaearth and now he is its Chief Executive Officer.
He’s also called the “Chief Dad” of Mamaearth. He used to work in the consumer goods industry. Varun studied Electrical Engineering at Delhi College of Engineering.
Then he completed his MBA in Finance and Marketing from XLRI Jamshedpur,
Before starting Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd., the parent company of Mamaearth, he has had an impressive background having worked at big companies like Hindustan Unilever, Smirnoff, and The Coca-Cola Company.
He had important jobs at these places. People know him for being good at managing brands.
Ghazal Alagh
Ghazal Alagh also helped start Mamaearth. She’s called the Chief Innovation Officer. She studied Information Technology at Panjab University. After that, she taught at NIIT. In February 2012, she started a company called Dietexpert. Then in 2016, she helped start Mamaearth under Honasa.
At the School of Visual Arts and New York Academy of Art, Ghazal took classes in Modern Art and Applied Arts as well.
In India and other parts of the world, she is ranked among the top 10 female artists. She was one of the judges on Shark Tank India’s show.
What is Mamaearth’s growth?
According to what people say, Mamaearth is the most rapidly expanding brand in India for the direct consumer market.
In just 3 years, they earned a hundred million rupees. Mamaearth’s products are liked by people because of their nature.
It’s the first brand in Asia to get a special “Made Safe” certificate. Mamaearth is known for recycling plastic. Not many Indian brands do this.
There were 5 million Mamaearth customers spread out all over 500 different cities as of January 2023. In October 2023, Mamaearth was valued at $1.2 billion.
What is the Startup Story of Mamaearth?
People in the United States are well informed about dangerous chemicals present in everyday products for personal and baby care.
When Ghazal was in the US, she learned about this. She started checking what was in products before buying them for babies.
When Varun and Ghazal were going to have their first baby (they were in India then), they saw that baby products in India had harmful chemicals. They couldn’t find safe options. So they stopped using Indian products and bought safe products from other countries.
They started ordering products from the US, but this was expensive and not easy. They also realized many other parents in India had the same problem.
Varun and Ghazal couldn’t find a good solution, so they researched how to make baby products safer and cheaper. They worked hard, often staying up late at night, to create a new brand. They put together a team to research and develop products. They also applied for important certificates.
All this work led to the creation of Mamaearth.
It was the first brand in Asia, which provide certified products under the name “MADE SAFE”. The products are free of harmful chemicals and full of what is good for the health of a baby.
What is Mamaearth Mission and Vision?
Mamaearth, which is an Indian company, manufactures personal care products.
Their purpose is to create a better and safer existence for children and guardians.
For beauty and wellness—they aim to create beauty and wellness products that are both natural and safe.
Mamaearth is known for ensuring that the items it sells are mild, eco-friendly, and do not experiment with animals.
Mamaearth is keen on appearing as a buddy to everybody, especially parents.
They want to be a friend who understands you, knows what problems you have, and tries hard to solve them – well, most of them. They want to be a brand that all parents can trust. They want to make life better and more beautiful for moms and women who are going to be moms.
What is Mamaearth Name, Tagline, and Logo?
Under the umbrella of Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd, Mamaearth operates as a member of this entity.
Mamaearth’s tagline is “Goodness Inside.”
The Mamaearth logo uses blue and green colors. It also shows their tagline, “Goodness Inside.” The colors are meant to remind people that Mamaearth sells organic products. The tagline shows what the company is like. The logo also has a picture of a sun and something called a tonir. These pictures are supposed to make you think of health, skilled work, and nature.
What are the Mamaearth Products and Services?
Mamaearth makes lots of products for babies and other people. They have more than 300 natural products. These include things for taking care of babies, hair, skin, and more. Some of their new and different products are:
The first baby wipes in India were made from bamboo.
They also make skin and hair products using popular natural ingredients. These include onion, Ubtan, tea tree, vitamin C, argan, coco, and charcoal.
Mamaearth doesn’t just make things for babies anymore. They now make products for moms too. They have all sorts of things, from sunscreen to cream that help reduce stretch marks. They try to help with all parts of being a mom. Many people really like their onion products for mothers.
What is Mamaearth Business Model?
Mamaearth uses a simple and open way of doing business. They come up with ideas for products and then work with other companies to make these products. They sell these products under the Mamaearth name.
Most of their business happens online. They retail directly to the clients via sites like Amazon.com, Flipkart.com, etc. But Mamaearth doesn’t just sell online. They’ve also started selling in real shops that you can visit. By selling both online and in stores, Mamaearth makes sure that lots of different people can find and buy their products easily.
What is Mamaearth Revenue Model?
Mamaearth makes money in a few different ways. First, they sell lots of different products for skin, hair, and wellness. Most of the money comes from here.
In addition, the company provides a subscription plan in which users sign up to receive products at regular intervals. This helps Mamaearth know they’ll keep making money over time. Lastly, Mamaearth also makes money from advertising. They work with other companies, make ads for TV and the Internet, and sometimes pay people to talk about their products. All these different ways of marketing help Mamaearth grow and succeed.
What Challenges Does Mamaearth Faced?
Every organization faced problems in its early years and Mamaearth was no different. Early in its launch, Mamaearth was hit with a growth hurdle wherein it was not able to expand as desired. The team realized the problem had to do with not being sharp about the target cohort, which led to futile marketing expenditure coupled with minimal customer acquisition.
The core team did an internal rethinking and arrived at the decision to redefine the target group as well as the communication strategy around the target group. Once the team implemented the strategy, it could see significant gains in a short period.
Another set of problems for Mamaearth was navigating the cosmetics sector, given the intense competition among several prominent players, both Indian and foreign. The operational picture became increasingly complex due to issues like the distribution of erroneous items, high cancellation rates, order fulfillment delays, and a lack of inventory tracking.
Notwithstanding these obstacles, Mamaearth showed tenacity and flexibility in confronting difficulties in order to carve out a space for itself in the cutthroat cosmetics industry. Additionally, Momspresso, a parenting news site owned by Mamaearth, faced a significant setback in June 2023 when it reportedly laid off 80 to 100 staff from its brand marketing vertical.
The decision to downsize was attributed to the company’s choice to shut down MyMoney and Momspresso due to escalating losses, as reported by various media sources. Despite these challenges, Mamaearth continues to adapt and navigate the dynamic landscape of the cosmetics industry.
Mamaearth Funding and Investors
Mamaearth has received money from investors several times to help grow their business. They started small in December 2016, getting $111,000.
After that, the quantity increased significantly by an increase in figures totaling $110,000 which was given by actress Shilpa Shetty Kundra during the period ending in May 2018 and another one amounting to $4 million at the end of September 2018.
In January, 2020 saw them get a boost to an extent of $18.1 million.
Their biggest investment came in July 2021, when they got $65.3 million from companies like Sequoia Capital. Recently, in September 2022, they received $755,000 more from Shilpa Shetty Kundra again. These investments have helped Mamaearth grow a lot. After some of these investments, the company was valued at very high amounts, even over $1 billion. This shows that investors think Mamaearth will do well in the future.
What are the Mamaearth Investments?
Mamaearth counts 7 institutional investors among whom are Sequoia Capital, Stellaris Venture Partners, and Sofina.
Sequoia Capital invests the most in Mamaearth out of all the institutional investors.
Angel investors were secured 3 days ago which included Shilpa Shetty Kundra and six others investing with the same in Mamaearth Company.
What are Mamaearth Acquisitions?
Honasa Consumer, the parent company of Mamaearth, has been on an acquisition spree in the recent past.
In May 2022, most of Dr. Sheth’s was bought, which is a skin doctor’s skincare brand, and the rest was bought in May 2024.
They also bought BBlunt, a company which deals with making hair products at 135 crore rupees.
Honasa bought Momspresso, a website with lots of content, but later had to close it because it was hard to make it bigger. They also bought CosmoGenesis Labs for 4 crore rupees. This company makes and develops beauty products, and Honasa thinks it will help them create better products. All these purchases show that Honasa is trying to grow and offer more kinds of products to its customers.
What are Mamaearth Financials?
Mamaearth’s money situation has changed over the years. They lost 1,510 million rupees in the 2023 financial year.
In the previous year, the profit made by them was 144 million rupees.
13,322 million rupees were lost in 2021, and 4,280 million rupees were lost in 2020.
Mamaearth has seen its profits decline by approximately 29.3% on average every year over the past four years.
This indicates that even though the business has been blossoming and has a high value, they are yet to develop strategies to become profitable.
What are the Expenses Breakdown of Expenses Mamaearth?
Honasa (Mamaearth’s parent company) expended 1,822 crore rupees in the fiscal year 2024.
Things like paying employees, managing money, replacing old equipment, and other business costs were catered for by the money.
They had spent 1.501 crore rupees on those things in the year 2023.
In spite of spending more in the year 2024, they effectively managed their expenses and realized a profit of 110 crore rupees.
In 2023 they lost 151 crore rupees as compared to being much better now.
What is the EBITDA of Mamaearth?
Mamaearth’s EBITDA was 33 crore in the final quarter of 2024.
Out of all the money they made, 7% was profit. This was also better than in 2023 when only 0.8% was profit.
What is the Sponsorship of Mamaearth?
Mamaearth has been engaged in several sponsorships for brand promotion. As in the case of Rajasthan Royals, they have sponsored several cricket teams in the Indian Premier League.
They have also engaged celebrities to endorse their products and to attend events involving parenting and well-being.
However, specific details about all their sponsorships aren’t widely available.
When does Mamaearth pull off IPO?
Honasa Consumer is the owner of Mamaearth. Some of the shares of Honasa Consumer were set to be sold to the public for the first time in October 2023.
This is called an IPO. People could buy these shares from October 31 to November 2. Each share cost between 308 and 324 rupees. Honasa Consumer thought their company was worth 10,425 crore rupees.
The shares were intended to be sold in order to obtain funds amounting to 1,701 crore rupees.
For Mamaearth and Honasa Consumer, this marked their debut in the stock market whose shares they were releasing for the first time.
What are the Mamaearth Value Proposition?
Mamaearth sells beauty and personal care products that are natural and organic online.
According to them, they produce safe products from natural ingredients. Mamaearth assures that its products do not contain toxic ingredients, but were tested by dermatologists, approved by the FDA, and proven to be safe
They want people to see them as manufacturers of safe products that conform to global standards, which can be depended upon and take account of the health of parents and small children.
What are Mamaearth Awards and Achievements?
Mamaearth has won some important awards. The Young Turks Startup Award was awarded to them at the CNBC-TV18 India Business Leader Award for a major business event in 2022.
At that time, in 2019, at another event called The ET Brand Festival, they were given the name “One of the Best Brands” in India.
These awards show that other people in the business world think Mamaearth is doing a good job.
What are Mamaearth Partnerships?
Mamaearth works with many other companies to grow and reach more customers. In April 2023, they teamed up with Filtercopy to start a fun campaign called ShaadiWalaGlow. They also joined forces with Yes Madam in the same month, which helped more people buy Mamaearth’s face care products.
On Lipstick Day, July 20, 2023, Mamaearth did something cool with Snapchat. They made a special filter for Snapchat to show off their products.
Later, in September 2023, Mamaearth made a big move by partnering with Apollo Pharmacy. This team-up means that people can now find Mamaearth products in many more stores all over India.
Who are Mamaearth Competitors?
Mamaearth has many competitors. Some are big companies like Himalaya and Johnson & Johnson. Online stores like Nykaa also compete with them.
Mamaearth competes with other firms that also target children by selling various items targeting babies such as clothes, toys, among others.
Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly Clark, Procter & Gamble and Unilever are Mamaearth’s competitors in the beauty product realm.
Moreover, other companies are making products free from toxic substances. For instance, Mamaearth.
This means there’s even more competition for Mamaearth.
What are Mamaearth Future Plans?
Mamaearth has a plan for the future. While many companies are focusing on selling online, Mamaearth wants to sell more products in real shops. They think this will help them grow.
Mamaearth knows that every brand changes over time. They want to be a brand that people can buy from both online and in shops. They’re looking for new customers who might prefer buying in stores.
