D2C personal care brand mCaffeine has raised Rs 240 crore in its Series C round at a nearly $200 million valuation (Rs 1,000 crore). The investment round was led by Paragon Partners with participation from Singularity Growth Opportunities Fund, Sharrp Ventures, and existing investors Amicus Capital Partners and RPSG Capital Ventures.
The company claims that at the present valuation it is the most valued single-ingredient brand globally and is eyeing global expansion this year.
This marks a significant surge in valuation for mCaffeine from its previous round that took place in September 2020, where it had raised Rs 42 crore in Series B led by Amicus Capital Partners.
“Mapping this valuation on an international scale, mCaffeine has cemented faster and more phenomenal growth metrics when compared to any other funded, single ingredient D2C beauty brand across the globe. Building a new beauty market, mCaffeine has revolutionised the use of caffeine globally while enlightening its customers about its ethical environmental practices at every stage.
Successfully reporting upon its consistent endeavors towards reducing plastic pollution in the country, it has also achieved 100 percent zero plastic footprints followed by recycling more plastic than the actual usage,” the startup said in a statement.
The brand recently onboarded Bollywood actress Alia Bhatt as its brand ambassador for its body scrubs and body wash range
“The last 5 years are testament to mCaffeine’s growth and customer affinity – to think of it, we have sold coffee equivalent to 2 crore mid-size cups of Starbucks in just 5 years! We are deeply excited by this fundraise, as it will enable us to scale up our R&D capabilities while we strengthen our brand awareness nationally, and fortify our marketing and distribution efforts (both online and offline) across geographies,” said Tarun Sharma, CEO and co-founder, mCaffeine.
“Putting an Indian-origin, caffeine-infused, 100 percent vegan, cruelty-free and natural brand on a global map was always on the cards for us, as we are cognizant of how fast our global customer base is expanding.
Anticipating the growing needs of a worldwide audience requires us to augment our innovation capacity and fasten new product development while ensuring environmental stewardship so that we can create offerings that are universal in appeal to ‘Bharat’ as much as ‘NYC’.
To enable us to achieve this goal, we plan to absorb/acquire small brands from the beauty industry (across national and international markets) using mCaffeine framework to strengthen our efforts,” Sharma added.
mCaffeine has raised a total of $40 million across three funding rounds and is profitable on every unit sold, the company said.
“We are excited to announce our investment in mCaffeine and partner with the company as it evolves from a leading Indian digital-first brand to a full-fledged global omnichannel brand. We have been tracking the Indian beauty and personal care industry for the last 24 months and found that mCaffeine clearly stands out from its peers in terms of new product development capabilities, product efficacy, revenue density / SKU, customer retention, brand recall,” Sumeet Nindrajog, co-founder and senior partner, Paragon Partners, said.
“This is Paragon’s first investment in the personal care sector and is in line with our investment strategy of partnering with high-caliber entrepreneurs with compelling business models and assisting them to scale up operations and expand into new markets,” he added.
Published By : VATSAL KOTHA
Edited By : KRITIKA KASHYAP
