Honasa Consumer, Mamaearth Parent Company, Stregthens Corporate Governance With 50% Independent Board Members

Honasa Consumer Ltd. (HCL), parent company of brands such as Mamaearth, The Derma Co., Aqualogica and Ayuga, is excited to share that their board now comprises of 50% independent board members. Appointment of independent directors on the board is extremely significant to ensure that the board considers the interests of shareholders foremost. It is likely to support independent decision-making and to moderate conflicting views and opinions by board members in favor of the shareholders.

The board of Honasa Consumer Limited comprises of six members, namely, Ghazal Alagh, Varun Alagh, Ishaan Mittal, Vivek Gambhir, Namita Gupta and Subramaniam Somasundaram. Out of these, Ghazal and Varun Alagh are co-founders of the Company, and Ishaan Mittal is a nominee of Sequoia Capital on the board of HCL. Whereas, Vivek Gambhir, Namita Gupta and Subramaniam Somasundaram are independent board members who have decades of experience in FMCG, and ecommerce marketplace, hence the understanding, evaluation and mentoring imparted by the board on HCL’s plans, and performance are extremely pivotal in charting the way forward for the organization. These independent board members will be part of the statutory committee, audit committee, nomination and remuneration committee, stakeholder committee and other committees wherein the independent directors may constitute more than 65% to ensure compliance with all parameters of corporate governance measures like transparency, control measures et. al.

Commenting on this, Varun Alagh, Co-Founder and CEO, Honasa Consumer Ltd. said, “An independent board is critical for any organization for unbiased decision making. In the past, we have been fortunate to have such experienced individuals on the board of Honasa Consumer Limited. Our board members have helped keep checks and balances in place to ensure we take calculated risks and mitigate tough situations."

Ramanpreet Sohi, CFO, Honasa Consumer Ltd., “In order to maintain governance checks and balances and ensure transparency and control measures, companies appoint independent board members. Over the last 5 years, Honasa Consumer has witnessed fast paced growth. While the statutory requirement is of 33% of independent board members, we have opted to keep 50% of our board as independent board members, to ensure readiness for future. They have been instrumental in ensuring strict checkpoints through our working over the years.”

Vivek Gambhir is an Independent Director of our Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree in arts and a bachelor’s degree of science from Lafayette College, Pennsylvania. Further, he holds a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He has been associated with our Company as a director since March 24, 2021. Previously, he has worked with Bain & Company India Private Limited for a period of over 11 years where he was last associated as “Partner”, and with Godrej Consumer Products Limited for a period of over 11 years where he was last associated as “Whole-time Director”. He has previously been the co-chair of the Confederation of Indian Industry, National FMCG Committee and served as the president of the Harvard Business School Club of India.

Subramaniam Somasundaram is an Independent Director of our Company. He holds a bachelor’s degree of commerce from University of Madras, Madras and is a chartered accountant and cost accountant. Previously, he was the chief financial officer for Titan Company Limited for a decade. During his association with Titan Company Limited, he was also on the board of its subsidiaries like Caratlane Trading Private Limited and Titan Engineering and Automation Limited. Currently he is also an Independent Director on the boards of Teamlease Services Limited, Avanti Finance Private Limited, API Holdings Limited, Landmark Retail FZE (Dubai) and Innoviti Technologies Private Limited.

He has worked in the telecom industry for over 11 years as well, as the chief financial officer for BPL Mobile group and chief executive officer for BPL Mobile operations in Mumbai and chief financial officer of the telecom vertical in Essar group in its foray into Africa. He has also worked earlier in his career with I.T.C Limited, V.S.T Industries Limited in India and Mannai Corporation Limited, Qatar.

Namita Gupta is an Independent Director of our Company. She holds a master’s degree of technology in mathematics and computing from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. She has been associated with our Company as a director since June 8, 2022. Previously, she has worked with Microsoft Corporation. She has also worked with Facebook Inc. for a period of over five years where she was last associated as “Partner Engineer”. Further, she has also served as an independent director ozn the board of directors at Zomato Limited since March 1, 2021 and is the founder and currently on the board of directors of Airveda Technologies Private Limited.

Digital-First Brand Mamaearth, Launches 35 Exclusive Brand Outlets in Less Than 12 Months

Phoenix Marketcity, Kurla

The brand has entered 15 cities with the EBO stores in less than a year

Mamaearth, the fastest growing beauty and personal Care brand from Honasa Consumer Limited, has launched 35 Exclusive Brand Outlets across 15 cities of India. The brand ventured into Exclusive Brand outlets as an experiment in Q3 of 2021 and since the launch, the format has displayed steady growth, both in terms of scale and revenue.

Being a digital-first brand, Mamaearth ventured into the beauty and personal care sector with an aim to service a core customer need for safe-to-use, natural based products and focuses on developing toxin-free beauty products made with natural ingredients. While the brand launched with babycare, the brand expanded into personal care with facecare, skincare and bodycare for adults too. The brand recently ventured into color cosmetics with a differentiated proposition of Color cosmetics with Care using natural ingredients and Made Safe Certification to provide glam with care.

After building Mamaearth as brand name and taking it to the revenue of 1000 Cr. with digital contributing to majority of the revenue; the brand is now expanding offline footprints with Exclusive Brand Outlets across a mix of mall stores and high-street outlets in India. With the intent to leverage this channel to curate richer brand experiences for consumers and deepen engagement with them in the offline retail environment. Along with being a great experience center, the EBO channel will support develop strategic categories such as color cosmetics that require a more personalized service and experience to facilitate purchase conversion.

Mamaearth has appointed Mr. Ankur Chaudhary to lead the Exclusive Brand Outlet channel. Ankur comes with a decade of core retail experience. Having worked with legacy retail brands in EBO and large format stores, Ankur has rich and in-depth knowledge of retail strategy and operations. With experience of launching and managing over 250+ stores across brands, he will be able to provide the necessary guidance to continuously expand the EBO footprints.

Commenting on the campaign, Varun Alagh, Co-founder and CEO, Honasa Consumer Limited, said, "Every brand needs to be selling at places where their consumers shop; that’s why we ventured into Exclusive Brand Stores. While we were already present across multiple points of sale offline through general trade and modern trade outlets, exclusive brand outlets are an extension of our omnichannel strategy. EBOs allow us to create a strong visual connection with the consumers and help us bring the brand promise and experience in the physical world. We launched over 200+ SKUs just this year across baby, face, skin, body care and color cosmetics, and EBO formats present as a medium to engage with consumers beyond the products. In fact, we are hyper customizing this channel, using data from our D2C to create a product assortment conducive to the market, city basis the consumer demands and consumption pattern."

Mamaearth is a purpose driven brand for millennials who believe in choosing goodness for themselves and the environment. The brand continues to live up to its commitment of developing toxin-free beauty products made with natural ingredients. They are animal cruelty-free, plastic positive, and have launched the Plant Goodness promise, as well. As part of this, the brand links every order made on their website to a tree they plant.

Aqualogica Brings India's 1st Hydration Brand-based on the Nobel Prize-winning Discovery

AQUALOGICA BRINGS THE HYDRATION MOVEMENT TO INDIA

India's first hydration brand based on the Nobel Prize-winning Aquaporins stimulating ingredients

Aqualogica, from the House of Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd., the fastest growing personal care company, is a brand designed to redefine the hydration movement for modern millennial skincare by striking the right balance between the lap of nature and the depths of scientific research.

Aqualogica is a hydration-based skincare brand with light gel-based textures specifically formulated for Indian skin & climate. The brand aims to solve one of the most neglected aspects of skincare - hydration. It is the first brand in India to build on the Nobel Prize-winning Aquaporins-based approach to hydration. The unique formulation stimulates the aquaporin channels of the skin that help push moisture from the inner layer of skin to the outer layer and is clinically proven to increase skin hydration levels by 80% within 30 minutes. The brand also addresses major skincare concerns such as dull skin, pigmentation, and dark spots, all while keeping hydration at the forefront.

Aqualogica - Glow Range

 
The products are crafted with Unique Water Lock Technology™ that locks-in moisture and gives deep and intense hydration, making skin look dewy and plump. They are formulated especially for the Indian weather and perfected for Indian skin by a team of experienced Dermatologists, Scientists, and Skin and Beauty Experts.

Aqualogica’s formulations blend the purity of fruits with the science of actives to get the ultimate boost of hydration with handpicked ingredients that bring you closer to your skin goals. With extensively researched clinical actives and benefits of natural fruits, the products truly carry the power of two. Hyaluronic Acid is one of the constants, and like its many benefits, hydration is at the forefront. It holds 1000x of its weight in water, ensuring you get all the hydration you need every time your skin meets the products. Blended with well-researched fruit-powered ingredients, the products ensure they are gentle yet hardworking on every skin.

 
Commenting on the brand launch, Ghazal Alagh, Co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer, Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd., said, “Being a D2C company, we are extremely connected with our consumers, and they help us stay updated on trends and understand consumer sentiments and create brands that serve our consumers best. Because the Indian subcontinent is a tropical region with hot summers and significant high humidity, Indian skin requires and wants a lot of hydration. We imagined Aqualogica as the answer to India's skin hydration demands to solve the problem. We have leveraged our team's expertise and worked with trusted dermatologists in scientifically formulating skincare products with clean, efficacious ingredients to design a line of advanced hydrating products that inspire confidence.”

Aqualogica has unveiled its purpose of providing clean water to everyone. The brand harvests the 'Water for All' initiative by collaborating with organizations that work on the ground to offer access to individuals in remote parts of India where clean and safe drinking water is a distant dream. As part of this, the brand intervenes at several levels, depending on the needs of the location, such as water budgeting, ground water mapping, water harvesting, and water conservation through the construction of new drinking water storage tanks, among other things. Every time a consumer places an order on Aqualogica’s website, the brand initiates the process of providing clean drinking water to a person in need and the consumer receives the information of their contribution via mail within a few days of receiving the products. The initiative is powered by the Watershed Organisation Trust (WOTR), which is a globally recognized organization dedicated to help the poor get access to clean drinking water.

The brand has launched two of its skincare ranges - Hydrate+ with Coconut Water & Hyaluronic Acid and Glow+ with Papaya and Vitamin C as key ingredients. Aqualogica skincare product portfolio consists of high-quality, yet affordable skincare products like face wash, moisturizer, serums, face scrub, sleeping masks, sheet masks, dew drops, sorbet cream and sunscreen for the face, specifically formulated to provide skin that is smooth, nourished and hydrated. With a commitment to honesty and transparency, Aqualogica is PETA-approved Vegan & Cruelty-Free and does not contain Parabens, Phthalates, Sulfates & Mineral Oil.

ABOUT AQUALOGICA

Aqualogica is a hydration-based skincare brand with light gel-based textures specifically formulated for Indian skin & climate. The brand aims to solve one of the most neglected aspects of skincare - hydration. Aqualogica is the first brand in India to build on the Nobel Prize-winning Aquaporins-based approach to hydration. Their skincare products are formulated especially for the Indian weather and perfected for your skin by our team of experienced Dermatologists, Scientists, and Skin and Beauty Experts.

Aqualogica’s formulations blend the purity of fruits with the science of actives to get the ultimate boost of hydration with handpicked ingredients that bring you closer to your skin goals. The brand has launched two of its skincare ranges - Hydrate+ with Coconut Water & Hyaluronic Acid and Glow+ with Papaya and Vitamin C as key ingredients.

Honasa Consumer Pvt Limited (HCPL), is a house of brands with a digital-first approach towards consumer brands creating the FMCG conglomerate of the future. A company built on the values of Honesty, Natural ingredients and Safe care, HCPL caters to the needs of millennial consumers through innovative products, evolved propositions, direct-to-consumer marketing, and e-commerce fulfillment. Currently catering to over 500 cities in India. 

HCPL is building an ecosystem that helps benefit the consumers and community at large. HCPL has built an inhouse portfolio of digital-first consumer brands like Mamaearth, The Derma Co., Aqualogica, Ayuga and has recently acquired stakes in Bblunt, Dr Sheth and content platform Momspresso. Backed by Sequoia Capital India, Sofina SA, Fireside Ventures, and Stellaris Venture Partners, HCPL is set to become a billion-dollar FMCG conglomerate in the next 5 years — spread across the globe but connected through a digital center of excellence.

Honasa Becomes the 1st Unicorn of 2022 As It Raises $52 Mn Led by Sequoia at 1.2 Bn Valuation

Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. (HCPL), parent company of Mamaearth, The Derma Co. and the fastest growing personal care House of Brands, closes the latest USD 52 Million round led by Sequoia, accelerating the company’s leadership in D2C personal care segment.

The round witnessed participation by Sofina Ventures SA, the Belgium-based investment company, and Evolvence, a UAE based India focused fund. The round also gave employees an opportunity to monetize their vested ESOP.

The company plans to deploy the funds towards expanding their portfolio of personal care D2C brands venturing into new avenues with unique propositions. With the recent launch of Aqualogica, a hydration-based skin care brand, the company has forayed into a new segment catering to unique requirements of Indian skin and tropical weather. The newly acquired funds will be directed towards product innovation, distribution, and marketing of brands in Honasa’s stable. Along with launching new brands, Honasa will continue aggressively expanding distribution for existing brands -Mamaearth and The Derma Co. and explore strategic inorganic growth opportunities in beauty and personal care segment.

Commenting on this, Varun Alagh, Co-Founder and CEO, Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. said, “We have been on a constant quest to becoming a company that is the first choice of evolving Indian millennials in the beauty and personal care segment. Our flagship brand, Mamaearth has established itself as a leader in D2C personal care with a strong purpose of Goodness Inside. Looking at the scale of Mamaearth and success of The Derma Co., we are confident that we have the expertise to build brands with a millennial connect. We will be deploying the funds towards brand launches, expanding distribution, inorganic growth and expanding the current portfolio across borders. Sequoia, Sofina and Evolvence have unique strengths in US, Europe & GCC respectively which will help us grow internationally & learn from others in these markets."

Commenting on investment, Ghazal Alagh, Co-Founder and CIO, Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. said, “Our company is built on the proposition of Honest, Natural and Safe and that has contributed to the exponential growth of Mamaearth as consumers buy into the philosophy of the brand while purchasing the product. Millennials personal care concerns are dynamic and with our Direct-to-Consumer approach we are updated on the changing consumer demands. With this thought, we have been able to build an extensive portfolio of products across baby care, skincare, haircare and color cosmetics under Mamaearth and a portfolio of 40+ products under The Derma Co. The launch of Aqualogica is an extension of our philosophy of millennial problem-solving products. With the launch of Aqualogica, we are the first ones to launch a brand on the Noble prize winning Aquaporins based approach to hydration and the brand is already showing great receptivity by the consumers. The recent round will empower us to fuel our innovation funnel and provide a wider assortment of problem-solving personal care products for millennials we closed will further provide impetus to our innovation funnel and help us serve our consumers with a wider assortment of products.”

Ishaan Mittal, MD, Sequoia India said, “As discovery and consumption of FMCG brands is getting more influenced by digital channels, it is providing a unique opportunity to founders to build brands of the future. Mamaearth has established itself as a clear market leader in this digital-first consumer goods space and team Sequoia is delighted to double-down on the partnership with Ghazal and Varun in this journey.”

Rohit Batra, Managing Partner, Evolvence Capital, said, "We have been very impressed with the remarkable growth that Honasa has witnessed and the deep connect and trust it has established with its customers. We believe the GCC market will be very receptive to the Honasa brands, especially Mamaearth and initial signs have been very encouraging as we scale in the region."

Yana Kachurina, Investment Manager, Sofina Ventures SA, said, “We have been privileged to witness the spectacular growth of the company over the last few months, which only reinforces our initial view that Honasa is led by exceptional entrepreneurs and boasts best-in-class brand building and innovation capabilities"

Honasa Consumer Pvt Limited (HCPL), is a digital-first consumer brands company creating the FMCG conglomerate of the future. A company built on the values of Honesty, Natural ingredients and Safe care, HCPL caters to the needs of millennial consumers through innovative products, evolved propositions, direct to consumer marketing, and e-commerce fulfillment. Currently catering to over 1000 cities in India with brands like Mamaearth, The Derma Co. & Aqualogica, HCPL is building an ecosystem that helps benefit the consumers and community at large. Backed by Sequoia, Sofina Ventures SA, Evolvence, Fireside Ventures, and Stellaris Venture Partners, HCPL has become a billion-dollar personal care House of Brands in just 5 years.

Honasa, the Parent of Mamaearth and The Derma Co, Announces Stock Options for All Employees

The partnership program will give stock-based value creation to 100% employees

Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. (HCPL), parent company of Mamaearth and The Derma Co. and the fastest growing House of Brands for personal care, announced stock-based value creation under the Stock Appreciation Rights Program for all employees.

HCPL has enabled the wealth creation program for all employees and has distributed stocks worth 20Cr., in addition to the ESOPs previously allocated. The stock-based value creation will be a top-up component over and beyond the employee CTC, setting the HCPL program apart from the industry programs.

Through this partnership program, Honasa facilitates every employee with ownership and inclusivity. This initiative aims to ensures all employees, irrespective of their role, seniority and time spent in the origination, has a stake in the organization and enables value creation for everyone as the organization grows.

Along with all current employees, the company will provide the stock appreciation rights to all the future employees joining the organization going forward.

Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. has established itself as a beacon of pride, trust, and honesty and was recently certified by ‘Great Place to Work’. The prestigious award is based entirely on what the current employees say about their experience working with the organization. With a trust index of 88 percent, this was the second consecutive year of this certification.

Commenting on the program, Varun Alagh, Co-Founder and CEO, Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. said,” Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. has experienced meteoric growth over the last 5 years, and we wanted our team to grow along with the company. Unlike some programs which require employees to contribute a part of their CTC as investment towards stock options, we have made this as a top-up component, beyond the CTC. We want the employees to have equal chance to participate in any upcoming liquidation opportunity to build their personal wealth portfolio.”

ABOUT HONASA CONSUMER PVT LTD

Honasa Consumer Pvt Limited (HCPL), is a digital-first consumer brands company creating the FMCG conglomerate of the future. A company built on the values of Honesty, Natural ingredients and Safe care, HCPL caters to the needs of millennial consumers through innovative products, evolved propositions, direct to consumer marketing, and e-commerce fulfillment. Currently catering to over 500 cities in India with brands like Mamaearth & The Derma Co., HCPL is building an ecosystem that helps benefit the consumers and community at large. Backed by Sequoia Capital India, Fireside Ventures, Stellaris Venture Partners, and Sharrp Ventures, HCPL is set to become a billion-dollar FMCG conglomerate in the next 5 years — spread across the globe but connected through a digital center of excellence.