Paragon backs Indian caffeine-based personal care brand
Paragon Partners has led a INR 2.4bn (USD 31.7m) Series C round for mCaffeine, an India-based direct-to-consumer (D2C) personal care brand that specialises in caffeine-infused products.
Pep Technologies, mCaffeine’s parent entity, is now worth INR 10bn. It claims to be the most valuable D2C single-ingredient beauty brand globally. Singularity Growth Opportunities Fund, Sharrp Ventures and existing investors Amicus Capital Partners and RPSG Capital Ventures also took part in the round.
Sharrp is an investment firm established by former Marico CEO Harsh Mariwala, while RPSG is an early-stage investor sponsored by RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group.
Founded in 2015, mCaffeine received USD 2m in Series A funding in 2020 led by RPSG and featuring the likes of LV Angel Fund and Telama Investments. A Series B of INR 420m followed last year, led by Amicus. RPSG and Telama re-upped.
The brand targets lifestyle-oriented millennials with mass premium offerings. MCaffeine has a presence in four major categories – face care, hair care, body care, and lip care – and claims its products are best sellers on Amazon and Nykaa. It also distributes through more than 5,000 third-party offline stores in India and has launched in three other countries.
The Series C proceeds will support further global expansion. MCaffeine hopes to enlarge its footprint to 12 countries, with an initial emphasis on Middle East and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) markets such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, and Kuwait. Longer term, the company wants to enter parts of Europe and the US.
"The recent fundraise will enable us to scale up our R&D capabilities while we strengthen our brand awareness, and fortify our marketing and distribution efforts – online and offline – across geographies,” said Tarun Sharma, CEO and co-founder of mCaffeine, in a statement.
He added that the company would look to absorb or acquire small beauty brands globally, effectively using the mCaffeine framework as an aggregation platform.
D2C personal care brands have gained considerable traction in India, including some beauty e-commerce marketplaces that leverage their data and product knowledge to develop private label brands that resonate with locals. Establishing offline distribution footprints and expanding product portfolios by acquiring smaller brands are consistent themes.
Last week, Plum received a USD 35m Series C round led by A91 Partners at a valuation of approximately USD 250m. Meanwhile, in the past six months, Nykaa has completed an INR 53.5bn domestic IPO, while Good Glamm Group – operator of MyGlamm – has achieved unicorn status on closing a USD 150m Series D and Purplle received a USD 75m Series E at a valuation of USD 630m.
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