After raising Rs 100 crore recently, Renee Cosmetics, an Ahmedabad based Beauty and Personal Care (BPC) startup brand, is aiming to achieve profitability within the next 12 to 18 months.
Furthermore, looking forward to encash on its USP of innovation in bringing out unique products, the company is also aiming to touch annual revenue of Rs 350-400 crore and to increase its presence to around 2,500 offline stores from the current 1,200 stores across the country in FY 2024-25.
Speaking to FE, Ashutosh Valani, Co-Founder & CEO of Renee Cosmetics and the co-founder of successful Men’s grooming brand Beardo, said, “We had run Beardo profitably before we sold it to Marico in 2020, so we know how to run a profitable business. Currently, our focus is on innovation, growth (online and offline both) and wider reach. We are planning to achieve profitability between the next 12 to 18 months”. It may be recalled that Mumbai-based firm Marico acquired 45% stake in Beardo in 2017 while the remaining 55% were acquired in 2020. As per the estimates, the total value of the acquisition was in the range of Rs 350 to 400 crore.
Renee, co-founded by Ashutosh Valani, Priyank Shah and Aashka Goradia Goble in 2018, is one of the fastest growing brands in the BPC segment. It is also one of the fastest companies to reach Rs 100 crore and Rs 200 crore turnover.
After the recent Series B funding round led by its existing investors, Evolvence India and Edelweiss Group, the current valuation of the company is around Rs 1200-1400 crore, 60% increase on the previous round. Valani also claimed that the company is doing well in retaining customers and creating brand value. “In FY24, 33% of our consumers were returning consumers compared to 8%, 11% and 21% in FY21, FY22 and FY23 respectively.”
Commenting on the Indian BPC market, Valani said, “We are hoping that the acceptability and affordability of brands in the largely unorganized Indian BPC market will increase with the increasing purchasing power of people. It is expected that most of this growth will be captured by Indian homegrown brands.”
According to a recent report by Redseer, the Indian BPC market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10% between 2022-2027. The size of the Indian market is expected to reach $ 30 billion (Rs 2.5 lakh crore) by 2027 against $ 20 billion in 2024. Currently, average per capita spending on BPC products is around Rs 1,214 with working women spending Rs 1,942 per capita. While the average per capita spending in China and America stands at Rs 3,172 and Rs 26,130 respectively.
When asked about the increasing demand and preference for eco-friendly products, Valani added, “Indian consumers do not have bulging purses to afford cosmetic products at premium prices without significant shelf-life. With the aim to give the customer the value for their money, Renee Cosmetics uses preservatives to increase the shelf-life. And we also infuse our innovative solutions like skin care properties to make the product affordable, unique and harmless.”
On the question of raising the money from the market, Valani said, “We do not have any immediate plans to go public yet. We will only think about going public once we have a turnover of at least Rs 1000-2000 crore or the valuation of more than Rs 5000 crore”, said Valani.
