Personal care brand mCaffeine, which sells caffeine-infused products, is aiming to achieve Rs 100 crore in annual revenue, and 1.5 million customers, in the next 12 months.
In a freewheeling chat with Moneycontrol, Tarun Sharma, co-founder of mCaffeine, said the brand has served more than half-a-million customers since its inception in 2016, and it is most popular among millennials.
Sharma refrained from revealing the current turnover but said that the company has been "growing very aggressively in the past 12 months".
mCaffeine is India's first caffeinated personal care brand co-founded by Tarun Sharma and Vikas Lachhwani, in October 2016, after nine months of extensive research.
The research yielded that caffeine is basically a superfood - It is a rich source of antioxidants and has several benefits for skin and hair. Thus Caffeine became the primary ingredient in all of their products.
It is an internet-only direct to consumer personal care brand and sells through own platform, and also through e-tailers such as Amazon, Nykaa, and Flipkart.
In the personal care segment, mCaffeine, competes with brands like Sacred Salts, NYC Arabica, Man Arden, BSD Organics, Ryaal, and Aurant.
Personal care segment for GenZ is a growing market in India, which currently stands at Rs 10,000 crore.
Personal care market in India is set to touch $20 billion (approx Rs 1,40,000 crore) by 2025 from the current $6.5 billion (approx Rs 45,000 crore) on the back of the rise in disposable income of middle class and growing aspirations of people, according to Assocham.
And natural and organic personal care are amongst the faster-growing category within the segment.
A laser-sharp focus on online as a channel has been very fruitful for the brand as mCaffeine product gets sold every 18 seconds, according to Sharma.
He further said that the brand is not only popular in metros but Tier 2 cities as well and has so far covered 18,000 pin codes.
In the next 3 years, Sharma aims to take mCaffeine in more geographies and capture the global market.
"Caffeine is a global concept and hence international markets are a great opportunity for a brand like mCaffeine. We believe that now the time is right that we build home grown brands and go out in the global markets to win a share in those markets," Sharma said.
FUNDRAISING
In June this year, mCaffeine had raised $2 million in its latest round of Series A funding from a consortium of investors led by RP-SG Ventures.
Sharma said as of now, the company is well-capitalized but was quick to add that, in the future, the company will raise the right amount of capital at the right time.
The company intends the use the further proceeds to explore ways to enhance R&D and invest in building technology-led distribution and team expansion.
EXPANSION, OFF-LINE PLANS
mCaffeine products are currently present in three major categories – face care, hair care, and body care, and has 17 products in its portfolio. In the next 12 months, the company will be launching another 20 products.
On the question of whether the company plans to go off-line anytime soon, Sharma said mCaffeine is an online-only brand and with the current ecosystem in India, and on internet first direct to consumer brands will become sizeable in future.
"We definitely want to be at the forefront of this internet driven consumption revolution. That being said, we will definitely go offline at the right time. We are a consumer 1st brand and we will keep a close eye on when our consumer wants us to be on the shelves near them," he added.
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