Minimalist’s ethos is transparency; it’ll stay intact under HUL ownership, says co-founder Mohit Yadav

Minimalist co-founders Rahul Yadav (L) and Mohit Yadav (R).

From starting as Freewill (a beauty brand) in a small room in Jaipur seven years ago to becoming one of the most successful exits in the Indian direct-to-consumer (D2C) space, Minimalist’s success story is one for the history books.

Despite not initially being keen on an M&A, co-founder and CEO Mohit Yadav and his team secured an all-cash deal of over Rs 3,000 crore from FMCG giant Hindustan Unilever (HUL). In an interview with Moneycontrol, Yadav sheds light on what worked for Minimalist.

Yadav and his brother (Rahul) began running Minimalist shortly after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This was the Rajasthan-based duo’s second venture, following the launch and sale of Mangostreet in 2010, which they sold to Hushbabies in 2012.

Minimalist, which offers a curated range of creams with its signature black-and-white packaging, maintains a limited set of stock-keeping units (SKUs). According to the founders, this focus has been a key factor in the brand’s success. The brand prominently displays its ingredients on the front of its packaging, reminiscent of The Ordinary, a US-based brand acquired by Estée Lauder last year.

In a wide ranging conversation with Moneycontrol, Yadav spoke about building and scaling a consumer brand in India, why product trumps marketing, the brand’s moat and his plans going forward after the HUL acquisition.

Edited excerpts:

How did the idea of Minimalist come about? And what helped in making Minimalist an attractive bet for HUL?

From our days at Freewill, we had an idea of the formulators and ingredients but given our tech and product background, we decided to convert all of it into algorithms and understood that people have different needs based on lifestyles and environmental conditions. That is when we decided to create a personalised solution for users. Sometime in 2020, when we were trying to figure out some challenges of personalisation and distribution, the thought of Minimalist came about. So the brand emerged largely as a pivot based on our learnings.

You had roughly 200 followers on Instagram around October 2020. From there how did you scale to a Rs 100 crore brand and then to over Rs 300 crore in four years, especially when the market was already crowded.

We never liked how other brands massively focused on marketing instead of their product. Most times, the product does not justify what is written on the back of the packaging – there's a big contrast in those. The concentration they used versus the claims they made were remarkably different and told two different stories. That is where customers liked us – we gave them a functional product and treated them with some sort of transparency and honesty.

Every brand will say we are customer-first, we are transparent, we are honest but very few walk the talk. Most of them just use that as a statement written on their wall.

At Minimalist, we learnt that customers are much smarter than we think. And if they like something they become your evangelist, so you don't have to invest a lot in marketing. Everyone is connected on social media, they will tell the story. The same when your product is bad.

Is there a brand you looked up to while scaling Minimalist? People often compare your brand to The Ordinary – how do you feel about that?

The Ordinary is a very iconic brand and before we started the kind of changes they were bringing in us was very commendable. Unfortunately they were not in India and not too many companies were trying to do something that The Ordinary was doing. And beyond the product, we were also inclined towards the values they had.

Although, after the Estee Lauder acquisition (in May 2024), we felt that some part of The Ordinary’s core philosophies changed. We started seeing some dissimilarities, but anyway, I am a big fan of what Brandon Truaxe (founder of The Ordinary) did around that time.

We’ve seen the core DNA of brands change after they come under the fold of a larger conglomerate. Is that a worry for Minimalist?

The difference between Estee Lauder and The Ordinary deal and HUL and Minimalist deal is that Estee Lauder has always been a premium positioning, but The Ordinary wasn’t positioned that way so it was a misfit in Estee Lauder’s portfolio.

However, in our case – the prices, the margins, transparency, fair pricing, etc. were all part of HUL’s playbook from earlier. If we were getting sold to a luxury brand, then we would have been a misfit.

Minimalist’s ethos is the product and the transparency, if HUL does anything with it then Minimalist will lose its proposition. So far, in our conversation over the past months, that has not been the case, so we are confident nothing will change.

What comes next for Mohit Yadav and your brother co-founder Rahul Yadav? Since this was your second exit after Mangostreet – is there another startup coming?

We’ll continue to operate and run independently like a startup. Rahul and I will continue to operate like earlier, everything remains unchanged.

It’s too early to say what next. There's enough that we can do at Minimalist – that is where our heart and soul is. There's a lot to do on the international expansion front. We are very actively working with partners in Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe. Plus more on the India offline expansion push as well.

Both Rahul and I are here for the next two years, at least (that is the timeline HUL has set for its full acquisition of Minimalist).

You raised under Rs 200 crore from Peak XV Partners and Unilever Ventures but how important is it for founders to choose the right investors?

I would tell founders not to over-index on valuations but to choose the right person for themselves and their company. It’s always about the person, not just the fund. I enjoyed discussing product and everything beyond just the numbers with Shailesh Lakhani from Peak XV Partners (who left in February this year) and Pawan Chaturvedi from Unilever Ventures.

You should find comfort in your investors. You should be able to talk to them on good days, yes, but even be able to approach them on your bad days. I was lucky to have them because we had a lot of bad days in our journey at Minimalist.

How instrumental were they in the journey?

I don’t know if you’re aware but the HUL deal happened when we were in the market to raise our Series B round. And when we wanted to raise more money, we first reached out to Shailesh and Pawan because that’s the comfort I have with them.

Because, they showed the confidence in backing us during our first round, the pre-Series A round. That is when we were in dire need of money, I had even mortgaged my house for more capital.

Do you think Minimalist’s journey would have been any different if you were based in Bengaluru, Delhi or Mumbai instead of Jaipur?

No, we never felt that way even for a second.

Who are some of the founders you look up to?

First would be Ratan Tata for sure then Phil Knight of Nike. We have also learnt a lot from Amit Jain of CarDekho because we worked there previously and also from Kunal Bahl of Snapdeal/Titan Capital.

Can you shed some light on Minimalist's financials? You closed FY24 with a top line of Rs 350 crore and were profitable, how was FY25?

We should be closing FY25 with over Rs 500 crore and continue to remain profitable. We’re expecting to grow at over 50 percent in the next 2-3 years if everything goes as per plan.