Pep Technologies, which owns direct-to-consumer personal care brand mCaffeine, has raised Rs 240 crore in its Series C round led by Paragon Partners and joined by Singularity Growth Opportunities Fund, Sharrp Ventures and existing investors Amicus Capital Partners and RPSG Capital Ventures.
The D2C brand is now valued at Rs 1,000 crore. Till date, mCaffeine has raised a total of $40 million across three funding rounds, and claims to be profitable.
Founded in 2016 by Tarun Sharma, Vikas Lachhwani, Vaishali Gupta, Mohit Jain and Saurabh Singhal, the brand is present in four major categories - face, hair, body and lip care. The omnichannel brand has also expanded to three other countries with over 55 products.
D2C brands start by selling their products online and are assisted by other ecommerce marketplaces such as Flipkart, Myntra, and Amazon.
Tarun Sharma, CEO and co-founder of mCaffeine, said, “We are deeply excited by this fundraise, as it will enable us to scale up our R&D capabilities while we strengthen our brand awareness nationally and fortify our marketing and distribution efforts (both online and offline) across geographies.”
He added, “We plan to absorb/acquire small brands from the beauty industry (across national and international markets).”
A number of D2C players have popped up in the personal care space including Sugar Cosmetics, Mamaearth, and Plum which recently raised $35 million.
Over the last year, D2C brands have nearly tripled the capital raised at over $2 billion across 105 deals. Brands like MyGlamm, Licious and Rebel Foods, and Mamaearth have also joined the unicorn club since last year.
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