'Shark' Vineeta Singh says investors refused to fund Sugar until her husband joined it

Shark Tank India judge and Sugar cosmetics CEO Vineeta Singh (Image credit: LinkedIn)

Shark Tank India judge and CEO of Sugar cosmetics Vineeta Singh has recently revealed the biases she faced as a woman entrepreneur including a time when an investor refused to fund her company unless her husband joined it full-time.

Singh was in conversation with Bombay Shaving Company's CEO Shantanu Deshpande for his YouTube chat show The BarberShop with Shantanu.

"Early on in our journey, we were so desperate for capital... It was so hard for Kaushik (husband) and me to raise funding up to 2018-19 when B2C (business to consumer) became cool," she said. Kaushik Mukherjee is the co-founder and COO at Sugar cosmetics.

"In 2012-13, when Kaushik was still with Mckinsey, I've had an investor say 'We don't invest in solo women founders so, until Kaushik quits Mckinsey and joins full time, we can't give you a check."

Vineeta Singh added that when the investor was asked the reason behind his decision, he apparently said that he had invested in a company run by a woman founder who let the business fall apart after having a family.

"In my head, I was like 'Wow! Sample size n=1 and you've decided to label our entire gender saying that you'll never invest in women founders and you're openly talking about it'," she said.

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The Shark Tank India judge later elaborated on battles that she chose to not fight and mentioned that this was one of them. She said that because the company desperately needed funds, she urged her husband to come on board as quickly as possible for the deal to work out.

Singh said that she had decided to play things better and fund women-led ventures when she was in a better position of power.

Speaking about the gender bias that she still faces occasionally, the Sugar cosmetics CEO said, "There are still times that some venture capitalists would shake my husband's hand, but not mine. They would also not make eye contact or ask me any questions, but I make it a point to shake their hands vigorously, make eye contact, and ask them questions."

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