Success story of Mamaearth: Reforming Indian Cosmetic Industry

Gone are the days when people had to rely on the chemical products for their regular skincare routine. The cosmetic industry has involved dramatically in the past few years. The craze for organic products has been increasing with each passing day simply because these products cause no harm to us. Leveraging this drive of organic and toxic-free products, Mamaearth has successfully carved out a niche for itself as a promising startup in the cosmetics industry.

The Gurgaon-based company offers a wide range of natural products for everyone including newborn babies.

In this blog, we will tell you everything about this startup and how Mamaearth became India’s top organic brand.

About the company

Mamaearth is an e-commerce platform that sells products related to health, skincare, baby care, and more. Earlier, most of the baby products available in India were made from chemicals. However, with the launch of Mamaearth, the parents can now nourish their little ones with 100% natural and toxic-free products. Founded by the parents themselves, Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh in 2016, the company has now become the number one organic brand in the country.

How did it begin?

Every mother promises to give utmost care and love to her baby and when Ghazal Alagh and her husband Varun were expecting their first child, they also wanted the best for the little one. Like every other parent, the couple also did their research on internet to ensure the safety of their baby and also browsed what kind of a baby products should they use. Eventually, they realised that no product was matching the complete safety standards as all of such items contain chemicals harmful for the newborns. Since, the duo didn’t find any Indian product safer for their child, they started purchasing them from US, owing to the higher quality standards of the products available there. However, it turned out to be very expensive and inconvenient process for them.

Finding no solution at hand, Ghazal and Varun decided to start a company of their own which take care of every parent & baby’s wellbeing with safe and toxin-free chemicals. And that’s how mamaearth was born. Ghazal and Varun launched the brand in 2016, under the parent company Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd, in Gurugram.

Founders & Team

Varun Alagh, Get Stuff Done Officer, and the Chief Dad of Mamaearth, did his graduation in Electrical Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering. After completing his Engineering, Varun decided to pursue MBA in Finance and Marketing from XLRI Jamshedpur. As far as the professional career is concerned, the 38-year-old previously worked in many big companies such as Hindustan Unilever, Smirnoff, and The Coca-Cola where he had managed leadership roles before founding Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd., parent company of Mamaearth.

On the other hand, Varun’s better half Ghazal, who is the COO and Co-founder of Mamaearth, graduated with a degree in Bachelors of Computer Application from Panjab University. Before launching Mamaearth with her husband, Ghazal had served as a Corporate Trainer at NIIT and also founded a startup, Dietexpert, in February 2012.

Growth in the market

Within just four years of its launch, Mamaearth became the first brand in Asia to get the MadeSafe certification. In case you don’t know about it, this certification verifies that a product is made up with safe ingredients (toxin-free) and causes no harm human health, animals or ecosystem. When Mamaearth was launched, the company only had six products in its catalogue. But now, the brand has expanded its portfolio with more than 80 natural and toxin-free products that are used by over 1.5 million people across India.

Popularly hailed as the fastest-growing D2C brand in the country, Mamaearth crossed the remarkable milestone of Rs 100 crore in just four years. In addition to this, the company has also entered the unicorn club with a valuation of more than $1 billion.

Reason behind its success

One of the most significant reasons behind Mamaearth’ success is that it follows a direct-to-consumer (DTC) business model which means they sell their products directly to the consumers through their website and retail stores. As there is no involvement of intermediaries such as distributors or wholesalers, it helps the company to keep its costs low and sell its products at a competitive price. Despite a stiff competition in the market with the presence of popular brands like Johnson & Johnson, Headspot, Ulta Beauty, Mamaearth is standing tall with a steady position.

According to Varun Alagh, Mamaearth provides premium and safer products as compared to other big brands and this has led to the massive growth of his company in the market.