Ghazal Alagh is the Chief Innovation Officer and the co-founder of MamaEarth. MamaEarth is India’s first beauty brand that offers toxic-chemical-free baby and skincare products. In 2020, the net worth of MamaEarth was around Rs. 100 crores. MamaEarth was founded in 2016 by Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh.
It is Asia’s first beauty brand with MadeSafe certified materials and products. There are many toxic chemicals that are banned in product usage in many countries other than India. Many people are concerned about their families and themselves using products that are harmful. Alagh’s thought of doing something about this situation led to the establishment of MamaEarth.
The Founding of MamaEarth
Born in 1988 in Gurgaon, India, Ghazal Alagh completed her Higher studies at Punjab University and married Varun Alagh in 2011. Ghazal stayed in the US for a while, there she learned a lot about skincare products, toxins that are banned, and chemicals that are harmful to the skin. She used to check out the ingredients before she used a product. When Ghazal was expecting her first baby, she grew concerned about not finding any safe baby-care products in India.
Because of that, the couple stopped buying any Indian products and started purchasing products from the US, which turned out to be so expensive and the arrangement was so inconvenient. But it was not only them, thousands of parents want safe products for their children.
The idea took birth and the couple spent sleepless nights researching how to make skin and baby care products safer for use. All of the efforts became fruitful and MamaEarth was founded and it became Asia’s first beauty brand to be certified with “MadeSafe” products.
Ghazal is known as one of the top 10 women artists nationally and internationally. The couple is blessed with a baby boy named Agastya Alagh.
Ownership, Funding And investments
The majority stakeholder in Mamaearth is Varun Alagh, holding 38.72%. Sequoia Capital and Fireside Ventures Hold 15.22% and 12.04%. Ghazal holds 3.58% of the stakes whereas Stellaris Ventures holds 10.42% and Sofina ventures hold 8.72% stakes. The rest around 11% of the stakes are with others. Total funding of $109.87 million was raised by Mamaearth. Funding of $37.5 million was raised because of Sequoia Capital, helping Mamaearth to receive a unicorn valuation.
After this Mamaearth raised $50 million, by a Series C equity round by Sofina Ventures. Shilpa Shetty also became an equity investor in the company.
In the year 2016, Mamaearth raised $125,000 from a consortium of investors. The company raised $4 million in funding led by Stellaris Ventures, Fireside Ventures, and many others.
In the year 2020, Mamaearth raised around Rs 140 crores in a round led by Sequoia India with participation from existing investors – Fireside Ventures, Stellaris Venture Partners, and Sharp ventures
Challenges
Each startup goes through obstacles as it begins, so faced Mamaearth. From the very start, the company did not receive desirable outcomes. Not being able to completely clear about the motive of the product led to many failed attempts of marketing and very minimum audience targeted.
The team redesigned its way of targeting customers and marketing methods and they could see visible effects in a short time
Mamaearth had beaten many beauty brands that used to dominate the Indian market, which included both Indian and Foreign companies. The story of this Husband-Wife duo and the success of their company gives all of us an inspiration to stay aware of what we use and how we can do something bigger in our lives. We wish them luck for success ahead.
To know more about MamaEarth check – Website, Facebook, and Linkedin.
If you loved this story, you will surely love OYO’S Inspirational Story, Selling Sim cards to India’s Self Made Billionaire.
If you know more inspirational stories about any person, company, new idea, or social initiative write to us on mad4india.com, and share such information with us on Facebook or LinkedIn, Instagram.
