New-age beauty brand RENEE Cosmetics has successfully raised ₹100 crore in a Series B funding round, led by existing investors Evolvence India and Edelweiss Group.
This latest funding round values the company at ₹1,200-1,400 crore, marking a significant 60% increase from its previous valuation of ₹850 crore. To date, RENEE Cosmetics has accumulated around $45 million through various funding rounds.
Ashutosh Valani, co-founder and Director of RENEE Cosmetics, stated that the fundraiser will be majorly used for offline and catalogue expansion. “Our revenue has already jumped three times from our previous funding. Our focus was to penetrate offline because we feel that in beauty and cosmetics, it is very important that our customers get to feel the product.
We are into an instant sort of gratification business. So people must come, experience, feel the products, watch it on their hands, like it and then buy. So this particular funding will be majorly into offline and catalogue expansion.”
RENEE Cosmetics is currently present in 1,200 offline shop-in-shop models, supported by over 1,200 beauty advisors who engage with customers daily. Valani outlined ambitious plans to double this footprint within the next year and to introduce innovative new products. “We want to double the footprint within the next 12 months. While we do that, we also want to bring a new set of innovations by creating newer products,” he added.
The startup claims to be one of the fastest beauty brands to surpass the ₹350 crore annual recurring revenue (ARR) threshold. The company aims to continue its growth trajectory, targeting ₹1,000 crore in revenue within the next few years. “In the last three years, every year we have doubled our growth. So we want to keep doing this till we reach ₹1,000 crore plus kind of revenue. So we see at least 100% growth for the next couple of years,” Valani stated.
In addition to revenue growth, RENEE Cosmetics has been working towards profitability. The company’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) losses have decreased significantly over the past three years. “In the last three years, we have also halved our losses. In the first year, we were close to 45% negative EBITDA, in the second year, we were close to 30% negative EBITDA, and this year, we are bound to close at under 10% negative EBITDA. So hopefully, we are looking to be profitable in the next 18 months,” said Valani.
In a separate development, financial services firm Avendus has launched its third fund under its Avendus FLF (Future Leaders Fund) platform.
FLF III aims to raise ₹ 3,000 crore, including a green-shoe option of up to ₹1,500 crore. This late-stage fund focuses on large-cap investments in private markets, targeting sectors such as consumption, technology, financial services, and healthcare. Selective investments in manufacturing are also considered due to emerging opportunities.
Ritesh Chandra, Managing Partner at Avendus FLF, detailed their investment strategy, stating, “We are looking at about each investment between ₹200 to 300 crore. We will start investing in this fund in the next couple of months.
Our whole focus and thesis are around four key sectors that we’re looking at, which is consumption, technology, financial services, and healthcare. We’re also looking at manufacturing on a selective basis because there are some very interesting opportunities which are coming through in the manufacturing space.”
Additionally, 100x.VC, an early-stage investment firm, has invested $2.7 million in 17 startups through its 11th cohort, bringing its total portfolio to 161 startups. These investments span diverse sectors, with startups based in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Delhi, Pune, and Gurugram, among other cities.
Ninad Karpe, Founder & Partner of 100x.VC, highlighted their commitment to early-stage investments, stating, “We invest very early and we look for moonshot ideas with the potential to become billion-dollar companies over a period of time.”
The firm’s recent VC pitch day in Mumbai attracted over 400 investors, including high-net-worth individuals, family offices, venture capital funds, and corporations.
Watch the accompanying video for the entire conversation.
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