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Honasa Consumer, which runs baby and mother care brand Mamaearth, officially announced that it has raised more than $37.5 million in a round led by Sequoia at a valuation of $1.2 billion. In a statement, the company claims that it has raised $52 million in this round.

The round witnessed participation from Sofina Ventures SA, the Belgium-based investment company, and Evolvence, a UAE based India focused fund. It also gave employees an opportunity to monetize their vested ESOP.

The company became the 43rd startup to join the unicorn club in 2021 and is one of the few unicorns to have a female co-founder. Mamaearth has employed a house-of-brands strategy through which it wants to go deeper into the direct-to-consumer beauty and personal care segment.

It plans to deploy the funding towards expanding its portfolio of personal care D2C brands venturing into new avenues with unique propositions, and towards product innovation, distribution, and marketing of brands in Honasa’s stable.

Along with launching new brands, Honasa will continue aggressively expanding distribution for existing brands — Mamaearth and The Derma Co. — and explore strategic inorganic growth opportunities in the beauty and personal care segment.

Varun Alagh, Co-founder and CEO, Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd., said,

“Looking at the scale of Mamaearth and success of The Derma Co., we are confident that we have the expertise to build brands with a millennial connect. We will be deploying the funds towards brand launches, expanding distribution, inorganic growth, and expanding the current portfolio across borders. Sequoia, Sofina, and Evolvence have unique strengths in US, Europe, and GCC respectively, which will help us grow internationally and learn from others in these markets.”

Commenting on the investment, Ghazal Alagh, Co-founder and CIO, Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd., said, “The recent round will empower us to fuel our innovation funnel and provide a wider assortment of problem-solving personal care products for millennials we closed will further provide impetus to our innovation funnel and help us serve our consumers with a wider assortment of products.”

Launched in 2016, Mamaearth has grown to 140-odd SKUs in baby care, skincare, and haircare segments, and has served more than five million consumers across 500 cities. The Gurugram-based startup crossed an annual revenue run rate of $100 million (Rs 700 crore) in the financial year 2021. 

The startup’s key competitors include WOW Skin Science, Body Cupid, SkinKraft, Juicy Chemistry, and Plum, among others. The D2C beauty and personal care segment is projected to be worth $28 billion by 2025, according to an Avendus report.