Blog

Bollywood Actress Malaika Arora has announced the launch of Malaika Arora Ventures to actively invest in lifestyle, health, fashion and wellness brands.

The actress, who has already invested in three ventures – fashion brand Label Life where she is also the style editor, fitness brand SARVA Yoga (investor and cofounder) and Rebel Food’s wellness brand NUDE Bowls — is eyeing long term brands who promote “good health inside out”.

In a statement, the actress outlined her goal to invest in more brands and expand into the overall well-being segment, including beauty and health. “I personally believe in the comprehensive well-being of our body. Concentrating on just one does not support the other. So the idea is to promote good health inside out and we have barely scratched the surface as of now. MAV plans to dig deeper and establish itself as one of the major players in this sector,” she elaborated.

Other Indian celebrities who have invested in emerging startups include:

• Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan in Singapore-based blockchain research startup Ziddu; Bachchan Sr has also invested in edtech Eduisfun
• Katrina Kaif in fashion ecommerce brand Nykaa. She also launched her own beauty brand, Kay
• Sachin Tendulkar in Bengaluru-based IoT startup, Smartron
• Madhuri Dixit and Akshay Kumar in fitness brand GOQii
• Deepika Padukone in wellness brand Epigamia and hobby-focussed edtech startup FrontRow
• Priyanka Chopra in dating app Bumble. She also launched her beauty brand, Anomaly
• Alia Bhatt in Nykaa. She also owns a kidswear brand Ed-a-mamma
• Virat Kohli and Anushka Sharma in Digit Insurance
• MS Dhoni in interior designing brand HomeLane, lifestyle brand SEVEN, accounting startup Khatabook

Many celebrities such as John Abraham, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sonu Sood, Suneil Shetty, Kajal Aggarwal, Ayushmann Khurrana, Shahid Kapoor, Hrithik Roshan, Karishma Kapoor, Aamir Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez have also heavily invested in emerging brands.

The Indian startup ecosystem is maturing at a rapid pace and attracting more high-profile investments from public personalities and Bollywood stars. In fact, consumer-focussed lifestyle startups are taking the front seat, getting more than just investments from celebrities — marketing and designing products, brand recognition, advertisements.

According to a RedSeer report, there were about 90 Mn health-conscious individuals (HCI) in India in 2018, and the number is expected to grow by 1.4x to reach 130 Mn by 2022. With the pandemic, the customers in India are tilting more towards healthy diets and building their immunity.