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Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh - Mamaearth
Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh are the co-founders of Mamaearth, a popular Indian beauty and personal care brand. They founded Mamaearth in 2016 as Honasa Consumer, with a focus on toxin-free products for babies and young mothers, later expanding to personal care. The company has grown significantly, becoming one of India's fastest-growing FMCG brands, with a revenue of INR 964 crore in FY22. They have also diversified into offline retail and built other brands like The Derma Co.
Ghazal Alagh - Early Life
Ghazal was born on 02 September 1988 in Gurgaon, Haryana. She was brought up in a middle-class setup.
She finished her early education in Haryana and went on to pursue BCA in Information Technology from Punjab University. Later, she also did the Summer intensive course in Modern Art, Design, and Applied Arts from the School of Visual Arts and the Intensive Course in Figurative Art in Modern Art in 2013 from the New York Academy of Art.
It is evident that she stood as an example to many of those young entrepreneurs who couldn’t get the opportunity to pursue their higher education in top B-schools and still have the confidence to become successful entrepreneurs.Mamaearth Founder Story
Ghazal Alagh - Career
Ghazal’s career began with NIIT as a Corporate Trainer, where she trained managers and engineers in coding languages and software from various IT companies. She started her career with a mere ₹1,200 per day. Here is what she said about this in her social media post,
She later ventured into a few other endeavors like founding Dietexpert & being an artist at Being Artsy.
But her biggest jump came in the next part of her career which was started when she and her husband, Varun Alagh were searching for some toxin-free baby products for their child and realized most of the baby products in the Indian market were full of toxins and harmful ingredients.
This sparked the idea of creating their own toxin-free, eco-friendly baby products and that led to the founding of Mamaearth under Honasa Consumer Pvt Ltd. in 2016.
Ghazal Alagh - Mamaearth
Mamaearth debuted with seven goods with an initial investment of ₹25 lakhs, under the parent organization Honasa Consumer Ltd., focusing mainly on baby care products.
Later on, the brand expanded into skincare and cosmetics brands. The company houses brands like Ayuga, The Derma Co., and Aqualogica, including its investments in the salon firm BBLUNT, Momspresso, and the beauty brand Dr. Sheth’s.
The D2C company, Mamaearth takes pride in being the first Asian brand with a “MADE SAFE” certification. The company is known to deliver completely toxin-free products. The company initially focused on the online marketplace, later expanding to its offline stores. The IPO of Honasa Consumer Ltd, the parent company of Mamaearth, was launched on October 31, 2023. During the subscription window, from October 31 to November 2, the shares were made available for purchase. The prices per share ranged from INR 308 to INR 324.
Mamaearth's parent company, Honasa Consumer, has lost 50% of its market value in just two months. In September 2024, its stock was priced at INR 541 per share, and the company was worth around INR 15,000 crore. But by November, the stock price dropped to INR 227 per share, and its market value fell to INR 7,300 crore, losing INR 7,500 crore in just two months. As a result, Mamaearth is now valued at less than $1 billion and is no longer considered a unicorn.
The Derma Co. is all about real skincare and hair care that actually works. They offer a range of products designed to tackle common skin issues like acne, dark spots and signs of aging—without the fluff. The Derma Co. is all about helping millennials feel confident in their skin and hair—because real beauty starts with taking care of yourself.
Ghazal co-founded Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd. alongside her husband, Varun Alagh, bringing a fresh, digital-first approach to the Indian beauty industry. A mom-preneur turned industry leader, she played a crucial role in shaping brands like Mamaearth, The Derma Co., Aqualogica and Ayuga, catering to modern consumers through D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) strategies.
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They started the company after they couldn't find toxin-free products for their son in India.
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Mamaearth initially focused on online sales and customer acquisition through social media,
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Mamaearth has grown from a baby care brand to a broader personal care company, with over 140 products.
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They have expanded into offline distribution through multi-brand outlets and exclusive stores.
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Mamaearth has a Plant Goodness initiative, planting over 3 million trees and recycling plastic.
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Honasa Consumer, the parent company of Mamaearth, went public with its IPO in October 2023.
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Both Varun and Ghazal are first-generation entrepreneurs.
Building a beauty brand with a purpose
When Ghazal and Varun Alagh could not find toxin-free products for their baby in India, they decided to make it themselves. Equipped with Varun’s FMCG experience and Ghazal’s entrepreneurial streak, the husband-wife duo decided to create a company that makes natural toxin-free baby care products with international standards. And thus, Honasa Consumer under the brand name Mamaearth was born in 2016.
With a focused digital-first market strategy and customer acquisition through social media platforms, Ghazal and Varun have steered Mamaearth into becoming one of India’s fastest-growing FMCG brands. The company clocked a revenue of INR964 crore in FY22, a growth of 109% over the past year.
Varun and Ghazal are both first-generation entrepreneurs with an eye on the future. Under their leadership, Mamaearth diversified from baby care to personal care, expanding from six to 140 products. Honasa also acquired three companies and built its own brands over the last few years.
In the last two years, the company has expanded into offline distribution through multi-brand retail outlets and exclusive stores, catering to both online and offline markets. Their next step is to expand the offline business to 100,000 outlets and 100 Indian cities.
Along with toxin-free products, Varun and Ghazal are committed to giving back to the environment. Mamaearth, through its Plant Goodness initiative, has planted over 3 million trees apart from recycling more than 1,000 metric tons of plastic in the last financial year.
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