mamaearth: Mamaearth IPO: Meet Ghazal and Varun Alagh, cofounders of Honasa Consumer

“Believe it or not, naming your brand is just as hard as naming your child. At the end of it, you have to tick off three things: Does your brand name reflect the essence of your core business? Can it withstand the test of time, and expand into larger play?”

So tweeted Ghazal Alagh, cofounder of baby and personal care brand Mamaearth, on October 21.

She and her husband Varun Alagh seem to have got it right in the case of Mamaearth even as the brand is headed for what could be its biggest test yet – the launch of its parent company Honasa Consumer’s IPO on October 30.

Also read | Mamaearth parent receives Sebi nod for IPO

The Alaghs decided to make and sell toxin-free products for children when they could not find these in India for their son Agastya back in 2016. Thus was born Honasa Consumer that introduced Mamaearth toxin-free products for babies and young mothers in recyclable packs as an online-first brand.

Since then, it has come a long way. It reported revenues from operations of Rs 1,493 crore in the year ended March 2023, up 58.3% from Rs 943 crore in FY22. Today, Honasa Consumer has close to 150 products under Mamaearth and The Derma Co brands.

While the business has expanded and diversified, Ghazal is known to be hands-on on product development and management of communities, as well as associating closely with mothers to identify gaps and develop products tailored to mothers and babies.She began her career as a corporate trainer at tech services company NIIT where she trained managers and engineers. She has a bachelor’s degree in information technology and has studied modern art and design from New York Academy of Arts.

Varun, an alumni of Delhi College of Engineering and XLRI Jamshedpur, has an FMCG experience backing him. He interned at Colgate Palmolive, Madura Garments and Maruti Suzuki. In his first job at Hindustan Unilever, he did multiple roles in sales and customer management. Short stints at Diageo PLC and Coca-Cola followed.

The husband-wife duo – both in their thirties – is facing increasing challenges as the direct-to-consumer space has exploded and categories and spaces Mamaearth made its mark in have turned intensely competitive and cluttered in recent years.

They have done well so far.

In 2018, the Alaghs roped in actress Shilpa Shetty as Mamaearth’s first celebrity investor, a move that catapulted the brand into a household name.

With post-pandemic resurgence in offline retail, Mamaearth has been focusing on expanding distribution through multibrand retail outlets and exclusive stores.

Honasa Consumer’s profits declined by 71.4% to Rs 4 crore in FY23, down from Rs 14 crore in FY22, as it increased focus on expansion.

In 2022, Ghazal appeared on the web series Shark Tank as a judge and investor. Now, it is the turn of investors to judge her company.

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