Men’s grooming brand Ustraa raises funding from Info Edge and others

• ByStartupStory     |    September 23, 2022

Ustraa, a men’s grooming firm situated in New Delhi, has raised INR 16.8 Cr (about $2.1 Mn) in a strategic fundraising round that was organised and managed by Startup Investments, a division of Info Edge. Wipro Enterprises and IIFL Seed Ventures also participated in the round.

Info Edge has invested INR 7.5 Cr, while IIFL Seed Ventures Fund-II and Wipro Enterprises have put in INR 6.3 Cr and INR 3 Cr, respectively.

Happily Unmarried, the parent company of Ustraa, adopted a special resolution authorising the issuance of 1,960 Series I preference shares at a price of INR 85,711.84 per share. Entrackr was the first to report the development. In February of last year, Ustraa received INR 20 Cr from IIFL Seed Ventures Fund as part of its Series H fundraising round.

Ustraa is a D2C men’s grooming firm that Rahul Anand and Rajat Tuli founded in 2003. Its product line includes shampoo, face wash, hair oil, beard oil, and other items. It primarily sells its goods through its website, e-commerce sites like Amazon and Flipkart, and independent retail stores. Crunchbase reports that the business has so far secured $10.8 Mn in investment. In the fiscal year 2022–2021, Ustraa recorded revenue of INR 38.73 Cr and a loss of INR 22.86 Cr (FY21).

The business primarily competes in a market where the biggest names in consumer goods and conglomerates are funding its rivals. It contends with Beardo, owned by Marico, The Man Company, supported by Emami, and Bombay Shaving Company, backed by Reckitt Benckiser, among others.

Ustraa is present in 9,000 locations as of July, both in the general trade and the independent contemporary trade verticals. Tuli also mentioned that the firm gets the majority of its revenue—roughly 70–72 per cent—from the web channel and that he anticipates the proportion of digital sales to drop to 65% over the next few years.

Ustraa has 120 distributors in India and has hired 500–600 beauty consultants to help sell their goods. Ustraa, which primarily targets young people, claims to have a gross margin of more than 70% and a net annualised run rate (ARR) of INR 1.2 billion. By the end of the current year, the company hopes to have an ARR of between INR 1.5 billion and INR 1.7 billion.

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