In a Series A fundraising round led by Dr. Payal Kanodia and Aishwarya Bansal from the M3M Family Office, with participation from Venture Catalysts, the beauty tech and discovery platform Kult has raised $20 million (more than Rs. 170 crore).
The money raised will be utilized to scale operations, increase the staff, and provide more products.
Kult, which was founded by Karishma Singh and Ruchika Pallavi, uses AI to provide individualized skincare recommendations and displays goods on a range of Indian skin tones. The company claims that the insights from more than 300 international beauty professionals support its platform.
As part of the investment, Kanodia and Bansal will also become members of Kult's board.
By the end of 2025, Kult intends to process over 10,000 orders daily and onboard 700 high-end beauty goods. Additionally, the company plans to hire around 200 workers in sourcing, engineering, product, and user experience departments.
The investment is made at a time when the beauty and personal care (BPC) market in India is expected to reach $30 billion by 2027, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 10 percent. Of this, $10 billion, or around 33 percent of the market, is anticipated to come from the online BPC segment.
Established competitors of Kult include Nykaa, which uses augmented reality to provide virtual try-ons, beauty content, and product suggestions. Other rivals include Smytten, which specializes in product discovery through trial packs and has lately ventured into offline retail, and the Good Glamm Group, which is well-known for its content-to-commerce strategy in the beauty sector.
