Skincare brand Deconstruct has raised $2 million in seed fund from Kalaari Capital’s flagship program CXXO and Beenext. The Bengaluru-based start-up currently offers a range of face washes, moisturisers and serums.
Founded in 2021 by Malini Adapureddy, an alumnus of IIT Kharagpur and INSEAD, the skincare brand will use these funds for research and product development, innovation and expansion, hiring and marketing initiatives.
Quick commerce
“In the next 12-18 months, the enterprise intends to increase its product range from 15 to 50 products, within skincare and adjacent categories, giving consumers greater choice, while also exploring presence in a few international markets such as UAE and some South East Asian markets,” it said in a statement. The start-up also plans to retail products on ‘quick commerce’ platforms expanding from existing distribution channels, which include major e-commerce platforms as wells as the brand’s own online platform.
Deconstruct Skincare is growing at 25-30 per cent month-on-month and aims to become a ₹100-crore brand in the next 2 years, said its founder and CEO Malini Adapureddy. “Kalaari came in from a very first principle thought process and undertook a detailed understanding of the business. This provided me immense confidence that they can be extremely valuable as partners who can go beyond capital. Kalaari has invested in multiple consumer businesses and has seen them scale and this will be of help as we go forward,” she added.
Women entrepreneurs
Deconstruct is the fifth portfolio company for Kalaari’s flagship program that seeks to level the playing field for women founders in India’s start-up ecosystem. Kalaari Capital has allocated US $10 million annually to fund 8-10 women entrepreneurs in the first cohort of CXXO.
Vamshi Reddy, Partner at Kalaari Capital said, “There is a paradigm shift in terms of consumer preferences with respect to beauty and personal care in the past few years. Annual per capita consumption of BPC products in India today is at $15 – we are only scratching the surface in terms of penetration. As consumers and their purchase behaviour evolves, we believe there will be an opportunity for new age brands to capitalise on unique value propositions to build strong recall from consumers.”