CosIQ Success Story - The Leading Intelligent Skincare Brand

The skincare industry is growing faster than ever before. With the change in weather patterns, increasing pollution, and also the increasing stress levels, people are getting more and more conscious of their skin's health.

Customers have started to look for products that are more customized and come with some scientific backing to cater to the different needs of their skin. However, not many brands are able to provide customers with such products.

Here, an amazing example of a brand that offers scientifically backed skincare products that are also affordable is CosIQ. CosIQ is a brand that is meant to make your skincare intelligent.

In this article, you'll learn more about CosIQ, its products, founders, startup story, funding, achievements, and more.

CosIQ - Company Highlights

CosIQ - About
CosIQ - Industry
CosIQ - Founders
CosIQ - Startup Story
CosIQ - Mission and Vision
CosIQ - Name and Logo
CosIQ - Product/Service
CosIQ - Customer Acquisition/Retention Strategy
CosIQ - Marketing
CosIQ - Revenue and Growth
CosIQ - Funding
CosIQ - Mentors and Advisors
CosIQ - Challenges
CosIQ - Competitors
CosIQ - Achievements
CosIQ - Future Plans

CosIQ - About

CosIQ is a molecular skincare brand that offers scientifically backed skincare products that are efficacious and affordable. It makes your skincare intelligent.

It is a Gen Z-oriented brand that offers cutting-edge actives in smart formulations with #saferesults. The brand communicates clearly, which is what its customers love.

CosIQ - Industry

The worldwide Beauty and Personal Care market is a $580 billion behemoth, of which the Indian skincare market is worth $7.6 billion. The industry is growing with a fast-changing landscape in India, and there is high acceptance and love towards new age, scientifically-backed skincare brands amongst the Genz market. CosIQ is a frontrunner in the category and the only Indian brand with in-house formulations and result-oriented, clinically proven products.

CosIQ - Founders

Kanika Talwar and Angad Talwar founded CosIQ in 2021.

Kanika and Angad got married in 2019, and they call CosIQ their first baby. Being couplepreneurs, they actually convinced each other to start CosIQ together. With such a clear gap in the market, it was essentially a no-brainer to start CosIQ, which provides an ethical solution to the "nimbu mirchi" brands in the market. Kanika convinced Angad to dive into this journey with her, and he has been her support throughout. They have been working hard to grow their firstborn into a successful business ever since.

Though nothing is out of bounds or "not my job" at CosIQ for either of the founders, Angad essentially leads the product and branding side of things while Kanika takes care of operations, marketing, and finances. They co-lead the brand and, being together 24 hours, fight hard but hardly fail to reach a consensus on the direction they want to take CosIQ towards. This is probably the biggest benefit of being married to your co-founder.

CosIQ - Startup Story

Kanika Talwar has 4 years of experience in the Beauty and Personal Care Industry, where she has designed and formulated products for some of the biggest brands in the market. She has worked closely at both the manufacturing and marketing sides of the business, where she identified the need for a holistic, molecular skincare brand and started CosIQ with her husband, Angad Talwar.

The founders of the brand worked for a year researching and formulating the products before launching in June 2021. Being in the industry, they consulted many people from marketing, product manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, brand owners, etc. to come up with the thesis for CosIQ. Additionally, each and every product goes through vigorous testing, an efficacy test, a trial, and validation before launch, typically a 6-month time frame. They have been continuing this high level of pre-launch validation to date, making each and every launch by CosIQ a different product in the market.

CosIQ - Mission and Vision

Mission: To be purveyors of life-altering, magical, superhuman, natural, ultra whitening, age-reversing, minimalistic, uber fantastic, chemical-free molecular skincare products that work.

Vision: To educate people that Skincare ≠ Cosmetics

CosIQ - Name and Logo

This is the biggest talking point of the brand. CosIQ is a portmanteau of Cos (Cosmetics) and IQ (Intelligent Quotient) and the founders feel that it defines the brand very clearly. They call themselves an intelligent skincare brand and strive to share knowledge and be very legible in terms of their labels, ingredients, and brand ethos.

The brand name was questioned on National TV when Ashneer Grover of BharatPe fell in love with everything about their products but called their name "Sasta Chinese TV ka brand lag raha hai" for its name. An incident also occurred that wasn’t telecast during the same pitch where Vineeta was advocating for the brand very highly amongst the sharks when they started pulling her leg, saying she was in love with their products only because her husband’s name is Kaushik, which sounded like CosIQ if you pronounce it in the same breath.

They still have people calling the brand "Kausik" instead of "kaus-eye-qu", the way they meant it, but they don’t mind if they love their products!

The founders took this in stride and came back to do their research, where they found that their audience doesn’t really mind the brand name and actually identifies the deeper sense it makes once you understand the brand better. After much contemplation, they have stuck with the name! Quoting Shakespeare, “What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”

CosIQ - Product/Service

The brand offers clean, no-nonsense scientifically backed skin care products. Its idea is that if you need Vit-C, you do not need 1000 molecules of "nimbu" just the Vit-C molecule that is PROVEN to give results, thus their 2-ingredient Vit-C serum. It bases its theories on very similar lines while designing all its products. It stays away from unproven claims, and its products deliver the results that it promises.

It is the only no-nonsense, ethical brand delivering clinically proven products at affordable prices in the market. Beyond products, they are building a community, sharing knowledge, and helping people decode their skincare journeys with them.

CosIQ - Customer Acquisition/Retention Strategy

For launching the brand, the founders knew that they had to get the product out in the hands of the first 100 adopters who have a presence on social media. The brand launched with micro and nano influencers on Instagram and also had the support of the Amazon Launchpad team to get the first 100 customers.

The brand kept its social media marketing strategies on point, offering the product to influencers without any demands or briefs, something that was unheard of in the industry. The founders believed that if their product is good, the influencers will share it with their audience themselves, and they did.

This also helped the brand build a high level of trust with the community with respect to its products, a position it enjoys to date. The brand does absolutely no performance marketing (Instagram, Google, or Facebook Ads) and lets its products do the marketing themselves with word of mouth.

CosIQ - Marketing

The brand's pitch on Shark Tank India really catapulted them to the mainstream, with people all over India recognizing the brand. This has really helped CosIQ scale quickly.

CosIQ - Revenue and Growth

CosIQ is an online-only brand that is available on all major marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa, Myntra, Meesho, Vanity Wagon, Sublime Life, etc. The brand leads the category and is growing at a rate of 30% month on month with an Annual GMV of >4 Cr.

The brand plans to scale up its offerings by expanding its SKUs horizontally in other categories like face cleansers, moisturisers, toners, etc. The company is unit positive and has been EBITA-positive since day 1. With a high retention rate, they rely entirely on organic growth and word-of-mouth marketing and have not yet started on performance marketing (Ads) or inorganic growth.

CosIQ - Funding

CosIQ - Mentors and Advisors

Vineeta Singh, founder and CEO of Suger Cosmetics, and Anupam Mittal, founder and CEO of Shaadi.com, are the mentors and advisors of CosIQ.

List of Startups Funded by Anupam Mittal

Anupam Mittal is the founder and CEO of People Group who funded several startups in Shark Tank India. Here are startups funded by Anupam Mittal.

StartupTalkyMuskaan Kapoor

CosIQ - Challenges

Running a startup, the team always face new problems and challenges every day. Though there’s a new problem to fight every single time, their biggest challenge is to beat themselves when launching new products. They understand that they have set their bar very high, and their customers expect nothing less than sheer delight while purchasing any product with CosIQ’s name on it. This has become the brand's benchmark, and it is the only problem, albeit a happy one that they face constantly.

CosIQ - Competitors

Some of the most prominent competitors of CosIQ are:

• Minimalist
• Derma Co.
• Juicy Chemistry
• Chemist at Play

CosIQ - Achievements

The notable achievements of CosIQ include:

• The brand launched India’s first Sunscreen Serum.
• It launched India’s first-only 2-ingredient Vit-C Serum.
• CosIQ was featured on Shark Tank India Season 1 and got funding offers from multiple sharks.
• CosIQ is funded by Anupam Mittal (Shaadi.com) and Vineeta Singh (Sugar Cosmetics).

CosIQ - Future Plans

CosIQ plans to launch into more categories in skincare, initially covering the whole face regimen, including toners, facewashes, moisturizers, etc. this quarter. Next year, they plan to introduce body care and, later on, hair care. They also plan to expand into global markets through online-only channels and explore growth in offline channels as well.

FAQs

What is CosIQ?

CosIQ is a molecular skincare brand that offers scientifically backed skincare products that are efficacious and affordable. It makes your skincare intelligent.

When was CosIQ founded?

CosIQ was founded in the year 2021 by Kanika Talwar and Angad Talwar.

Who funded CosIQ?

CosIQ received INR 50 lakh in funding from Shark Tank India season 1's Vineeta Singh and Anupam Mittal.

Which brand launched India’s first Sunscreen Serum?

CosIQ, an intelligent skincare brand, launched India’s first Sunscreen Serum.