Varun Alagh: The Chief Dad and Co-Founder Powering Mamaearth's Success

Varun Alagh is the Co-Founder and Chief Dad of Honasa Consumer Private Limited, which established its first-ever baby nourishing brand, Mamaearth, in November 2016. The company is based in Gurugram, India. Mamaearth is declared Asia's first MadeSafe-certified brand. Varun founded the toxin-free baby, beauty, hair, face, and body care brand Mamaearth with his wife, Ghazal Alagh, who plays the major role of Chief Mama at the company. The market capitalization of the company is currently estimated to be more than $1.3 Billion.

Varun Alagh - Biography

Varun Alagh - Early Life
Varun Alagh - Education
Varun Alagh - Personal Life
Varun Alagh - Professional Life and Journey So Far!
Varun Alagh - Investments
Varun Alagh - Awards and Recognition
Varun Alagh - Mamaearth's IPO Launch

Varun Alagh - Early Life

After completing his studies, Varun joined Hindustan Unilever Limited in 2007. During the first year, he worked as a Business Leadership Trainee. He was a part of this one-year training program. Varun then spent six months in Marketing with Lakme and Lifebuoy. He spent another six months in Customer Marketing and Sales in North India.

After completing his training for one whole year, he was employed as the Area Sales Manager of Hindustan Unilever Ltd., Delhi NCR, in May 2008. He was responsible for a 600 crore business through 29 people, spread across 22 categories under Home care, personal care, foods, and beverages.

After two years, he was promoted as the Area Sales and Customer Manager at Delhi NCR and Rajasthan in 2010. He managed a team of 37 people with 67 customers, delivering a direct distribution of 55,000 retail outlets across Delhi and Rajasthan.

After nine months, he was again promoted to the Regional Brand Manager Innovations South Asia- Deodorants. As a part of this role, he managed Innovations and communications for Sure/Rexona Deodrants in South Asia and Market development and digital strategy for Asia.

He left Hindustan Unilever in March 2012 and joined Diageo PLC as the Senior Brand Manager - Smirnoff. This role assigned him the job of managing one of the world's largest premium spirits brands, Smirnoff, which is India's largest Vodka brand, too. Moreover, he looked over the above and below the line (ATL & BTL). This also included the Digital and On-trade activation for Smirnoff across India.

He joined The Coca-Cola Company in May 2013 and worked as the Brand Manager for two years. Varun managed to deliver the brand business, market share, and equity targets through a collation of various marketing acts. Alagh was then promoted to Senior Brand Manager, where his role was to manage Customer Marketing for the Coca-Cola trademark across India and South-West Asian countries. He eventually left the company in November 2016, and it was in the same month that he started Honasa Consumer Pvt. Ltd., the parent of Mamaearth.

Varun Alagh - Education

Varun pursued a Bachelor of Engineering specializing in Electrical Engineering from the Delhi College of Engineering (2001-2005). He later earned a Post Graduate Diploma in Business Management (PGDBM) in Finance and Marketing from XLRI Jamshedpur (2005-2007).

While Varun was completing his post-graduation degree course, he had a chance to work with companies like Colgate Palmolive, Havells Electric, Madura Garments, Maruti, and Nokia in the form of internships and LIVE projects.

Varun Alagh - Personal Life

He is married to Ghazal Alagh, who is the Co-founder and Chief Mama of Mamaearth. She looks after the product development, content, and community management of the company. Before that, she had worked in the IT corporate world. The couple has two sons. A son named Agastya had been diagnosed with a skin-borne disease called eczema since birth.

Varun Alagh - Professional Life and Journey So Far!

Varun worked with Unilever for four years and 11 months, i.e., from May 2007 to March 2012. Here, he got to learn how to add value to a brand. Varun also worked for another brand, Smirnoff, at Diageo PLC for one year and three months, i.e., from March 2012 to May 2013.

He worked with the Coca-Cola company for three years and seven months, i.e., from May 2013 to November 2016. He excelled in building brand value for nine long years by working with several renowned companies.

He founded Mamaearth in November 2016, providing a range of toxin-free baby skincare products. Both Varun Alagh and Ghazal Alagh had a suitable background in handling such a brand professionally, which was eventually developed due to personal reasons.

When Varun and Ghazal realized that their newborn son, Agastya, had a skin-borne disease called eczema, his skin was allergic to a lot of substances and turned red and itchy when exposed to such chemicals. The couple had to look for toxin-free baby care products in the market. Varun Alagh's net worth stands at $14.40 Million.

Business Idea

The doctor advised using only natural products to avoid the worsening of his condition, but Mr. and Mrs. Alagh found that most of the baby care products in India contained toxins in one form or another. Besides, they did not think it fit to compromise with the quality. Therefore, they had to request their relatives and friends traveling abroad to bring back toxin-free skincare brands for their children. According to Varun Alagh, Mamaearth was founded after they found no alternative for proper toxin-free brands for babies in India, and the US products were becoming an added financial burden.

Mamaearth Marketing Strategy: Mamaearth Popularity Secret

Read to know about the marketing strategy of Mamaearth, which made the brand successful. Know what marketing strategies it used to stand out from the crowd.

StartupTalkyPoonam Chauhan

Co-Founder of Honasa Consumer Private Limited

Honasa Consumer Private Limited is classified as a non-government company registered at the Registrar of Companies, New Delhi. The authorized share capital of the company is INR 3,400,351,400, and its paid-up capital is INR 1,363,495,490.

Varun is the Co-Founder, Chief Dad, and Get Stuff Done Officer at Honasa Consumer Private Limited. The company exists to provide honest, natural, and safe products. Mamaearth is the first brand of the company that focuses on reducing parenting stress by providing solutions to parent and baby problems in the form of safe, international standard products.

The Directors of the company include Varun Alagh, Ghazal Alagh, Vettakkorumakankav Siva, Subramaniam Sita, Rahul Chowdhri, and Ishan Mittal. The company started with a combined investment of Rs 90 lakh by Varun, Ghazal, and a few of the angel investors.

The Unique and Successful Business Model of Mamaearth

Mamaearth’s amazing products helped them to reach great heights. They have understood their customer’s needs properly and served those needs in an excellent way.

StartupTalkyDev Gupta

Co-Founder of Mamaearth

Varun serves as Mamaearth's Co-Founder and Chief Dad, headquartered in Gurugram, India. He founded the company in November 2016, primarily as a babycare products brand, which saw good growth and thereby expanded to several other categories, including - Beauty, Hair, Face, and Body care, and currently targets a range of audiences, including babies, moms to be, and men above the age of 15 years too.

Within two years of the startup, the company got a retail turnover of Rs 20 crore. By 2020, Mamaearth's net worth was over Rs 100 Crore. The company eventually turned out to be the first unicorn in India in 2022 by raising $52 million on January 1, 2022.

Mamaearth has its own website, where one can shop from a diverse range of body care, hair care, organic beauty, and baby care products. The baby care range of Mamaearth can also be accessed through various e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Firstcry, and Nykaa. It also has a presence across 120+ major cities in India.

Famous Bollywood celebrity Shilpa Shetty, who herself is a mother of two babies, became the brand ambassador of Mamaearth in 2017. She believed that toxin-free products are the best. Thus, she invested around $250K in the company. Shilpa Shetty reportedly made about Rs. 45.14 crore after selling her 13.93 lakh shares during the Mamaearth IPO's Offer-for-Sale phase. She still has over 2.30 lakh shares in the business, which are currently worth roughly Rs. 7.4 crore. Moreover, Mamaearth also raised other funding led by Fireside Ventures and Stellaris Ventures Partners.

Interesting Facts about Mamaearth - The Secret Behind Mamaearth’s Success

Mamaearth is a D2C brand founded by Ghazal Alagh and Varun Alagh that sells baby and skin care products. Here are some interesting facts about Mamaearth.

StartupTalkyPratyusha Srivastava

Varun Alagh - Investments

Varun Alagh has invested in numerous startups to date. The Co-founder has been noted for 40+ investments, the last of which came in on July 12, 2023, where he invested $1.04 million in GreenFortune.

Varun Alagh - Awards and Recognition

• He received the Business Unit President Award (December 2015) for being a lead member in the MIT ICE project for turning around FBO business in 2015 from the President of Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia. Varun Alagh's age was only 39 when he was honored with this achievement.
• He was conferred with the Above & Beyond Award (September 2015) for going beyond the call of duty on an organization-wide project from the Leadership team of Coca-Cola India and Southwest Asia.
• He received the Business Unit President Award (December 2014) for leading excellent ideation and execution in the Coca-Cola Zero launch in India from the President of Coca-Cola India South West Asia.
• He was conferred with the I am a Diageo Award (March 2013) for excellent execution of the Smirnoff Nightlife Activation Nationally as the President of Diageo India.
• He has been listed among the top managers in HUL for two years consistently.

Varun Alagh - Mamaearth's IPO Launch

Mamaearth's parent company, Honasa Consumer, launched its Initial Public Offering (IPO) on October 31, 2023. The IPO was open for subscription until November 2, 2023, and was fully subscribed on the last day. The IPO price band was set at ₹308-324 per share, and the lot size was 46 equity shares. The IPO raised ₹1,701 crore.

The IPO was a success, with the shares listing at a premium of 2% on the National Stock Exchange (NSE) on November 7, 2023. The grey market premium (GMP) for Mamaearth's IPO was ₹31 on the day of listing, indicating a strong listing. The company's strong brand recall, innovative products, and focus on digital marketing have been key factors in its success. Mamaearth is well-positioned to continue to grow in the coming years, as India's beauty and personal care market is expected to reach ₹20,000 crore by 2025. Varun Alagh turned to social media to articulate his journey with Mamaearth so far:

"The joy of building is just pure elation, it’s so much better than moaning, critiquing, regretting and most importantly inaction. This is a momentous occasion for us but in the journey of building it’s just another moment, we shall cherish it but move on to looking for more amazing moments as we build for decades to come. While we are here, thanks a ton everyone."

Is Mamaearth an Indian brand?

Yes, Mamaearth is an Indian company and is based out of Gurugram, Haryana.

Who are the promoters of Mamaearth?

Mamaearth promoters are husband-wife duo Varun and Ghazal Alagh, founded in 2016.

Is Mamaearth chemical-free?

All of Mamaearth's products are 100% chemical-free. Mamaearth is the only “Made Safe” certified toxin-free brand in India, which is free of all known toxins that are banned in most countries.

Who is the brand ambassador of Mamaearth?

Shilpa Shetty Kundra is the brand ambassador of Mamaearth.

Who owns the maximum shares of the company in Mamaearth shareholding?

In Mamaearth shareholding, Varun Alagh holds the majority of Mamaearth shares. The co-founder of the company holds 34.30% of the stake.