MUMBAI, December 21, 2016 /PRNewswire/ —
MCaffeine, India’s first caffeine infused personal care brand has raised a funding of $300K from ace investors including Kaushal Agarwal – MD of Avendus Capital, Harminder Sahani – MD of Wazir Advisors, KK Mehra – ex-CTO of Capillary Technologies, Pranay Jivrajka – COO at Ola Cabs and Navjot Saini of Trafigura.
MCaffeine infuses personal care products such as shampoos and face wash with caffeine, which offers a unique combination of energy and care. Caffeine is a new age magical personal care discovery. It prevents hair fall and firms up the skin. The medicinal properties of caffeine on skin and hair have been well researched internationally.
“Raised fund will be used primarily on expanding the product portfolio and supply chain. The major focus will be to build an analytics engine for better product selection,” says Tarun Sharma, Founder and CEO of MCaffeine.
Consumer needs in India are evolving and maturing. Consumers are no longer in awe of imported products just because they are imported. Indian consumers can now discern premium from base and exotic from mundane. The Indian consumer is now looking for something that is an extension of their identity. They are looking for brands that reflect their lifestyle and connect with them. Enter new age personal care brand, MCaffeine. The energy that caffeine brings in now drives the hyperactive youth in India. Starbucks and CCDs are the new start-up incubators. The refreshing energy that caffeine brings in is symbolic of the new age ambition and drive. A caffeine infused shower could be the next rage.
A maverick team with diverse experience is what’s behind this new age concept. MCaffeine was founded by Vikas Lachhwani and Tarun Sharma. Vikas is an alumnus of IIT-Kharagpur and Univ. of Wisconsin – Milwaukee. He served as the Senior Vice-President of Operations and Growth at Zoomcar, prior to MCaffeine. He founded Trusanga, and worked with Mu Sigma in its early days. Tarun, an alumnus of ISM Dhanbad, served as the Head of Operations for Box8 and led its multi-city expansion from scratch. The team has now grown to 8 IITians and senior professionals from ITC and Lotus Herbals.
Product development in FMCG is a tricky task. After all the R&D, a single product unit can be offered in different fragrances. Arriving at conclusions from millions of possibilities becomes a challenge. MCaffeine has a very analytical approach to product conceptualization and development.
“We conduct detailed focus groups and extensive product reviews. We collect both the ‘stated’ as well as ‘revealed’ preferences from a spectrum of consumers. The surveys, reviews, feedbacks have been used to train an analytics engine for product selection. This gives MCaffeine an unprecedented edge in the personal care industry. We aim to build a product range more aligned with consumers than industry leaders with fastest ‘time to market’ for product launches,” says Vikas Lachhwani, Founder and President of MCaffeine
MCaffeine is a digital first brand and has scaled aggressively. “We launched the brand with 6 SKU’s including face wash and shampoo. We aim ourselves for $2 million revenues with 40 SKU and multiple sales channels in a year. We have sold more than 20000 units in less than two months and the customer response is overwhelming. We are delivering to more than 14000 pin codes across India and are working on International shipping as well,” says Tarun.
MCaffeine Raises 2 Cr.
MCaffeine Raises 2 Crores by Adding a Caffeine Dimension to Personal Care
