D2C Brand Pilgrim Raises INR 13 Cr In Series A From Fireside Ventures And Others Funding to enable doubling down on R&D capabilities, expand team and brand investments
By Prabhjeet Bhatla •
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Homegrown D2C beauty and personal care brand Pilgrim strengthened its vision to make borderless beauty experiences accessible and affordable for 400 million Indian millennials. The innovative brand that curates global beauty traditions, on Tuesday, announced to have raised INR 13 crore in Series A funding. The round was led by Fireside Ventures, Rukam Capital, and Boat, NoBroker, Bewakoof.com, with Dexter capital as the transaction advisor.
Within a year of launch (in May 2020), Pilgrim is witnessing an ARR of INR 18 crore backed by innovation, R&D capabilities, and a disruptive supply chain.
"Pilgrim embodies a way of life and not just a global array of products. It represents the journey and experiences of a modern millennial's life and hence the tagline "Join The Journey'. At the core of Pilgrim exists a passionate team that is curating "native' global experiences and not merely importing global ingredients. We believe in "clean beauty' and hence offer a product range that is 100 per cent vegan, free of harmful toxins, and not tested on animals. This funding strengthens our belief in the potential of the Indian D2C personal care and beauty industry. It takes us closer to our vision of empowering the modern millennials with global beauty rituals at the click of a button," said Anurag Kedia and Gagandeep Makker, co-founders, Pilgrim, in a collective statement.
The funding will be primarily used for enhancing R&D capabilities, team expansion, and brand investments.
"The founding team of Pilgrim has a unique vision of bringing the best of global beauty rituals and ingredients to Indian consumers. They have the right attitude and skill-sets to be able to achieve this vision. In a short span of time, Pilgrim has created a differentiated position in the market and the consumer feedback is very encouraging. We believe that Pilgrim will serve the millennial consumers globally and will become an international beauty brand in the future," shared Vinay Singh, co-founder and partner, Fireside Ventures.
Pilgrim offers 2 ranges at the moment. The first range is a K-Beauty range and is called "Secrets of Jeju Island, Korea'. K-beauty is a hot trend and is seeing increasing adoption across the globe. The second range is around the French Anti-Ageing beauty tradition of Vinotherapy and uses Vine (Vitis Vinifera) as a key ingredient. The company has partnerships across the globe to drive R&D and innovation.
"Pilgrim is an innovative and unique beauty brand that is making the best of global traditions accessible to millions of people. We believe that this brand will be the major disruptor in the global beauty and personal care market in the near future," added Archana Jahagirdar, managing partner, Rukam Capital.
The R&D-focused brand has seen increased consumer inclination towards well-being and believes that the D2C personal care space holds tremendous growth potential. The company is aggressively investing in building a high-performance, high-trust culture rooted in innovation for young talent. The founders' vision is to build a workplace that enables growth opportunities in a highly dynamic space and ignites a sense of pride and loyalty for employees. Pilgrim is planning to expand its team by 50 per cent in the next 6 months, the platform further shared.
