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Starting from clothes to medicines, everything is in our reach with just a few clicks now in the digital era that we are living in. The same goes for skincare and haircare products, cosmetics, and fragrances.
The skincare, haircare, cosmetics, beauty products, and the markets for all of them are growing at breakneck speeds. Thus, more and more companies are taking a dive into the beauty industry with their unique offerings. Purplle is one such example of an e-commerce beauty brand that is growing in its unique rapidly rising to compete with the bigger players in the industry.
Founded in 2011 and headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Purplle is an Indian multi-brand beauty retailer selling cosmetic and wellness products.
With the help of its online store and an ever-growing list of cosmetics, fragrances, skin, and hair care products, Purplle is fast becoming a favorite. It gives an online space to beauty and wellness needs that showcase beauty brands and products. Purplle aims to take the shopping experience to a different level.
Here we bring you the success story of Purplle, About the Brand, Founder and History, Mission, Vision, Team, Business Model, Competitors, Challenges, Future Plans, and more.
Purplle - Company Highlights
| Startup Name | Purplle.com |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Industry | Online shopping, Cosmetics |
| Founded | 2011 |
| Founders | Manish Taneja and Rahul Dash |
| CEO | Manish Taneja |
| Area Served | India |
| Website | www.purplle.com |
Purplle - About and How it Works?
Purplle - Logo and its Meaning
Purplle - Founder and History
Purplle - Mission and Vision
Purplle - Recent News
Purplle - Team
Purplle - Business Model
Purplle - Funding and Investors
Purplle - Competitors
Purplle - Challenges Faced
Purplle - Future Plans
Purplle - FAQs
Purplle - About and How it Works?
Purplle is an operator of an online beauty shopping store created to buy skincare products based on people's hair and skin type and other personal choices.
It is an online portal with a large collection of cosmetics, skincare, haircare & fragrances. It showcases some of the best products from the leading brands in the world at the best prices. Purplle aims to take the users' shopping experience to a completely different level by enabling the consumers to have a personalized shopping experience taking skin and hair type into account. They also have a brilliant customer service department that can be accessed via their customer care number.
Purplle.com has a large assortment of products across over 650 brands with 50,000+ SKUs and 300+ beauty-specific sellers. Purplle provides all warehousing and logistics services to sellers to ensure that the quality of products and the delivery of them are well-maintained.
Besides, Purplle also has a tie-up with over 6,000 salons with detailed pricing information on the platform for customers to make a choice for the right service.
There are three major categories around which Purplle has built its website. The first is the Beauty Product Marketplace where products catering to make-up, skincare, haircare, etc., are listed. The second is the Salon Booking Marketplace where they list and accept bookings for salons and spas near you. The third is Purplle Salons, which is their chain of Premium Economy Salons, through which they aim to create a great salon experience for customers.
Purplle - Logo and its Meaning
The Purplle logo is in purple, signifying the name and the taste of the modern women. The company offers cosmetics, fragrances, skin, and haircare products at the best available prices, and thereby, is loved by women and girls all around.
Purplle - Founder and History
Purplle is founded by Manish Taneja and Rahul Dash in 2012. Manish is an IIT Delhi alumni, who completed his Bachelor's and Masters in Electrical Engineering from Delhi IIT. The Co-founder and CEO of Purplle was an Analyst - Private Equity at Fidelity Growth Partners India and an Avendus Capital Associate. Furthermore, he also worked as an Analyst at Lehman Brothers and as an Intern at Ittiam Systems before founding his own beauty firm.
Rahul Dash is the Founder and COO at Purplle, who previously worked as a Senior Manager - Strategy and Business Development at the Tata Power Company. Furthermore, he was also appointed as a TAS Manager at Tata Chemicals Ltd and at Tata Advanced Systems Ltd. Rahul was a Mechanical Engineering student at IIT KGP, who completed his Bachelor's degree from Kharagpur IIT.
Purplle began as an online retailer in December 2011 and opened its first physical retail store at Phoenix Market City Kurla, Mumbai in January 2017.
The company retails products for skincare, make-up, haircare, body care, and beauty appliances from across more than 600 Indian and international brands. It showcases some of the best products from the leading brands in the world. Purplle aims to raise the bars of the users' shopping experience.
Purplle - Team
- Norbert Fernandes - Advisor
- Manish Taneja - Co-Founder & CEO
- Rahul Dash - Co-Founder & COO
- Suyash Katyayani - CTO
- Anant Khannekar - Big Data Scientist
Purplle - Mission and Vision
Purplle's mission statement says, "Purplle gives an online space to your beauty and wellness needs. We showcase some of the best products from the leading brands in the world. It aims to take your shopping experience to a completely different level. We know shopping infuses an incomparable high."
The vision of the company is to grow as one of the most popular brands in the cosmetics and beauty industry as an online retailer.
Purplle - Recent News
- Spring Marketing Capital backs beauty products marketplace Purplle.com
- Online beauty store Purplle aims $100M sales in FY21, eyes acquisition
- Goldman Sachs acquires INR 60 Crore worth Purplle’s stake in secondary buyout
Purplle - Business Model
Purplle started its journey as a D2C beauty products retailer brandishing its eCommerce website and app in 2011. The company much like other market leaders including Flipkart, Amazon, Nykaa, etc., has also forayed into the private label space. Purplle entered the private label space by subsuming the in-house brand StayQuirky, which was launched in 2015.
Purplle - Funding and Investors
Purplle has raised a total of $168.6M in funding. The latest funding round, Series E, for Purplle, came on October 29, 2021, where the company successfully raised $75 million led by Kedaara Capital. This is the second funding round that the women-focused beauty startup has witnessed in 2021.
Purplle is currently funded by around 15 investors, where Spring Marketing Capital and Verlinvest are the most recent investors.
| Date | Round | Money | Lead Investors |
|---|---|---|---|
| October 29, 2021 | Series E | $75M | Kedaara Capital |
| Mar 22, 2021 | Series D | $45M | Sequoia Capital India, Verlinvest |
| Nov 23, 2020 | Venture Round | $1M | Spring Marketing Capital |
| Jan 13, 2020 | Series C | $8M | Verlinvest |
| Dec 12, 2019 | Series C | $30M | Goldman Sachs |
| Jun 20, 2018 | Venture Round | $2.33M | - |
| Dec 15, 2017 | Series C | $459K | Mountain Pine Capital, Suncoast Investments |
| Jul 11, 2016 | Series B | $6M | JSW Ventures |
| Jan 5, 2015 | Venture Round | - | IvyCap Ventures |
| May 2, 2014 | Angel Round | $541.2K | - |
| Aug 26, 2013 | Series A | - | - |
Purplle - Competitors
The top competitors of Purplle today are:
Rishabh Rathi
Purplle - Challenges Faced
Speaking on the days when Purplle was started, Manish recalled that in 2011 there were only a few brands that targeted the online space for the cosmetics and beauty products in the country. Beauty stores were quite less than it is now, and B2B transactions were done only by the salons. The co-founders claimed that they started their company, Purplle with about Rs 40 lakhs from their personal savings.
Purplle has seen its fair share of successes and failures since its inception. Manish Taneja and his co-founder, Rahul Dash, along with CTO Suyash Katyanani, however, believed in only one philosophy which is:
“Customers have to be the centre point of the conversation and sale. And the aim of a beauty ecommerce portal should be to provide solutions for their needs. A hard sell based on discounts is a big no."
Purplle - Future Plans
Purplle hopes that social media will influence India’s middle-class to get more into beauty products, along with the increase of the purchasing power of millennials. The company further says that with AI in the market, it won’t be long before e-commerce platforms became significant sources of people’s cosmetic products.
"We want to focus on Purplle Salon for bringing the best salon experience to our customers. Our next step would be to bring international brands to India and introduce our own brands in the market." said the CEO and co-founder of Purplle, Manish Taneja.
Purplle - FAQs
Is Purplle is an Indian company?
Yes, Purplle is an Indian company.
What is Purplle?
Purplle, an online store, sells cosmetics, fragrances, skin, and haircare products.
Who is the CEO of Purplle?
Manish Taneja is the current CEO of Purplle.
Are products on Purplle genuine?
Purplle claims that it has products which are 100% genuine.
Who founded Purplle?
Purplle is founded by Manish Taneja and Rahul Dash.
Author: Sarika Anand
Source : https://startuptalky.com/purplle-success-story/
Date : 2021-10-30T08:21:00.000Z