Beardo: A start-up to take care of your beard

If you love to sport a beard but find it difficult to maintain, you have help. Beardo, an Ahmedabad-based start-up, offers oils, washes, balm, wax and combs for beards.

Last week, the company raised $500,000 (Rs 3.3 crore) in seed funding from Venture Catalysts and other angel investors. The round was led by Venture Catalysts co-founders Anuj Golecha and Apoorv Ranjan Sharma.

The company was founded in October 2015 by Ashutosh Valani and Priyank Shah.

Online sales contribute 75 per cent of the company's revenue, with the rest coming from its offline chains. It also has a presence in 200 salons across Ahmedabad, Pune, Mumbai, Surat and Delhi.

"We are a profit-making company and we will be expanding to north India, followed by south within the next quarter," says Valani.

Beardo has also roped in Bollywood actor Suniel Shetty as their brand mentor and ambassador.

The company markets product under two categories - Beardo and Beardo Lite, the premium brand. Currently, the start-up receives around 500 orders per day and has crossed the gross merchandise value (GMV) of Rs 1.2 crore per month.

E-commerce sites such as Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and Nykaa sell their products. The start-up aims to cross revenue of Rs 2 crore in six months and targets a GMV of Rs 4 crore per month.

Recently, the men's grooming sector has seen a number of emerging companies such as Ustraa, LetsShave and Bombay Shaving Company.