ChrysCapital invests $50 mn for minority stake in WOW Skin Science India

Private equity firm ChrysCapital has invested $50 million in WOW Skin Science India, provider of new-age personal care brand in India, for a significant minority stake. The transaction is a combination of a primary raise by the company for growth initiatives, and a secondary sale by existing shareholders.

Founded in 2014 by brothers Manish and Karan Chowdhary, WOW Skin Science is one of India’s fastest growing new-age beauty and personal care brands available across e-commerce platforms, with its own website, as well as brick-and-mortar stores, said the company.

“We are extremely pleased to announce ChrysCapital’s investment in WOW, and welcome ChrysCapital to the WOW Skin Science family. We are excited to build a long-term, and mutually beneficial, partnership with ChrysCapital over the coming years. The foundation of this relationship is our shared goal of creating sustainable value at WOW by creating a house of brands, accelerating growth, hiring talent, institutionalising the organization, and expanding WOW’s presence in the Beauty and Personal Care category. We also look forward to working closely with Enhancin, ChrysCapital’s portfolio operations group, to achieve these goals,” said Manish Chowdhary, co-founder of WOW.

With this fund infusion, the company now aims to scale up to become the number one brand in the toxin-free space within the larger FMCG sector, said the company in a statement.

“ChrysCapital is excited to partner with WOW Skin Science in its growth journey towards becoming a formidable house of brands in beauty and personal care. The founders have demonstrated a robust historical track record by significantly outperforming the industry growth while demonstrating superior capital efficiency. WOW’s unique positioning of toxin-free beauty regimes centred around natural ingredients (apple cider vinegar, onion, vitamin C) at an affordable price point has created strong resonance with a fast-growing millennial demographic. We look forward to helping WOW grow multi-fold by further increasing online penetration, driving pan-India offline expansion, and launching new brands in adjacent categories,” said Ashish Agrawal, managing director, ChrysCapital.

PricewaterhouseCoopers and J Sagar Associates (JSA) advised Wow Skin Science, while Quillon Partners advised ChrysCapital.