VLCC, one of the largest home grown beauty and wellness companies in India, has acquired doorstep beauty treatment service provider VanityCube. This marks the second acquisition by the company this year.
The acquisition is VanityCube will help VLCC to establish itself in the on-demand beauty treatment service space. Earlier, in April this year, the company had acquired WellScience Health, a direct-selling dietary-supplements and nutraceuticals maker.
As per the Economic Times, the entire acquisition, integration and category development cost for the company could be around ₹100 crore. However, the exact deal size could not be independently verified.
A source aware of the development says:
VLCC will be able to rapidly scale-up these services. There is currently no clear market leader in the on-demand beauty services space. The plan is to expand the reach of these services to 10 cities in the next 18 months.
Vanity Cube is a two-year old startup that claims to have served over 50,000 customers in Delhi and Mumbai to-date, with around 60% customers availing a repeat order within 45 days of first service.
The startup is also one of the earliest entrants in the on-demand beauty space and currently operates in Delhi NCR and Mumbai region. It was founded in 2014 by Renu Bisht and Pragya Upadhyay. It operates as a B2B & B2C on demand beauty services platform.
As of the funding raised by the startup, last year, it managed to raise $300,000 in an early stage round from Unicorn Ventures, friends and family. The two founders — Renu Bisht and Pragya Upadhyay — wanted to use the funds for developing technology, marketing initiatives and expansion. Prior to that, the company had raised undisclosed amount of funding in its seed round.
VLCC was founded by Vandana Luthra as a beauty and slimming services centre in 1989. The company says that it has over 4,000 employees, including professionals such as doctors, nutritionists, physiotherapists, and cosmetologists.
VLCC Health Care Limited, which was incorporated in 1996, has a presence in over 300 locations across 121 cities and 16 countries. It has direct company-managed operations in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Malaysia, Singapore, UAE, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait.
The organised on-demand beauty services market has gained traction in the last couple of years. Many start-ups have come up in the sector, and the market is pegged in excess of ₹15,000 crore. In India, it is growing at a compounded rate of 18.6 per cent. The sector is expected to grow at a CAGR of 24% in the next 10 years.
