Regulate the startup area as celebrities hop on the Indian startup bandwagon.

India is a hotbed of startup exercise, and lots of Bollywood celebrities are investing in a number of the most promising ventures. These investments not solely present much-needed capital to those budding companies but additionally huge media publicity, which might go a great distance in attracting different buyers and clients. Let’s study extra concerning the following 4 celebrities who’ve been lively buyers within the Indian startup scene.

Ranveer Singh

Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh is likely one of the newest celebrities to guess huge on Indian startups. The actor has invested an undisclosed quantity in ‌the direct-to-consumer (D2C) magnificence and private care model Sugar Cosmetics. This funding comes near the US$50 million funding that the corporate raised from L Catterton in June 2022. 

Talking about his first funding, Ranveer stated, “I take satisfaction in partnering with a model that believes in empowering ladies. I’ve admired Sugar’s potential to construct an amazing fan following over the yr. I’m excited to be part of this journey and assist the model present Indian ladies entry to premium & high quality make-up merchandise, specifically formulated for them.” With this partnership, Sugar expects to have the ability to leverage new buyer acquisition channels, particularly with the Gen Z and millennial audiences in India.

Based by Vineeta Singh in 2015 as a D2C firm, Sugar Cosmetics grew shortly and ventured into offline commerce in 2017. Now, Sugar has greater than 35,000 retail factors throughout greater than 500 cities in India, making it one in every of India’s fastest-growing homegrown magnificence manufacturers.

Katrina Kaif

Bollywood star Katrina Kaif has set her eyes on investing within the well being and wellness industries. After launching her make-up model Kay Magnificence (in affiliation with Nykaa) in 2019, Kaif invested an undisclosed quantity within the magnificence ecommerce platform Nykaa via a secondary transaction in 2020. When requested why she selected to spend money on the corporate, the actress attributed it to her familiarity with Nykaa’s management and development available in the market, so she felt it was a “logical step” to speculate. Previous to this, in 2018, Kaif additionally purchased round US$243,000 (INR2.02 crore) stakes within the firm. 

Over time, Kaif has proven that she’s adept at taking dangers, and this gamble has paid off. On November 10, 2021, Nykaa was listed on the Bombay Inventory Change (BSE) and Nationwide Inventory Change (NSE) at a premium of 78% and 79% respectively. Kaif’s holdings thus gained ten occasions the reward to her portfolio because of this funding. Based in 2012, Nykaa has greater than 100 shops in India and sells greater than 4,000 magnificence and wellness manufacturers on-line and offline now.

Deepika Padukone

Whereas Deepika Padukone has loved important success as an actress, her business endeavors have additionally confirmed worthwhile. After establishing KA Enterprises LLP to assist with the trouble and paperwork of investments in 2014, Padukone has been plowing cash into a number of startups. Her spectacular funding portfolio consists of many promising startups, together with furnishings rental platform Furlenco and sweetness market Purplle. 

Padukone has continued to make headlines for backing a number of main startups lately. In 2019, Bellatrix Aerospace, a startup that was developed by the Indian Institute of Science (IIS), obtained funding in a pre-series A spherical, the place the actress was one of many lead buyers for this venture.

In 2020, Padukone put cash into the reasonably priced electrical taxi firm BluSmart. In the identical yr, she additionally participated within the US$3.2 million-worth seed funding spherical for FrontRow, a studying platform with programs taught by celebrities from varied artistic fields like music, sports activities and comedy. 

In 2021, Padukone invested an undisclosed quantity in a US$2.6 million funding spherical for the digital pet care platform Supertails.com.

Amitabh Bachchan

Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan has at all times been taken with backing startups, and his enterprise has been fruitful. In 2013, Bachchan signed on because the model ambassador for the native search engine Simply Dial when it launched. He additionally invested round US$7,561 (INR6.27 lakh) in it, and his shares grew to US$795,948 (INR6.6 crore) in seven months. 

In 2015, Bachchan made his first worldwide funding within the Singapore-based firm Ziddu, a agency that gives each on-line cloud storage and microloans in digital foreign money. In simply two years, the worth of his funding had elevated 70 occasions, and he remodeled US$13.5 million (INR112 crore).

In 2019, Amitabh Bachchan invested an undisclosed quantity within the edtech startup Eduisfun, his first funding within the sector. Bachchan was additionally one of many buyers who invested an undisclosed quantity in Macmerise Celfie, an organization that offers with licensed merchandise from Marvel, Disney and Star Wars. The corporate raised US$1 million in March this yr in a collection A funding spherical.

With the potential for big returns and the chance to be part of one thing actually transformational, it’s no surprise that increasingly more celebrities are betting huge on Indian startups. We will’t wait to see what the long run holds for these companies—and what different celebrities will get entangled!

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