Ranveer Singh makes his first startup investment, backs beauty company SUGAR Cosmetics

Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh is the latest to join the Indian start-up story story with an investment in the direct-to-consumer (D2C) brand SUGAR Cosmetics. 

The homegrown beauty company made the announcement on Saturday but did not divulge the details of the investment made by Ranveer. 

The investment by the film star comes as the company raised USD 50 million in Series D in June, led by L Catterton and existing investors A91 Partners, Elevation Capital and India Quotient. 

SUGAR Cosmetics started off as a D2C brand in 2015 and then ventured into offline trade in 2017. Currently, it is clocking annual sales of more than Rs 550 crore with a physical presence with more than 45,000 retail touch points across the country.

"I have admired SUGAR’s ability to build a tremendous fan-following over the years and I’m excited to be a part of this journey and help the brand achieve its mission of providing Indian women access to premium and quality makeup products specially formulated for them," said Singh.

The new investment by Ranveer "is expected to further boost SUGAR’s expansion in other potential markets," the company said.

"SUGAR is the makeup of choice for bold, independent women who refuse to be stereotyped into roles and if someone shares the same DNA as ours, it is Ranveer," said Vineeta Singh, Cofounder and CEO, SUGAR Cosmetics.

"This will help supercharge our growth trajectory as we continue scaling SUGAR aggressively to build it into a large and much-loved makeup & beauty brand," added Kaushik Mukherjee, Cofounder and COO.

Ranveer’s actor-wife Deepika Padukone has invested in several startups, via her investment arm KA Enterprises, like Epigamia, Nua, Blu Smart, Bellatrix Aerospace and Atomberg Technologies, etc.

Some of the other celebrities that have backed startups include actor Katrina Kaif who has investment in Nykaa. Actor Anushka Sharma has invested in and is also the brand ambassador for alternative meat brand Blue Tribe Foods. Actor Pankaj Tripathi has invested in agri tech platform Krishi Network. Alia Bhatt has invested in IIT-Kanpur incubated Phool among others.