Beauty & Personal Care in India has been valued at over $5 Bn in 2023, and expected to become a $28 Bn+ opportunity by 2030. This makes it a lucrative, if somewhat cluttered space. Tuco Intelligent, our latest investment, occupies a rather open and interesting segment within the BPC category. An efficacious, safe-to-use personal care brand for kids, Tuco has won a high degree of trust and approval from mothers.
At Fireside, we have engaged with Aishvarya, Tuco’s founder, for several years. She’s an expert in brand building, having headed marketing at Ola and Furlenco, and we have known her right from her early days at Unilever and Cadbury Schweppes. She has been a sustainability evangelist who founded The UnBottle Co., to provide 100% recycled plastic packaging for brands, before finding her true calling in the high-trust category of kids’ personal care with Tuco Intelligent. Throughout our interactions, she has always been highly passionate and extremely resilient.
The background
India has an extremely large number of children under the age of 12. In fact, under-12s make up close to 20% of our total population. Personal care for babies and children is a market valued at ~INR 6,500 Cr., and expected to grow at 14% CAGR to touch ~INR 12,500 Cr. by 2028.
The gap
While the market for baby products, targeted at children aged 0-3, is a competitive one, the same cannot be said for kid-specific products, meaning for those between 4 and 12. One major driver of this white space to exist is the age-old practice of buying universal products in these categories.
As an example, consider toothpaste or hair oil, both of which are used by the adults in the household as well as the children. This practice has been evolving as millennial parents have become more and more aware that children’s needs differ from theirs. Several brands have taken advantage of this insight – probably the most notable of these has been Mamaearth, in the 0-3 aged segment, founded almost 8 years ago.
As longtime observers of the consumer space, we’ve noted the gap in brands tailormade for kids. In India, we don’t have a kids’ aisle at the supermarket. At Fireside, we have already invested in Slurrp Farm, which is helping parents “un-junk” food for their kids. Similarly, in the BPC space, Tuco is arming parents with natural, efficacious, safe products they can trust.
Today’s parents have a plethora of worries about their children’s skin, whether it be sun damage, rashes, itchiness, or respiratory distress. Children’s skin is more sensitive than that of adults, and need specific solutions. Skin problems are also becoming more frequent thanks to factors like climate change, improper hygiene, and poor nutrition.
The offering
Tuco Intelligent is a personal care brand focused on kids between the ages of 4 and12 years, offering them chemical-free and safe-to-use products that are highly efficacious. The brand’s current portfolio includes a range of products for dull skin, anti-dandruff, and sun protection.
Tuco products are all-natural, and its problem-solution approach has won the brand great traction among parents and children alike. Parents start buying the brand through “recruitment” products like the Dull Skin Lotion, Sunscreen, or Magic Gel, which are more functional or problem-solution. However, it’s the range of maintenance products through which the brand drives scale and retention.
Positioned as a mass-premium brand, Tuco is available at 10-20% premium over new-age competitors like Mamaearth, and is priced 30-50% lower than other brands like The Mom’s Co, Sebamed, and Cetaphil.
We’ve also seen early indicators of strategic activities in this space, with ITC acquiring Mother Sparsh in 2022, and The Good Glamm Group acquiring The Mom’s Co in 2021.
The differentiator
The kids’ personal care category is built on high trust. Tuco’s focus on safe-to-use ingredients that deliver great results has built trust among moms, and led to early PMF across several product categories. The brand’s use of traditional ingredients like turmeric for dull skin, or mint for dandruff control echo the age-old wisdom moms are familiar with, and whose efficacy they inherently trust.
The consumer
Tuco’s early PMF has been built on a deep understanding of parents’ and kids’ concerns. Strong repeats coupled with high customer ratings are testimony to the deep consumer love the brand enjoys.
The GTM
Given its early stage, Tuco has primarily grown using its own website and on Amazon. Going forward, Tuco will leverage channels across e-comm and q-comm for scale which are under indexed and potential low-hanging fruit.
The brand plans to adopt a two-pronged online strategy – building brand awareness and discoverability on channels with existing category share like Amazon and Firstcry along with its own D2C website, while enabling convenience and repeat purchase through q-commerce platforms.
The ESG approach
Aishvarya has long been a champion of ESG, having founded The UnBottle Co., which was based on sustainability. When she discovered her true calling with personal care for kids, she was able to integrate the two ideas – solving for sustainability, as well as a deep unmet consumer pain point.
Hence, all Tuco bottles are made of 100% recycled plastic. The products are made of all-natural ingredients like tea tree extracts, turmeric, castor oil, pea protein, lemon extract, olive oil, coconut oil, mint, etc. that combat itchy scalps, brighten skin, and remove dryness and dandruff. They have received efficacy test reports from Radiant Research that has deemed it “Tested Safe & Effective” to address certain unique skincare needs of children and teenagers.
Certified to be vegan and cruelty-free by PETA, Tuco also emphasises the use of FDA, EU, and Ministry of Ayush-certified ingredients.
At Fireside, we’re excited about creating a highly focused kids’ brand, addressing a large unmet latent consumer demand. Tuco’s founding team brings together brand building expertise, channel chops, and product knowhow, which we, at Fireside, consider the ideal mix in founding teams. Aishvarya is winning over moms in a very high-trust and “sticky” segment – and is helping build the missing kids’ aisle in India.
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