Take a look at the average Gen-Z or Millennial’s beauty buys and you’ll notice that their selection of skincare and face care products is highly evolved, and customised to their specific needs. This is beginning to be the case with haircare, too.
We’ve been speaking to the dynamic husband-wife founder duo: former McKinsey consumer tech domain expert, Nikita Khanna; and ex-PayTM sales and growth leader, Anmol Ahlawat. Passionate, and growth-focused, they possess complementary skill sets, with Nikita driving brand and product, and Anmol holding down channels and operations. It’s the perfect blend of product and channel expertise – the ideal founding team mix we look for at Fireside.
Together, Nikita and Anmol are building Moxie, and like the name suggests, it’s a bold and spunky – new-age to the core – haircare brand delivering high performance and stellar efficacy to a new generation of Indian consumers. If Mamaearth and Pilgrim are the new Pond’s and Lakmé on the skincare shelf, then Moxie aims to be the new-age L’Oréal.
The background
The Indian consumer haircare market is estimated at INR 25,000 Cr., of which shampoos make up INR 8,000 Cr., conditioners and treatments add up to INR 12,000 Cr., and hair colour weighs in at INR 6,000 Cr. By 2027, haircare is expected to reach INR 31,000 Cr., growing at a CAGR of 11%.
However we haven’t seen real product innovation in this space in India, when compared to, say, skincare.
The majority of legacy brands currently either provide global haircare products – which are not ideally suited to Indian or non-Caucasian hair, or keep their customised offerings for a salon or professional range, which has a different kind of pricing and reach.
The gap
Over the last few years, “curly hair,” “frizzy hair,” and “wavy hair” have been breakout terms on Google search in India – and for a good reason. The majority of Indian hair isn’t the poker-straight kind popularised by shampoo commercials. It’s wavy or curly, and there’s a whole international system to describe it, by the type of wave or curl.
We’ve seen that global brands cater to typical Caucasian hair, which is predominantly straight. In India, however, “frizzy hair” is the # 3 hair problem, following dandruff and hair fall. With close to 60% of the world’s population, and 85% of Asians having wavy to curly hair, there is clearly a large audience requiring solutions for non-straight hair.
Internationally, we have seen several successful brands built in the non-straight hair space that have gone on to be acquired by larger incumbents.
In the past year or two, there have been several new-age consumer brands targeting this segment, with varying success. Some of these have also caught the interest of other VCs.
The solution
Moxie’s first product range was born from Nikita’s own experience with the dearth of suitable products for non-straight hair. She spent close to two years researching existing offerings, Indian and global, for this type of hair before developing the Moxie range.
She then worked with cosmetic scientists to formulate, test and validate the claims on Moxie’s first set of 7 products, which are salon-quality formulas formulated for Indian hair types, weather, and habits. Interestingly enough, it’s an all-women team of scientists.
The results from consumer panels, as well as commissioned lab tests have showcased consistently better performance across hair types. This also allows the brand to showcase its efficacy with “before” and “after” results.
This focus on performance and efficacy is balanced with a commitment to being clean, vegan, and cruelty-free. As a result, Moxie has earned great consumer love, and early PMF in just 6 months’ time – clearly demonstrating an underserved need.
The GTM
Given its early stage, Moxie has primarily grown using its own website and on Amazon. From a channel perspective, there is a great deal of opportunity – e-commerce, verticalized commerce, and q-commerce are all low-hanging fruit, waiting to be tapped. The brand’s equity has been built online through social media, and the founders have created brand awareness while remaining capital-efficient.
The ESG approach
Both founders have a high regard for ESG, and have built the brand to be clean, vegan, and cruelty-free. Moxie’s current focus on wavy to curly hair is a nod towards inclusive and diverse ideals of beauty.
At Fireside Ventures, we’re thrilled to partner a brand that is taking the lead in haircare innovation. We have seen the creation of sophisticated haircare “routines” in developed markets leading to an expansion of the consumer basket, which in turn has led to M&A activity with leading multinationals acquiring companies in this space. We look forward to seeing Moxie solve for Indian hair, and win – through its unique blend of science, and well, moxie!
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