By Sanjeev Sharma

New Delhi, Apr 8 (IANS): WOW Skin Science India Limited, a leading new-age personal care brand, has announced that ChrysCapital, a leading India-focused private equity firm, has agreed to invest $50 million in the company for a significant minority stake.

The transaction is a combination of a primary raise by the Company for growth initiatives, and a secondary sale by existing shareholders.

Founded in 2014 by brothers Manish and Karan Chowdhary, WOW Skin Science is one of India's fastest growing new-age beauty and personal care companies available across e-commerce platforms, its own website, as well as brick-and-mortar stores.

The company develops and markets all-natural products at affordable price points, with a sharp focus on customer satisfaction. WOW aims to maintain its growth momentum by capitalizing on its loyal customer base, expanding penetration across channels, and further developing its portfolio of brands and products.

"We are extremely pleased to announce ChrysCapital's investment in WOW, and welcome ChrysCapital to the WOW Skin Science family. ChrysCapital is a leading India focused private equity firm with deep experience and a proven track record across sectors, including Consumer. We are excited to build a long-term, and mutually beneficial, partnership with ChrysCapital over the coming years. The foundation of this relationship is our shared goal of creating sustainable value at WOW by creating a house of brands, accelerating growth, hiring talent, institutionalising the organisation, and expanding WOW's presence in the Beauty and Personal Care category," said Manish Chowdhary.

"We also look forward to working closely with Enhancin, ChrysCapital's portfolio operations group, to achieve these goals. WOW Skin Science is a "consumer first" brand in the D2C Space. We strive to optimize the consumer's experience, and address their problems and pain points by leveraging technology and innovation. From being a digital first brand, the vision now is to scale up to become the number one brand in the toxin-free space within the larger FMCG sector. Along with ChrysCapital, we are focussed towards creating value for all our consumers, employees, and stakeholders."

Commenting on the investment, Ashish Agrawal, Managing Director, ChrysCapital said "ChrysCapital is excited to partner with WOW Skin Science in its growth journey towards becoming a formidable house of brands in beauty and personal care. The founders have demonstrated a robust historical track record by significantly outperforming the industry growth while demonstrating superior capital efficiency.

"WOW's unique positioning of toxin-free beauty regimes centred around natural ingredients (apple cider vinegar, onion, Vitamin C) at an affordable price point has created strong resonance with a fast-growing millennial demographic. We look forward to helping WOW grow multi-fold by further increasing online penetration, driving pan-India offline expansion, and launching new brands in adjacent categories."

PricewaterhouseCoopers and J. Sagar Associates (JSA) advised Wow Skin Science, while Quillon Partners advised ChrysCapital.