Bengaluru: Wipro Consumer Care & Lighting has acquired a 60% stake in skincare brand Dermatouch for an enterprise value of ₹387.5 crore, marking its entry into digital-first brands as it looks to tap India’s growing market for science-backed beauty products.
Wipro Consumer will acquire the remaining 40% over the next three years, the company said in a statement on Tuesday. The startup founders Anish Nagpal and Amit Purswani, along with the existing management team, will continue to run the business, it added.
Wipro Consumer's acquisition of the residual stake will be linked to Dermatouch’s performance, Kumar Chander, chief executive officer of Wipro Consumer Care and managing director of Wipro Enterprises, told Mint.
For Wipro Consumer, the Dermatouch deal is as much a bet on a fast-growing skincare category as it is on a new way of building consumer brands, Chander added.
The acquisition is Wipro Consumer Care’s 18th globally and its third strategic deal in a month, following its purchase of TTK Healthcare’s Good Home and Eva brands and the Philippines-based personal care company S Brands.
Its India business spans eight categories: hygiene, home care, personal care, direct-to-consumer (DTC), wellness and male grooming, office solutions and food. Its personal care portfolio includes flagship soap brand Santoor, Yardley, Enchanteur and male grooming brand Aramusk.
Wipro had been selective about entering the digital-first space, preferring brands that had demonstrated the ability to expand beyond online channels. Dermatouch had already made that transition, giving Wipro confidence that its distribution and product-development capabilities could help accelerate growth. “Building digital brands is not our strength…That's why we rely on founders like Anish and Amit because that's their strength,” Chander said.
Buying an established brand can provide a quicker route into segments where product-market fit and consumer acceptance are already in place. “If somebody else has figured that out and it is better to take that and grow with it, that's also an opportunity,” Chander said.
The company remains disciplined on valuations. “We are not vanity buyers,” he said, adding that acquisitions must make strategic and commercial sense.
The Dermatouch deal comes amid a broader consolidation in India’s beauty and personal care market, as consumer goods companies and global beauty groups buy digital-first brands to gain quicker access to premium categories, younger consumers and capabilities that can take years to build internally.
Hindustan Unilever acquired a majority stake in science-backed skincare brand Minimalist, while L’Oréal has moved to acquire a majority stake in Innovist, the parent of digital-first brands including Bare Anatomy and Chemist at Play. Marico, meanwhile, has built a portfolio of new-age brands through acquisitions and investments, while Emami expanded its premium grooming portfolio through The Man Company.
India’s beauty and personal care market is projected to grow from about $23 billion in FY25 to $40 billion by FY30, making it one of the country’s fastest-growing retail categories, according to Redseer Strategy Consultants.
E-commerce is expected to account for more than a third of beauty and personal care spending by 2030, up from about 20% in FY25. More than 150 new-age beauty and personal care brands could cross ₹100 crore in revenue by then, accounting for roughly a quarter of category spending, according to Redseer.
Wipro sees the partnership as combining Dermatouch’s understanding of digital consumers and direct-to-consumer capabilities with its own expertise in research and development, product formulation and distribution.
The company does not plan to immediately overhaul Dermatouch’s business model. Its products are manufactured through third-party partners, while the founders will continue to lead the company and determine its growth priorities.