AreoVeda MD Mayur Abhaya shares the brand’s unique selling proposition, strategies and plans…
India’s beauty and personal care space is exploding with several niche brands entering the market. One such speciality brand that was launched in August this year is AreoVeda.
The Chennai-based brand has been launched by LifeCell, India’s pioneering stem cell bank and a leader in diagnostics, genetic testing, and pre-conception care.
The product range is specially crafted for pregnant women, new moms, and newborns and has been developed using natural ingredients and a cellular science-backed approach.
Incepted to counter concerns like stretch marks, pigmentation, acne, and dryness in the case of expectant and new mothers and eczema, diaper rash and cradle cap in the case of babies, the company offers solutions for all skin problems faced by this cohort. The products undergo over 10 cellular tests on lab-grown human skin cells in LifeCell’s accredited labs via tests like Cytotoxicity to evaluate the toxicity of product ingredients on skin cells; anti-irritation test that assesses a cosmetic product’s safety by using ELISA technology; bone formation assay, which evaluates the product’s ability to enhance and stimulate bone formation; cell-migration assay which helps decode the wound-healing effects of the products on dermal cells; and anti-ageing test to assess skincare product effectiveness by using RT-PCR technology among others.
Mayur Abhaya and Taru Mayur founded AreoVeda is the country’s first brand to secure the coveted EWG and ECOCERT COSMOS certifications. The former validates the brand’s claim that its products are pure and free of chemicals listed by the body, thereby meeting all prescribed standards of consumer health. And only <2% of brands across the globe have managed to get this prestigious certification. The latter attests to the fact that 95% of the ingredients used to formulate the products are natural and plant-based. AreoVeda has bested this requirement and ensures that >98% of its ingredients are natural, while successfully passing all the stringent manufacturing and lab site audits.
The brand is hailed for inaugurating the industry-first process of cryomilling, wherein four ‘hero’ ingredients—CryoCoffee, CryoGold, CryoOats and CryoHayal—are milled with liquid nitrogen at extremely low temperatures (-196°C), ensuring they are pure, micronised, contaminant-free, and retain their natural properties.
AreoVeda also prioritises sustainable practices and its products come in eco-friendly packaging that minimises the brand’s environmental footprint.
In an exclusive interaction with IndiaRetailing MD Mayur Abhaya reveals the brand’s unique selling proposition and future plans…
Tell us about your products.
The pregnancy range includes stretch marks cream, skin clarifying serum, skin brightening serum, foam face wash, and moisturising spray lotion.
Products designed for new mothers include hydrating foam body wash, post-natal massage oil, under-eye serum, natural nipple butter, and skin brightening serum.
The collection for babies comprises baby head-to-toe foam wash, baby dusting powder, deep moisturising baby cream, baby massage oil, and moisturising baby spray lotion.
These are available on our official website and e-commerce platforms like Amazon. Shortly, these will also be available on Flipkart, FirstCry, Nykaa and quick commerce platforms.
Is there a synergy between LifeCell and Areoveda?
There are multiple synergies. The parent company LifeCell is into stem cells, genomics, and advanced healthcare sciences. LifeCell preserves the umbilical cord and cord blood for treatments in the future. That is day zero blood, collected within 10 minutes of a baby’s birth. According to a report, there are over 200 toxins found in a baby, which affect its growth and development. That became the starting point for us, and we decided to put our expertise to work for baby and mother care.
Also, animal testing is banned, and you can’t test hundreds of ingredients on humans at different concentrations. So, considering our background in stem cells, we took a leaf from the book of L’Oreal in Paris, which uses lab-grown human skin equivalent models developed from stem cells to test products.
Yet another synergy is that we store stem cells using liquid nitrogen, a capability we used for cryomilling of ingredients for our products.
Furthermore, LiceCell is present in 150 cities across India and more than half a million parents have stored their baby’s stem cells with us. We can leverage this network to bring our products into the market.
What is the kind of investment that has gone into developing such specialised products?
We have spent about three and half years in developing and testing the product. Over this period, we would have spent at least Rs 10 crore towards everything, including the team, the infrastructure, the accreditations, the product itself and the pre-launch marketing.
By the end of first year, we want to achieve Rs 1 crore monthly revenue run rate and within three years be at Rs 100 crore annualised run rate.
What is the strategy for achieving this kind of growth?
We will be available offline as well as online and we believe both channels will contribute significantly to this almost in equal proportions. In addition to the gynaecologists we work with today, our products are going to include paediatricians and dermatologists also who are involved in the decisions on skin care for newborns and new mothers. That’s the new audience we will reach apart from the direct marketing to parents.
Given that we have an omnichannel approach, we can scale fast.
What is your channel expansion plan?
LifeCell is already available in over 3,000 hospitals and more than 10,000 gynaecologists today so the first year is going to be just establishing ourselves in the hospital pharmacies. Then, we will go to the retail pharmacy chains like Wellness Forever, followed by modern and general trade including baby shops, and FMCG in year two and beyond.
Online, we are already available on 30 plus marketplaces including Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa, FirstCry and Tata 1 MG will happen in the next six months.
Our stretch marks cream has already started gaining traction on Amazon and is among the top 10 products in the category and we were selling about 30 plus SKUs in a day. We will soon be available on quick commerce too as our prices start from Rs 300 and go all the way up to a few thousand rupees. Our average order value on e-commerce is Rs 800.
What kind of awareness building are you doing?
Our awareness is being built on social media largely and trusted parenting channels like Baby Centre, the largest parenting network, apart from FirstCry in India. BabyCentre recently ranked us as the country’s best stretch mark cream. We organise workshops for pregnant women where we get the opportunity to talk about newborn skincare and pregnancy skin by experts. About 50% of our revenue is being spent on marketing today.
You have all international certification, which means you have global aspirations…
That was planned right from the start. We intend to be available outside India in advanced markets like the US and Middle East within 12 months of launch.
At first, we will get the requisite licenses and certification. We have already initiated that work and hope to have that done within the next quarter. Second quarter onwards we will be listed on the marketplaces in those markets. And the third quarter is when we will start doing our trial marketing and then ramp up from there.
Less than 3% of global cosmetic brands are EWG certified, less than 1% are ECOCERT verified. So, we have taken some of the most stringent standards and met them.
Where do you see the brand in three to five years?
We will be happy if we first achieve the reach in India. We want to be among the top 10 mother and child skincare brands in the country and achieve a Rs 10 crore monthly revenue run rate with a physical reach in at least the top 50 cities in the country.
There are a few more categories we will consider. Oral care, for example, or care for men.
All products are concern-driven. Just like women go through hormonal changes during pregnancy, they have acne, dark spots, nipple sores after delivery, babies have diaper rashes, there are concerns for men also, especially in the age group of 25 to 40. In fact, a lot of men are buying our products on Amazon. They are showing interest in products like under-eye serum and foam washes.
Is there an IPO somewhere down the line in your plan?
That is the intent. I mean we have onboarded private equity investors in 2021. Hopefully, in the next few years, the intent is to become a listed company.
