Introduction
Ghazal Alagh, co-founder of Mamaearth, is one of the buzzing entrepreneurs, investors, and global champions of green and innovative business solutions for India. She turned overnight star when she was a part of the reality TV show Shark Tank India and had to mentor and invest in numerous new startups.
A nature-driven, passionate entrepreneur, Ghazal Alagh invests proactively in companies that match her passions around health, beauty, wellness, and sustainability. Her investment background mirrors her focus on companies centered around quality, ethical business practices, and the consumer’s health. Health technology and environmentally friendly products in food and fashion have seen her lead the development of several industries, not only with capital but also with business acumen and vision.
This article gives an extensive summary of investments by Ghazal Alagh in startups, their business model, the investment size, and how they can revolutionize the industry. With investments, Ghazal constantly pushes and enables next-generation entrepreneurs to revolutionize traditional industries with new-age, green, and consumer-centric solutions.
Source: Fortune India
Table of Contents
| S. No. | List of Startups Funded by Ghazal Alagh |
| 1 | Nomad Food Project |
| 2 | Wakao Foods |
| 3 | Skippi Ice Pops |
| 4 | Hammer Lifestyle |
| 5 | The Sass Bar |
| 6 | Baby Chakra |
| 7 | Humpy A2 |
| 8 | Health Set Go |
| 9 | Open Secret |
| 10 | Nine Camp |
| 11 | True Carat Diamonds |
| 12 | DressFolk |
- Nomad Food Project
Nomad Food Project is a gourmet luxury company offering small-batch, hand-manufactured bacon-based condiments like bacon jams and sauces. With an emphasis on hand-manufactured, small-batch production processes, the company assures high-quality ingredients and distinct tastes that gourmet food clients highly sought after. The offerings address a precise need of consumers who are huge bacon flavor enthusiasts and fans of gourmet-type foods.
| Investment Details | |
| Industry | Gourmet Food |
| Funding Round | Shark Tank India |
| Investment Size | ₹10 Lakhs for 5% equity |
| Investment Inspiration | Ghazal was attracted to the firm’s new but potential market niche and was impressed by the founders’ enthusiasm to change the condiments industry. She envisioned the brand expanding its presence in India’s emerging gourmet food market. |
Source: nomadfoodproject.com
- Wakao Foods
Wakao Foods is a new-age food firm that deals in jackfruit meat alternatives. The firm deals in plant-based meat substitutes that are healthy, fiber-rich, eco-friendly, and sustainable. They have ready-to-eat pre-cooked food made from jackfruit for vegetarians, vegans, and others looking to minimize the use of meat.
| Investment Details | |
| Industry | Plant-Based Foods |
| Funding Round | Shark Tank India |
| Investment Amount | ₹25 Lakhs for 7% equity |
| Investment Reason | With growing global attention shifting towards sustainability and plant-based living, Ghazal recognized Wakao Foods’ vision of offering tasty and healthy meat substitutes as having gigantic potential. |
Source: Wakao Foods
- Skippi Ice Pops
Skippi Ice Pops is India’s first and sole brand offering naturally flavored, preservative-free ice pops. The firm wants to bring back the nostalgia of the good old days with a healthier version using real fruit juice, natural colors, and no artificial preservatives. Their colorful variety of flavors is a hit among children and adults and is a healthy but delicious alternative to conventional frozen desserts.
| Investment Details | |
| Industry | Food & Beverages |
| Funding Round | Shark Tank India |
| Investment Amount | INR 1 Crore for a 15% Stake |
| Investment Reason | Ghazal Alagh enjoyed the freshness the brand had brought to an old product and a fit life. |
Source: Skippi Ice Pops
- Hammer Lifestyle
Hammer Lifestyle is a consumer electronics company that retails wireless audio products, smartwatches, and fitness wearables. The company has experience selling fashionable and performance-based products at reasonable prices to fitness enthusiasts and young professionals.
| Investment Details | |
| Industry | Electronics & Lifestyle |
| Funding Round | Shark Tank India |
| Investment Amount | 70 Lakhs for a 40% Stake |
| Investment Round | Ghazal was pleased to see the increasing prominence of the brand in India’s new smart wearables market. |
Source: Fulmina Plan
- The Sass Bar
The Sass Bar is a modern personal care business that makes handcrafted, high-end soaps with rich coloration and artistic finish. Their product lines are carefully designed and built from good quality natural ingredients that create healthy and safe experiences. Beauty and playfulness being their interest, The Sass Bar has emerged as an eclectic trendsetter in the cosmetic and skin care industry.
| Investment Details | |
| Industry | Beauty & Personal Care |
| Funding Round | Shark Tank India |
| Investment Amount | Rs. 25 Lakhs for 17.5% equity stake |
| Investment Round | Ghazal Alagh, a staunch supporter of natural and skin-friendly personal care brands, was taken aback by the brand’s focus on innovation and sustainability in skincare. She perceived The Sass Bar as a brand that can carve a humongous niche in the fast-growing personal care space. |
Source: The Sass Bar
- Baby Chakra
Baby Chakra is a website that connects parents with pediatricians, child caregivers, and fellow parents via a review, referral, and expert guidance network. It provides customized parenting advice, maternity care, and child welfare. It even provides an online store for baby products, effectively one-stop-shop shopping for new parents.
| Investment Details | |
| Industry | Parenting & Childcare |
| Funding Round | Angel Investment Round |
| Investment Amount | Not disclosed |
| Investment Round | Ghazal Alagh, a mother entrepreneur working in the baby care segment, saw tremendous potential in Baby Chakra. She wished to associate herself with a startup that educates parents and builds a caring community, which she also had faith in because she was eager to propagate conscious child care. |
Source: BabyChakra
- Humpy A2
Humpy A2 is an A2 milk and organic milk organization encouraging chemical-free, healthy consumption of milk. Humpy A2 obtains milk from Indian native breeds of cows that produce A2 protein-based milk, said to be easily digestible and more nutritious compared to A1 milk. Humpy A2 offers pure A2 milk, ghee, paneer, and other dairy products formulated with milk, offering clean and authentic dairy products to the consumer.
The firm is seriously dedicated to ethical and sustainable dairy farming where the cows are healthy, and milk is hormone-free, antibiotic-free, and chemical-free. With organic and A2 milk products becoming popular in India, Humpy A2 is focusing on fitness-conscious consumers who desire natural and traditional nutrition.
| Investment Details | |
| Industry | Dairy & Organic Products |
| Funding Round | Shark Tank India |
| Investment Amount | 33.33% at 5% Equity Stake |
| Investment Reason | Ghazal Alagh was intrigued by the market potential in the transition towards healthy consumption of dairy products. She was amazed at Humpy A2’s purity and the sustainability of dairy rearing. With increasing awareness regarding A2 milk compared to regular milk, she believed that there was room for Humpy A2 to expand in the Indian market. |
Source: The Kredible
- Health Set Go
Health Set Go is an entrepreneurial health organization with a background history in India’s school health transformation. By following this process, they provide complete service-based healthcare programs, doctor check-ups, and online health cards for children with a possibility of missing child illness and well-being. Health Set Go is bridging medicine and technology by creating a healthy relationship with schools to implement routine check-ups, physical education, and health education classes to introduce long-term health for children.
| Investment Details | |
| Industry | Health & Wellness |
| Funding Round | Shark Tank India |
| Investment Reason | Ghazal Alagh was persuaded by the idea of starting a healthy next generation with the inclusion of health in school. She was impressed by the path-breaking concept of preventive care that Health Set Go has introduced and its role in children’s well-being. |
Source: Tracxn
- Open Secret
Open Secret is a healthy and delicious snack food company, including nut cookies, protein bars, and other nutritious foods. The company ensures that it involves snacks not processed through artificial preservatives and unhealthy food. Hence, it is the perfect choice for healthy individuals.
| Investment Details | |
| Industry | Healthy Snacks |
| Funding Round | Shark Tank India |
| Investment Amount | Not Disclosed |
| Investment Reason | Ghazal Alagh was drawn to the purpose of Open Secret to provide healthier snacking options to Indian customers. She believed the company could disrupt the traditional snack space with a better, better-for-you option. |
Source: Open Secret
- Nine Camp
Nine Camp is a startup business venture that provides interactive holiday experiences to individuals and families. The firm offers exclusive, nature-based camps to India’s natural destinations. The services provided are tent stays, adventure activities, campfire stays, and guide-organized nature walks, thus proving to be the most appropriate choice for anyone willing to experience the real touch of nature.
| Investment Details | |
| Industry | Adventure Tourism |
| Funding Round | Shark Tank India |
| Investment Amount | Raised $2 Million in seed funding through Ghazal Alagh and other |
| Investment Reason | The eco-friendly business model of Nine Camp for adventure tourism inspired Ghazal Alagh. As a result of the experiential holiday revolution, she thought the brand could spearhead India’s adventure tourism sector. |
Source: Startup Rise Asia
- True Carat Diamonds
True Carat Diamonds is a direct-to-consumer jewelry company that sells eco-friendly, lab-created diamond jewelry. Ethically sourced and quality diamonds are sold at lower prices by the company, thus making luxury accessible to many. True Carat Diamonds introduces sustainability with reduced environmental damage from conventional diamond mining through the technology of lab-created diamonds.
| Investment Details | |
| Industry | Adventure Tourism |
| Funding Round | Shark Tank India |
| Investment Amount | Raised $1 Million in seed funding through Ghazal Alagh and 5 Others |
| Investment Reason | Ghazal Alagh was drawn to the company’s emphasis on innovation and sustainability in the diamond business. She was finding an opportunity in the role that True Carat Diamonds might play in revolutionizing the traditional diamond business through value-based, ethical solutions. |
Source: truediamond.in
- Dress Folk
Dress Folk is a socially responsible ethnic wear fashion brand that collaborates with weavers to conceptualize and manufacture handloom and handloom wear. Dress Folk takes inspiration from sustainable fashion, appreciates India’s rich fabric culture, and introduces contemporary fashion. Dress Folk strives for sustainable resource utilization and green manufacturing practices to manufacture qualitative, comfortable, and stylish ethnic wear.
| Investment Details | |
| Funding Round | Shark Tank India |
| Investment Amount | Undisclosed |
| Investment Reason | Ghazal Alagh was attracted to the cause of Dress Folk to preserve traditional handloom craftsmanship but market it in an attractive way for the modern-day consumer. She wanted to invest in a company that practices sustainable and hand-crafted fashion and shares her values for ethical shopping. |
Source: Dressfolk
Conclusion
Ghazal Alagh’s investments reflect her vision to build innovation, sustainability, and consumer businesses in India. She is building a wiser and more sustainable marketplace by investing in sustainable, healthy, and good fashion and technology-enabled companies. Ghazal Alagh’s investments are not just funds but are backed by strategic inputs and advice to young entrepreneurs.
Ghazal Alagh built a way to invest in emerging startups on Shark Tank India and otherwise whose business could create paradigmatic industry changes. Her entrepreneurial insight and the necessity of turning everything into a sustainable organization led her to discover her niche in the Indian startup world. As the corporate age changes, her business offers will be a learning experience for generations.
