Mamaearth IPO'd at ₹324 as India's skincare unicorn — the stock lost 56% in six months

Mamaearth, the Indian D2C skincare brand founded by Varun and Ghazal Alagh, went public in October 2023 through its parent company Honasa Consumer at ₹324 a share. It was one of India's most prominent startup IPOs — a 'toxin-free' skincare brand that had grown rapidly on digital marketing and an influencer-driven model.

The public markets were less forgiving than the venture investors. Within six months the stock had fallen 56%. Q2 FY25 brought a consolidated net loss of ₹18.57 crore, reversing a ₹29.43 crore profit from the same quarter a year earlier. The company was sitting on ₹63 crore in expired inventory — skincare products with a shelf life that had run out. Distribution expansion into physical retail, meant to reduce the dependence on digital channels, created new problems: inventory pile-ups and channel conflicts.

Mamaearth lost its unicorn status as its market capitalisation halved. The brand that had been the poster child of India's D2C skincare boom discovered that marketing-driven growth and profitable growth are different things — and that an IPO does not fix a business model, it exposes it.