Ahmedabad-based Ecotrail Personal Care Pvt Ltd, that owns personal care and cosmetics brand - Iba Halal, recently raised Rs 15 crore in the form of equity funding from Bengaluru-based Addvantis Enterprises LLP.
The funds will be used for marketing and expanding the distribution network of the company, that claims to be the only company to have halal, vegan and cruelty-free products. Company owners say that being the only halal brand in India, it has an early mover advantage in a market.
"This is the second round of funding. Earlier, we had raised Rs 6 crore from Gujarat Venture Fund Ltd (GVFL). Both GVFL and Addventus now hold shares in the company," said Mauli Teli, co-founder of the company, along with her sister Grishma Teli.
Iba is India's first and only halal certified and Vegan brand of personal care and cosmetic products offering over 100 Stock Keeping Units (SKUs) across skin care, hair care, make up and fragrances. It plans to have sales worth Rs 100 crore by 2021. It has exclusive stores in Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Surat, Bhavnagar, Aurungabad, Delhi and Bengaluru. It also sells products through general trade channel. "We want to expand through general trade and online channels within India and also cater to the growing export market. We have the first mover advantage by being the only brand in India that has a full range of halal certified and vegan cosmetics," said Teli.
The size of the halal market for personal and beauty care products in India has estimated at Rs 11,000 crore, while the global market is estimated at USD 55-60 billion.
"The major markets include countries like Indonesia, countries of the middle east and those of former Soviet republics that have a significant Muslim population, who prefer halal products," said Grishma Teli. However, non-Muslims also use these products. "Over 40 per cent customers in Ahmedabad are non-Muslims," said Teli.
Brands Guru Chandan Nath said that the with the quality control and compliance that goes into making halal products, the cost of production is significantly higher that non-halal products. However, the price of Iba products is fairly competitive in the Indian market.
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