Elitty Beauty Update | Shark Tank India Season 03
Elitty is a beauty brand that manufactures multi-colored eyeliners and other beauty items for Gen-Z teens.
Recently, Elitty Beauty founders Vailina Tulsani and Pranali Janbandhu reached Shark Tank India (Season 03), looking for some investment and guidance from experienced sharks.
So, what happened to the Elitty Beauty brand after Shark Tank India? Is it still in business and generating profits? Find out in this Elitty Beauty update.
If you’re in a hurry and don’t have time to read the whole story, here’s a brief overview of what happened to Eva Scalp Cooling after Shark Tank.
Elitty Beauty asked for ₹1 crore investment in return for 4% equity, but Anupam Mittal wanted to close the deal of ₹1 crore for 15% equity. The founders wanted to negotiate it on ₹1 crore for 9%, but Anupam decided not to invest in this risky business. Elitty Beauty has got no investment in the tank but their brand gained decent popularity on the show.
| Company Name | Elitty Beauty |
|---|---|
| Founders | Vailina Tulsani and Pranali Janbandhu |
| Founded | 2022 |
| Products | Beauty and makeup products for teenagers |
| Ask | ₹1 crores for 4% equity |
| Deal | No deal |
| Sharks | No sharks |
About Elitty Beauty
Vailina Tulsani and Pranali Janbandhu founded the Elitty brand in 2021. Their objective was to bring cheap, reliable, and safe beauty products to Indian teenagers.
India has a young population of about ₹22 crore, which is the largest in the world. This demographic is often referred to as Gen-Z. But most of them are still not financially independent.
Therefore, a lot of brands don’t have teen-specific products, especially in the beauty sector. This is where the founders, Vailina Tulsani and Pranali Janbandhu, saw a possible startup idea.
They worked together and created India’s first teen-specific makeup brand called Elitty. Its products are mostly affordable for teenagers. The company also claims that its products are safe to use and reliable.
All of Elitty’s products are made from Witch Hazel & Avocado oil, which makes them extremely skin-friendly. They are safe to use for teenagers whose skin is normally very sensitive and acne-prone.
Elitty has a wide range of beauty products consisting of lip glosses, nail paints, makeup, and a whopping 22 colored eyeliner.
Their products are available on their websites and all major e-commerce marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart, etc.
Elitty Beauty Shark Tank India Episode Recap
The founders of Elitty, Vailina Tulsani and Pranali Janbandhu, proposed an investment of ₹1 crore for a 4% stake in their company.
They claim to have sold about 30,000 products as of now and are looking to make Elitty the most famous beauty brand among Indian teenagers.
Anupam seemed really excited about the products. And then, all the sharks went on to try the products. Anumpam liked the way how Elitty has done their branding.
Even the other sharks liked their vibrant packaging, which consists of many aesthetic color combinations, giving a very cool vibe that can appeal to Gen-Z customers.
Namita liked the eyeliners, especially pink and blue, which naturally gain everyone’s eyeballs, and she also praised the glossy color, which looks extremely pleasing to the eyes.
She then asked about the top two most selling products of Elitty. The founders replied that eyeliners and lip gloss are the two most selling products. These two products alone contribute to about 80% of the total sales.
Vineeta asks about the most selling eyeliner shades. She is also in the beauty sector, so she seemed quite curious and introspective.
The founders say that Lilac, White, and Yellow are the highest-selling eyeliner shades. Vineeta then revealed that 90% of India’s market goes for black-colored eyeliners.
Anupam concluded that the target audience of Elitty has a demand for multi-coloured eyeliners which Elitty is trying to fulfill.
Ritesh then started discussing about the price range differences between Elitty and their competitors. The founders said that the price of their eyeliners is ₹499, which is the same as their competitors.
The founders claimed that the market for their products was about $6 billion, which was quickly challenged by Vineeta.
She corrected their estimation and said that the market size of Gen-Z beauty products is about $30-40 million in India, which is still huge.
Aman then asked the founders about their strategy and tactics to become the winning product in the market. The founders claimed that they have a unique and very under-served segment as their target audience.
They said that they have done a lot of studies and research to understand the wants and demands of their segment. And, thus they came up with Elitty products that are made to be safe on teen skin.
The founders went on to boast about how they made sure that their products matched the vibe and needs of the current Gen-Z audience. They were very proud of the fact that no other company has 22 colored eyeliners in India apart from Elitty.
Anupam didn’t look convinced by their answers. He explained how almost every makeup brand in India has overused words like safe, cheap, and natural. These terms are easy to use in branding but harder to implement and keep track of.
Anupam wanted to know something unique about Elitty that makes them ahead of their competitors.
The founders said that they are good at content marketing. Elitty has about 18,000 followers on Instagram.
The founders said that teenagers on Instagram are making graphic eyeliners using their products. The founders didn’t even know such a thing even existed before it.
Interestingly, even the sharks didn’t know about graphic eyeliners and asked to have a look at the content that the teenagers were making using Ellity’s products.
The sharks seemed impressed with the content and were interested in doing business with Elitty.
Elitty Beauty Shark Tank India Pitch
The founders spoke about their revenue first. Elitty has done business for about ₹1.13 crore till October 2023. They also confirmed that they are not yet profitable.
Elitty has already raised investments twice. Once in the Ideation stage in 2021 where they raised ₹2.1 crores from angel investors on a valuation of 10 crores.
They then raised another round of funding in March 2023 of ₹3.2 crore on ₹23.2 crore valuation. Hearing this, Namita went out of the race as she wasn’t convinced about Elitty’s valuation of ₹23 crore.
Vineeta also made herself opt out of the deal because of high losses on low revenue. She was concerned about low contribution margins.
This is a huge concern for an investor as it is hard to figure out whether consumers actually like the product or if the sales are a result of aggressive marketing strategies.
Vineeta suggested that Gen-Z is quite concerned about value for money, and Elitty’s prices are almost the same as other non-teen products.
She wants the price to be decreased by at least 30-40% for Elitty’s products to become a value for money.
Aman then asked about plan B of the founders if they don’t receive any funding soon. To this, the founders quickly replied that they would try to become profitable ASAP.
The founders are trying to build channel partnerships to grow and acquire customers, and it has already started giving results to them.
The gross margin for Elitty in B2B is about 36%, and for B2C it’s about 75-80% depending upon discounts.
The founders then informed that 40% of the equity is with Vailina, 25% of the equity is with Pranali, and the remaining 35% is with angel investors.
Aman expressed concerns that Elitty has no room for growth now as they lack funds and will find it tough to solidify their position in the market. They will eventually lose out to brands with high funding.
This is a very risky deal, and Aman didn’t want to partake in it. So, after Namita and Vineeta, even Aman decided to opt out of this deal.
Ritesh applauded the founders for understanding their customer segment so well. But, even he raised concerns that lack of funds will hurt the prospects of Elitty.
He advised the founders to develop a plan to fix things in the company. Then, even he opted out of the deal due to the high risk involved and the lack of clarity of the founders.
Even Anupam had the same view as the other sharks. But, he was still ready to make them an offer but on less valuation.
He proposed an investment of about ₹1 crore for 15% equity in the company. The founders didn’t seem convinced and wanted 9% equity instead.
Anupam rejected it as it is a very risky and tough proposition to work with Elitty due to their mismanaged economics.
Unfortunately, Elitty didn’t receive any funding from Shark Tank India, and they had to return without any deal.
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Final Words
Elitty’s products and their unique customer segment were heavily praised by the Sharks on Shark Tank India Season 3. But, it wasn’t enough for them to consider a business partnership with Elitty.
It is quite unfortunate for the founders to not receive any funding from the Sharks. However, their brand has gained immense popularity on the airing of the episode, and they’ll see a huge boost in the sale.
