Karishma Kewalramani, a UC Berkeley graduate and trained makeup artist who personally struggled with colorism, founded FAE Beauty in Mumbai in 2018. After four years of losses, the brand turned its first profit, secured ₹1 crore from Aman Gupta and Namita Thapar on Shark Tank India Season 4, and raised ₹17 crore led by Spring Marketing Capital in November 2025.
Berkeley, A.T. Kearney, Colorism, and a Gap India's Beauty Industry Had Ignored for Decades
Karishma grew up in Mumbai and received her higher education in the United States, earning a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley. Following her education, she worked as a management consultant at A.T. Kearney in San Francisco, collaborating extensively with beauty brands, an experience that reignited her enthusiasm for the industry.
When Karishma returned to India in 2017, she enrolled in cosmetics school and began working as a makeup artist. It was during this period, standing in front of clients with every conceivable skin tone, that she discovered the scale of the vacuum in Indian beauty.
"It didn't account for pigmentation, different skin tones, acne and texture," she says.
The data confirmed what she had lived personally: 74% of Indian women fall into the brown, dark brown, or intense brown skin category, yet most cosmetics stores stocked foundation shades designed mostly for fair skin. India's $15 billion beauty market in 2023 had historically been tilted toward lighter tones, leaving the majority of its consumer base underserved.
Karishma founded FAE Beauty in November 2018, formally incorporated as Fae Beauty Private Limited in Mumbai, with co-founder Dayal Ram Kewalramani. FAE stands for Free and Equal, a philosophy built into every formulation, every campaign, and every photograph the brand ever published.
No Photoshop, Hero Products, and the Discipline to Stop Burning Cash
FAE Beauty adopted a strict no-Photoshop policy, using only unedited images across its marketing.
"We ditched lighting and Photoshop tricks so you can see things just as they are," Karishma says.
The brand celebrated stretch marks, normalised acne, and embraced every beauty mark unapologetically, a radical departure from the airbrushed standard the Indian beauty industry had operated on for decades.
The product formulations carried the same rigour. Flagship products including the Lip Whip, Lush Blush, and Eye Deal Kajal incorporated skincare elements like hydration support, anti-pigmentation ingredients, and smudge-proof finishes, designed specifically to suit warm climates and Indian skin conditions.
For four years, the company suffered significant losses, including losses as high as ₹2.5 crore in a single year. The turning point came when Karishma realised hero products mattered more than an expansive catalogue. Lip Whip became the engine. Everything else became support. Combined with quick commerce expansion through Blinkit, Zepto, and Tira, which contributed 25% of revenue within three months of launch, this discipline finally turned the company profitable for the first time in its history.
The Shark Tank Moment — Karishma Refused ₹1.5 Crore and Got the Deal She Actually Wanted
FAE Beauty appeared on Shark Tank India Season 4 around January 7, 2025. Karishma opened her pitch with the 74% statistic, immediately reframing the conversation from a niche beauty brand to a structural market gap.
Vineeta Singh, who runs SUGAR Cosmetics, said she had heard of FAE Beauty and was impressed by its packaging and branding, but declined to invest, citing limited sense in backing the brand at low equity.
The negotiation that followed was one of the sharpest of the season:
Initial Offers: Aman Gupta and Namita Thapar jointly offered ₹1 crore for 3% equity, which Peyush Bansal matched. Anupam Mittal offered ₹1 crore for 3.3% equity.
The Counter-Pitch: Karishma, unwilling to dilute further, countered with ₹1 crore for 1.3%.
The Stand-Off: Anupam raised his offer to ₹1.5 crore for 3%. Namita and Aman countered again with ₹1 crore for 2%.
Karishma shared candidly that for four years her company suffered immense losses before finally turning profitable, generating ₹1.2 crore in profit in the most recent year. That profitability gave her the confidence to hold her ground. She accepted Aman Gupta and Namita Thapar's offer: ₹1 crore at a valuation of ₹66.5 crore.
"Being profitable for the first time empowered me to stand up for what I felt I deserved," Karishma said after the pitch.
Scale and the Funding Journey
FAE Beauty's capital journey reflects sustained investor confidence earned in stages:
FY20-21: ₹1.5 crore raised at a ₹6 crore valuation.
FY21-22: ₹2.4 crore raised at a ₹26 crore valuation.
FY23-24: Two institutional bridge rounds totalling ₹5 crore at valuations of ₹32 crore and ₹22 crore, with active participation from Titan Capital and early investor Arihant Patni.
November 2025: FAE Beauty secured ₹17 crore in a round led by Spring Marketing Capital, with continued participation from Titan Capital Winners Fund and Arihant Patni.
The fresh capital is being used to scale product innovation, build out face-focused categories, and deepen distribution across D2C, marketplaces, quick commerce, and physical retail. Products are now available on Amazon, Nykaa, Blinkit, Tira, Myntra, and the brand's own website, with plans to enter 10-plus international markets alongside pop-up retail experiences.
Real-World Impact
| Performance and Industry Category | Strategic Operational Metrics |
| Corporate Foundations | Incorporated November 2018 • Headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra |
| Financial Turnover (FY25) | Reported annual revenue of $2.45 million |
| The Profit Pivot Point | Achieved ₹10 crore in revenue and ₹1.25 crore in profit by October 2024 |
| Aggregate Capital Stack | Total funding stands at $3.71 million raised across 9 investment rounds |
| Investor Pool Footprint | Backed by 21 total investors (7 institutional funds and 14 angel backers) |
| Shark Tank Capital | Secured ₹1 crore from Aman Gupta and Namita Thapar at a ₹66.5 crore valuation |
| Human Capital Scale | Employs 26 people as of May 2025 |
| Market Index Position | Competes among 855 active beauty ventures in India |
| Primary Industry Rivals | Pilgrim, BellaVita, and Mamaearth |
The Most Defensible Beauty Brands Are Built by Founders Who Personally Lived the Gap
The sharpest lesson from FAE Beauty's journey is this: the most enduring consumer brands are built by founders who experienced the exact problem they are solving, not just researched it.
Karishma Kewalramani lived colorism herself. She trained as a makeup artist and personally encountered the absence of her own shade. She endured four years of losses before discipline and hero-product focus turned the company profitable. And when Anupam Mittal offered her more money for more equity, she said no, because she finally had the profitability to know her own worth.
"Main Apni Favourite Hoon," the brand's philosophy says. Every Indian woman, in every shade, deserves to be her own favourite, reflected accurately by the products she chooses.
A UC Berkeley education. A personal experience of exclusion. Four years of losses. One refused offer. And a brand finally built to see all of them.
Sources: Zee Business, Crunchbase, PitchBook, LinkedIn, Startup Hyderabad, Tracxn, StartupArticle, Angeltors Blog
