In 2019, IIT Bombay alumni Anurag Kedia and Gagandeep Makker founded Pilgrim in Mumbai to bring globally inspired, toxin-free beauty formulations to Indian consumers at accessible prices. Launched during a pandemic with ₹2.5 crore raised on WhatsApp, Pilgrim grew to ₹400 crore in revenue, 90-plus SKUs, 25,000 pin codes, and $46 million in total funding.
Indian families were flying to Korea, Japan, and France and filling their suitcases with skincare.
Not because they wanted to. Because the products were unavailable in India, or priced so far beyond reach that importing them personally made more sense than buying them locally.
Two IIT Bombay alumni watched that behaviour and asked a simple, powerful question: what if we brought the world's best beauty secrets to India — at Indian prices?
That question became Pilgrim. And it became one of India's fastest-growing D2C beauty brands in the process.
The Origin — Two Decades in Beauty, One Co-founder on the Phone, and ₹2.5 Crore Raised on WhatsApp
• Anurag Kedia grew up in Jaipur in a business family. After graduating from IIT Bombay and completing his MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, he joined KPMG as a consultant, gaining deep exposure to how large enterprises operate and scale. He then took his first entrepreneurial leap in 2006, co-founding Four Fountains De, a chain of spas that grew significantly before he exited in 2018.
• Gagandeep Makker, also an IIT Bombay graduate, brought complementary expertise in data, marketplaces, and consumer insights. When the two met, the partnership was instant. Their equity discussion lasted three minutes. They decided on the split and agreed that beyond that they were equals.
• Through early research, Kedia and Makker identified three recurring purchase filters among millennial consumers: good for me, meaning ingredient transparency; good for society, meaning cruelty-free certifications; and good for the planet, meaning sustainability and reduced plastic. A parallel insight confirmed that demand for international beauty products, particularly Korean skincare, was rising sharply in India. But importing was expensive and unfamiliar brands faced trust barriers. This was when they decided to work on globally inspired formulations, priced for aspirational Indian consumers, but manufactured locally.
• They raised an initial ₹2.5 crore from a wide network of friends, family, and professional contacts via WhatsApp, launching sales in May 2020 amidst the lockdown uncertainty.
The Defining Moment — Launching Into a Pandemic and Winning Anyway
• Most founders would have paused. Anurag and Gagandeep launched.
• Pilgrim was launched in May 2020, during India's COVID-19 lockdown. Despite the challenges, the brand quickly scaled because of the rising demand for at-home self-care and international beauty rituals. With salons closed and consumers stuck at home, the appetite for quality skincare at accessible prices was higher than it had ever been. Pilgrim was already there, already digital, and already offering exactly what the moment demanded.
• Support from Fireside Ventures, initially through sharing their D2C playbook and later via a seed investment of approximately ₹13 crore, proved invaluable. The brand grew not through mass advertising but through deep digital strategy, influencer marketing, and genuine product performance that drove a 40 to 50 percent repeat purchase rate within 12 months.
The Strategic Genius — Jeju Island in a Bottle, at an Indian Price Point
• The boldest decision Pilgrim made was a sourcing and storytelling one: take specific, globally proven beauty traditions and build entire product collections around them, sourced authentically but priced locally.
• Ingredients are curated from France, Korea, Spain, Australia, the Amazon Rainforest, and the Swiss Alps. The brand offers skin-friendly, vegan, paraben-free, mineral oil-free, and sulphate-free products at affordable prices. Collections draw directly from the traditions of Korean beauty, French Vinotherapy, and other globally revered rituals — giving Indian consumers the experience of world-class beauty science without the import price tag.
• The brand now offers more than 90 SKUs across face care, haircare, skincare products, and fragrances, serving over 25,000 pin codes across India. The transition from pure D2C to omnichannel has been equally deliberate. Pilgrim's offline retail expansion has accelerated through 2025 and 2026, with the brand building a presence across modern trade, pharmacy chains, and general trade to serve consumers beyond the metros.
Scale, Numbers and Real-World Impact
• Pilgrim's FY24 revenue stood at approximately ₹204.4 crore. The brand has scaled to ₹400 crore in revenue as of its most recent reporting period, representing 24x growth since launch. The brand is backed by Fireside Ventures, Rukam Capital, Vertex Ventures, and a strong group of angel investors including the founding teams of boAt, NoBroker, and Bewakoof. Pilgrim raised $20 million in Series B funding led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, with participation from Fireside Ventures and Narotam Sekhsaria Family Office.
• The brand was recognised on Inc42's Fast42 list of India's fastest-growing D2C brands, and its founders have been cited among India's most impactful beauty entrepreneurs. Pilgrim is available across Nykaa, Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra, and its own website, alongside a rapidly expanding offline presence.
The Business Lesson — Global Inspiration Plus Local Execution Is the Most Powerful Formula in Consumer Brands
• The sharpest lesson from Pilgrim's journey is this: the best consumer brand insight is rarely a new product. It is a new price point for an existing desire.
• Indian consumers already wanted Korean skincare and French Vinotherapy. They were already buying it — in suitcases, via grey market imports, and through expensive international websites. Pilgrim did not create the desire. It removed the barrier.
• "We are not here to tell people they are incomplete. We believe they are already complete. We just offer them new experiences to explore the world," says Anurag Kedia. That philosophy of enabling rather than prescribing is what made Pilgrim's brand voice resonate with a generation of Indian consumers who are globally aware, value-conscious, and deeply tired of being told their beauty routines are inadequate.
Sources: StartupPedia, Inc42, Founder Thesis, The Story Watch, YourStory, Rukam Capital
