The archive · Consumer Apps · Strategic decision · 2021–2026
The Ayurveda Co, the VC-backed D2C beauty brand, winds down after overexpansion
TAC raised ₹125 Cr to make Ayurveda a young consumer category, hit ₹150 Cr in annual GMV — then stopped in July 2025 as costs outran the business.
The Ayurveda Co
What the business is
D2C ayurvedic beauty and personal care brand selling skincare, haircare, makeup, wellness and supplements through its own website, marketplaces, 20 owned stores and 800+ beauty-advisor counters.
Starting capital：Around ₹125 Cr (about $15M): a $3M round led by Wipro Consumer Care Ventures in 2022, then a ₹100 Cr ($12.2M) Series A led by Sixth Sense Ventures in 2023, with actor Kajal Aggarwal among the angels.
How it started
The Ayurveda Co (TAC) was founded in 2021 by Param Bhargava and Shreedha Singh Bhargava, who had already launched ayurvedic personal care label Khadi Essentials in 2019. Their bet was that Ayurveda — long marketed as heritage wellness for older buyers — could be repackaged as a contemporary beauty brand for young Indian consumers, sold direct-to-consumer.
What happened
TAC raised $3M in 2022 led by Wipro Consumer Care Ventures, then a ₹100 Cr ($12.2M) Series A in 2023 led by Sixth Sense Ventures, with actor Kajal Aggarwal and venture debt funds participating. The money went into offline expansion: by its peak the brand ran 20 owned stores, 800+ beauty-advisor counters and more than 10,000 retail touchpoints, alongside a large ecommerce presence. But the growth was expensive: in FY24 revenue rose 67% to ₹59.6 Cr while losses tripled to ₹68 Cr and expenses nearly doubled to ₹109.5 Cr. At the Series A, the founders said TAC aimed to become a profitable unicorn by FY26 and file for an IPO by FY28.
How it ended up
TAC ceased operations in July 2025 and liquidated its assets; more than a year later, in early September 2026, co-founder Param Bhargava announced on LinkedIn that The Ayurveda Co and Khadi Essentials were being formally wound up. He blamed expansion that ran ahead of what the business and its systems could support, saying the team had hired too many senior people too early.
Background
The Ayurveda Co (TAC) was a direct-to-consumer ayurvedic beauty and personal care brand founded in 2021 by Param Bhargava and Shreedha Singh Bhargava, who had earlier launched the Khadi Essentials label in 2019. It sold skincare, haircare, makeup, wellness and supplements with a deliberately modern, youth-facing version of Ayurveda.
The company raised roughly ₹125 Cr (about $15M) — a $3M round led by Wipro Consumer Care Ventures in 2022 followed by a ₹100 Cr Series A from Sixth Sense Ventures in 2023, with actor Kajal Aggarwal among the angels — and used the money to expand aggressively offline. At its peak it ran 20 owned stores, 800+ beauty-advisor counters and more than 10,000 retail touchpoints, employed over 1,000 people and claimed more than ₹150 Cr in annual GMV.
The expansion was not profitable. In FY24 revenue grew 67% to ₹59.6 Cr while losses tripled to ₹68 Cr and expenses nearly doubled to ₹109.5 Cr. TAC stopped operations in July 2025 and liquidated its assets; in September 2026 Bhargava announced on LinkedIn that TAC and Khadi Essentials were being formally wound up.
Bhargava's own diagnosis was overexpansion: the company grew too fast, across too many channels, and hired senior executives before its operational systems could support them. He said the founders went without salaries for over a year and mortgaged family property trying to turn the business around before concluding the expansion had outrun what the underlying business could sustain.
What has to be true
- TAC's offline build-out — 20 stores, 800+ counters, 10,000+ retail touchpoints — added fixed cost before the D2C model had proven its unit economics, so every store and counter deepened the burn.
- The founder said the team hired too many senior people too early, spending on organizational layers the business was not yet large or mature enough to carry.
- The FY24 numbers show the structural gap: revenue of ₹59.6 Cr against expenses of ₹109.5 Cr meant the ₹150 Cr GMV claim described turnover, not a business that could fund its own retail expansion.
- The goalposts moved as the cash ran out: a unicorn-by-FY26 and IPO-by-FY28 ambition built for investors was overtaken by the need to wind down, with founders' personal funds the last money in.
What can be applied
A brand can outrun its business: TAC built ₹150 Cr of GMV while expenses doubled and losses tripled, proving that expansion without working unit economics is a burn rate, not a strategy.
Aftermath
As of September 2026 The Ayurveda Co and Khadi Essentials were in formal winding-up, their assets already liquidated after operations stopped in July 2025. Param Bhargava said he planned to stay in the broader health and longevity space and was open to discussing the TAC brand with entrepreneurs interested in building in the Ayurveda category. The closure added another name to a 2026 wave of Indian D2C shutdowns, including Savtacart, Klydo and PicSee.
Sources
- The Ayurveda Co Shuts Down After Overexpansion Derails Business
- The Ayurveda Co shuts down after raising Rs 125 Cr; co-founder says it expanded too fast
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