Startup Deep Dive : Pilgrim — revenue crossed Rs 408 crore in FY25 while losses grew faster than sales

Pilgrim’s revenue crossed ₹408.3 crore in the year to March 2025, up 105.4% on the year before, as per the company’s FY25 financial filings reported by Inc42 and Startuppedia. In the same year its net loss nearly tripled to ₹68.7 crore, growing faster than the sales that are supposed to be paying for it.

The Mumbai-based beauty brand built its story on globally-inspired skincare and makeup sold at Indian prices — Korean vinotherapy serums, French grape-seed formulas, Spanish squalane, all packaged for a market that had rarely seen these ingredients described so specifically. Six years after two IIT Bombay alumni launched it into a covid-19 lockdown, Pilgrim is one of India’s fastest-scaling direct-to-consumer beauty companies and, on its own numbers, still nowhere close to breaking even.

Quick facts

What they do

Pilgrim sells skincare, haircare, makeup and fragrance products under a single D2C brand, positioned around beauty rituals and ingredients tied to a specific country of origin — Korean rice water and vinotherapy, French grape polyphenols, Spanish squalane and similar claims. The company designs and markets the range itself but manufactures through third-party contract manufacturers, then sells through its own website, large e-commerce marketplaces, and a growing footprint of physical retail: its own exclusive brand outlets plus thousands of partner stores across India. Its customers are largely younger, digitally-native Indian shoppers who want internationally-positioned beauty products without paying import prices.

The origin

Anurag Kedia had already spent close to two decades in India’s beauty and wellness industry, including building and exiting a spa and salon chain, before he and Gagandeep Makker, a fellow IIT Bombay alumnus with a background in data analysis and market research, set out to build Pilgrim in 2019. Their insight was narrow but specific: Indian consumers were increasingly aware of global beauty trends and ingredient science through social media, but the products built around those ingredients were either unavailable in India or priced far beyond a mass audience. Pilgrim’s founding bet was to source formulations inspired by specific countries and rituals, manufacture them locally through contract partners to keep costs down, and market the story of origin as hard as the product itself.

The struggle years

The first setback arrived before Pilgrim had sold a single unit. Its first batch of inventory landed in March 2020, just as India entered a nationwide covid-19 lockdown. Physical retail, the channel most new beauty brands lean on to build trust, was shut. The founders pushed the brand online instead, launching discoverpilgrim.com in May 2020; the first month brought in about ₹5 lakh in sales, and by the end of that year monthly revenue had climbed to only around ₹20 lakh, a fraction of what a funded consumer brand needs to look viable.

The second setback was reputational rather than financial, and it came much later, once Pilgrim was already growing fast. Through 2023 and into 2024, the brand had leaned hard into themed marketing built around exotic-sounding rituals and origin stories. By late 2024, that approach had started to draw “gimmick” criticism from more discerning consumers who wanted evidence rather than atmosphere, as per trade reporting on the company’s marketing shift (Inc42). Pilgrim had to rework its campaigns toward performance metrics and product trials rather than storytelling alone, a course correction inside a company that was, by every revenue measure, succeeding.

The turning point

The clearest before-and-after in Pilgrim’s numbers sits on either side of its first large institutional round. At the end of 2020, monthly revenue was around ₹20 lakh. By August 2023, it had reached roughly ₹26 crore a month, a jump of more than a hundred times in under three years, with the company running at an annualised revenue rate of about ₹300 crore (Forbes India, September 2023). That trajectory is what pulled in an oversubscribed $20 million Series B in September 2023, led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, with existing backers Fireside Ventures and the Narotam Sekhsaria Family Office joining in. The round marked the point where Pilgrim stopped being a pandemic-era D2C experiment and became a company investors were willing to back for a national retail push.

The money behind it

Pilgrim has raised money across four disclosed rounds since 2021, moving from a small Series A to a war chest meant to fund offline expansion:

• Series A, June 2021: ₹13 crore led by Fireside Ventures, with Rukam Capital and angel investors including the founders of boAt, NoBroker and Bewakoof.com (BW Disrupt, June 2021).
• Series B, September 2023: $20 million led by Vertex Ventures Southeast Asia and India, with Fireside Ventures and the Narotam Sekhsaria Family Office; the round followed roughly ₹26 crore in monthly revenue reported at the time (Forbes India, September 2023).
• Series B extension, 29 August 2024: $9 million (about ₹75 crore), split between Fireside Ventures (₹25 crore), Vertex Ventures (₹23 crore) and a group including the Narotam Sekhsaria Family Office, Mirabilis Investment Trust and NABS Vriddhi (₹27 crore combined) (Inc42, August 2024).
• Primary and secondary round, 19 March 2025: ₹200 crore led by the Narotam Sekhsaria Family Office, with Vertex Ventures SEA, Sattva Family Office, Mirabilis Investment Trust and new investors Vertex Growth Fund and Anicut Equity Continuum Fund, at a pre-money valuation of ₹3,000 crore (~$313 million converted at $1 ≈ ₹96.0; reported by some trackers at $345–350 million using the exchange rate at the time) (Vertex Ventures, Entrackr, March 2025).

Total disclosed funding across these rounds is over $50 million, from more than 50 investors, as per startup data tracker Tracxn. Fireside Ventures, an early and repeat backer, brought consumer-brand operating experience; Vertex Ventures, which led the Series B, backed the offline retail expansion that followed; and the Narotam Sekhsaria Family Office’s growing stake through three of the four rounds has given Pilgrim a patient, India-based anchor investor alongside the venture funds.

How it makes money

Pilgrim earns almost all its revenue by selling physical products with healthy sticker margins, then spending much of that margin back on acquiring the customer. What is easy to miss from the outside is how marketing-heavy and asset-light the model actually is:

• Money in: direct sales of skincare, haircare, makeup and fragrance products, priced as premium-but-accessible rather than luxury, across its own website, marketplaces and physical retail.
• Manufacturing: Pilgrim does not own factories; in FY25 it spent ₹137.2 crore on the purchase of traded goods from third-party manufacturers, up 57% year-on-year (Inc42, FY25 filings).
• Customer acquisition: advertising and marketing was Pilgrim’s single largest cost line at ₹234.5 crore in FY25, up 115% year-on-year and equal to about 48% of total expenditure, and close to 57% of that year’s operating revenue (Inc42, Startuppedia, FY25 filings).
• Team costs: employee benefit expenses rose 111% to ₹42.6 crore in FY25, alongside headcount growth to 438 employees as of 31 August 2025, up 59% year-on-year (Tracxn).
• Repeat business: roughly 40% of customers who buy from Pilgrim’s own website return at least three more times within 12 months, a stickiness the brand cites to argue that upfront acquisition cost pays back over time (Inc42).
• The part people get wrong: Pilgrim is often read as a “natural ingredients” brand riding organic word of mouth. Its cost structure says otherwise; marketing spend approaching half of costs and more than half of revenue in FY25 means growth is being bought, not simply earned, at least so far.

The numbers

Revenue has compounded fast since Pilgrim’s early years: operating revenue grew from about ₹16.9 crore in FY22 to ₹408.3 crore in FY25, a rise of roughly 24 times in three years (Inc42, Entrackr). Profit has moved in the opposite direction.

Two things stand out. Revenue growth accelerated between FY24 and FY25 rather than slowing, which is unusual at this scale. But the loss also widened faster than revenue in percentage terms in that same year, as marketing spend more than doubled to chase the growth (Inc42, Startuppedia, FY25 filings).

Where the money comes from

Pilgrim built its business online and still earns most of its money there, but the channel mix and geography have both shifted as the company has scaled:

• Channel split: online sales made up about 92% of revenue as of September 2023, falling to around 80% by March 2025 as offline retail grew to roughly 20% of revenue (Forbes India, September 2023; Business Standard, March 2025).
• Offline footprint: from 5 exclusive brand outlets and about 300 partner stores in September 2023 to 10 exclusive brand outlets and distribution reaching over 10,000 retail stores across India by March 2025, with 10 more owned outlets planned within the year (Forbes India; Business Standard, March 2025).
• Geography: roughly half of revenue comes from tier I cities, with the remainder split across tier II and III markets, as the brand pushes deeper into smaller towns through its retail partners (Inc42).
• Category momentum: makeup, a newer category for Pilgrim, produced a standout moment in 2025 when its lip products — a matte bullet lipstick, a liquid lipstick and a glitter lipstick — sold more than 500,000 units in seven months and reportedly sold out twice within six months, on a campaign built around more than 1,000 influencers (company statement via PR Newswire, June 2025).
• The surprise: a brand that made its name on skincare storytelling is now finding some of its fastest, most visible growth in colour cosmetics, a category it entered later than skincare and haircare.

The risks

• Marketing dependency: advertising spend of ₹234.5 crore in FY25 was equal to close to 57% of that year’s operating revenue and the single biggest driver of the wider net loss; if Pilgrim ever pulls back on spend to protect margins, revenue growth built substantially on paid acquisition is likely to slow (Inc42, Startuppedia, FY25 filings).
• Widening losses funded by repeat capital raises: net loss nearly tripled to ₹68.7 crore in FY25 from ₹26.3 crore in FY24, even as the company raised money across four rounds in under four years, the most recent of which included a secondary component letting some existing investors sell shares rather than only inject fresh capital, a structure that can signal early investors taking some returns rather than waiting for a listing (Vertex Ventures, Entrackr, March 2025).
• Crowded, well-funded category: Pilgrim competes with Mamaearth on a natural, toxin-free pitch, with Plum on vegan and efficacy-led positioning, and with WOW Skin Science on mass-market affordability, all reaching the same digital shelf through the same marketplaces; Pilgrim’s own late-2024 pivot away from theme-heavy marketing after “gimmick” criticism suggests the origin-story positioning was not, on its own, a durable moat.

The takeaway

Pilgrim’s arc so far argues that a good origin story can carry a beauty brand from zero to a few hundred crore in revenue, but it cannot carry the brand past the point where customers start asking for proof rather than atmosphere. The company grew revenue roughly 24 times in three years by selling a place-of-origin story hard through paid media, and that worked until late 2024, when the same customers who had been drawn in by rituals and imported ingredient science began calling the marketing a gimmick. Pilgrim’s response, a shift toward trials and measurable performance claims, is the more transferable lesson here: a story earns the first purchase, but only evidence earns the third one, and a company that wants repeat buyers eventually has to sell facts, not just a feeling of discovery.

Frequently asked questions

What does Pilgrim sell?

Pilgrim sells skincare, haircare, makeup and fragrance products positioned around beauty rituals and ingredients tied to specific countries, such as Korean vinotherapy and French grape-seed formulations, sold online and through a growing offline retail network in India.

Who founded Pilgrim and when?

Pilgrim was founded in 2019 by Anurag Kedia and Gagandeep Makker, both IIT Bombay alumni. Kedia had earlier built and exited a spa and salon chain, and the brand’s website went live in May 2020.

How much funding has Pilgrim raised and at what valuation?

Pilgrim has raised over $50 million across four disclosed rounds since 2021, most recently ₹200 crore in March 2025 at a pre-money valuation of ₹3,000 crore (about $313 million), led by the Narotam Sekhsaria Family Office with Vertex Ventures SEA and others.

Is Pilgrim profitable?

No. Pilgrim’s net loss widened to ₹68.7 crore in FY25 from ₹26.3 crore in FY24, even as operating revenue more than doubled to ₹408.3 crore, largely because marketing spend grew even faster than sales.

How does Pilgrim split between online and offline sales?

Online remains the larger channel, but its share has fallen from about 92% of revenue in September 2023 to around 80% by March 2025, as Pilgrim expanded its exclusive brand outlets and partner retail network to roughly 20% of revenue.

Sources

Figures are as of September 2026. Currency converted at $1 ≈ ₹96.0 as of 18 September 2026 (Trading Economics).

• Forbes India, “D2C beauty and personal care brand Pilgrim raises $20 million”, September 2023
• Vertex Ventures SEA, “D2C beauty brand Pilgrim raises 200 crore in a mix of primary, secondary funding”, March 2025
• Business Standard, “Pilgrim secures Rs 200 cr in funding at Rs 3,000 cr pre-money valuation”, March 2025
• Entrackr, “D2C brand Pilgrim raises Rs 200 Cr in primary and secondary funding”, March 2025
• Inc42, “Pilgrim Crosses INR 400 Cr Revenue Mark In FY25”, 2025
• Inc42, “Pilgrim’s 24x Growth To ₹400 Cr Revenue And The Offline Retail Playbook Behind It”, 2025
• Startuppedia, “IIT-IIM Alumni-Founded D2C Brand Pilgrim Hits Rs 417 Crore Revenue in FY25; Loss Widens to Rs 69 Crore”, 2025
• Inc42, “D2C Brand Pilgrim Raises $9 Mn From Fireside, Vertex Ventures, Others”, August 2024
• BW Disrupt, “Pilgrim Raises INR 13 Crore In Series A From Fireside Ventures, Others”, June 2021
• Rukam Capital, Pilgrim brand profile
• Tracxn, Pilgrim company profile (funding and headcount data)
• PR Newswire / Business Standard (company statement), “Sold Out Twice in 6 Months: Pilgrim’s Viral Lipstick Launch Breaks the Internet”, June 2025

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