Why We Invested in Hair Originals

A D2C Brand providing a one-stop shop for all of your hair extensions needs

What is Hair Originals?

Hair Originals is a D2C brand in the human hair extensions space. The company is on a mission to build India’s most trusted and premium brand in this space and slowly expand its global footprints as well. The company supplies primarily in India and US apart from and 21 other countries across Europe and Africa.

Jitendra Sharma (Founder) has 11 years’ experience in leadership roles at Total. He has co-founded a Logistics Venture before. Piyush Wadhwani (Co-founder and CPO) has a Bachelor’s degree from IITM. Prior experience is with HUL, Olam International

Why this Industry ?

Human hair extensions are made from human hair due to their longer lifespan and can be styled with hair dryers. The rising prevalence of hair disorders is expected to enhance its demand. Increase in disposable income and change in living standards of the middle-class population is a key driver for growth in demand for hair extensions. Currently the global human hair market is pegged at $3.71B which is expected to grow at a CAGR of 9.44% to $7.63B by 2029. Within India the growth is coming not just from tier-1 cities but also from tier-2/3 cities due to increasing awareness amongst consumers

Why We Invested? 

Rising demand for self-grooming products and increasing disposable income is propelling the growth of hair extensions globally and in India, in particular. Indians are becoming more fashion aware whereas hair loss is becoming more prevalent due to stressful modern lifestyle and pollution. In African-Americans and African women hair loss is a natural phenomenon and recently global consumers have become more receptive to Indian hair and India is the only ethical source of human hair.

Consumers of Hair Originals can buy DIY products as well as permanent extensions which require to be installed at salons. It is disrupting the value chain where traditionally consumers approach salons and buy the products advised by them to a D2C model where consumers buy the product on HO’s site directly and then decide a HO’s partner salon to get the product installed. They will follow the approach of opening experience centres to increase brand awareness, have a few in metros already 

During customer feedback calls we learnt that HO is the first ever hair extensions brand that they have used, thus HO is creating the market. Given the founders' experience, interesting category, large market gap, and positive numbers over the past months, we decided to partner with them in their journey.

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