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Hyphen: How Kriti Sanon Built a ₹400 Cr Skincare Brand in Just Two Years
Hyphen is an Indian D2C skincare brand launched in July 2023 by Bollywood actor Kriti Sanon in partnership with PEP Technologies, the team behind mCaffeine. The brand was built around a simple idea: combine multiple effective skincare ingredients into simplified, affordable products while bringing together nature and science.
Within its first year, Hyphen crossed a ₹100 crore annual run rate, and by its second anniversary, the brand reported ₹400 crore in gross sales or annualised revenue. Its customer base also grew from around 1 million to 4 million consumers, while the brand reported a 60% repeat-purchase rate.
Key Highlights
- Hyphen was launched in July 2023 by Kriti Sanon and the founding team of PEP Technologies.
- Kriti Sanon joined as Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer.
- The brand focuses on affordable, science-backed skincare products.
- Hyphen crossed a ₹100 crore annual run rate within its first year.
- The brand reported ₹400 crore in gross sales or ARR within two years.
- Its customer base grew from approximately 1 million to 4 million consumers.
- Hyphen reported a 60% repeat-purchase rate.
- The brand expanded its reach to more than 19,000 PIN codes across India.
- PEP Technologies invested around ₹30 crore to build the brand during its initial phase.
- Hyphen reported ₹50.4 crore in operating revenue in FY25.
- The company recorded a consolidated net loss of ₹12.9 crore in FY25 according to the figures provided for the brand.
- Hyphen's strategy combines celebrity influence with an experienced D2C operating team.
Who Founded Hyphen?
Hyphen was co-founded by Bollywood actor Kriti Sanon and the founding team of PEP Technologies, the company behind mCaffeine.
The founding team includes
- Kriti Sanon — Co-Founder & Chief Customer Officer
- Tarun Sharma — Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer
- Vaishali Gupta — Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer
- Vikas Lachhwani — Co-Founder & Chief Innovation Officer
- Saurabh Singhal — Co-Founder & Chief Supply Officer
- Mohit Jain — Co-Founder & Head of Finance
The combination gave Hyphen two important advantages from the beginning: Kriti Sanon's celebrity reach and consumer understanding, along with the operating experience of a team that had already built and scaled a successful D2C brand.
Kriti Sanon — Co-Founder & Chief Customer Officer
Kriti Sanon is one of India's leading Bollywood actors and a major consumer-facing personality.
Her role at Hyphen goes beyond being the face of the brand.
As Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer, Kriti has been involved in product ideation, customer feedback, formulation discussions, design and marketing direction.
Her interest in skincare also played an important role in the brand's origin.
Rather than simply attaching her name to an existing beauty company, she worked with the team to build a skincare brand around products and problems she personally understood.
Kriti's large social-media following also provided Hyphen with a significant initial distribution and awareness advantage.
Tarun Sharma — Co-Founder & CEO
Tarun Sharma is an entrepreneur and one of the key operators behind PEP Technologies.
He was part of the team that built mCaffeine and brought significant experience in creating and scaling D2C consumer businesses.
At Hyphen, Tarun serves as Co-Founder and CEO and is responsible for the broader business strategy, execution and scaling of the company.
Vaishali Gupta — Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer
Vaishali Gupta is a key member of the PEP Technologies founding team.
At Hyphen, she leads growth and plays an important role in marketing, distribution and consumer acquisition.
Her previous experience with mCaffeine helped Hyphen avoid many of the early operational challenges that a completely new D2C company typically faces.
Vikas Lachhwani — Co-Founder & Chief Innovation Officer
Vikas Lachhwani is another founding member of the PEP Technologies team.
At Hyphen, he works on innovation and product development.
His role is particularly relevant to Hyphen's positioning around science-backed formulations and the combination of multiple active ingredients in individual products.
Saurabh Singhal — Co-Founder & Chief Supply Officer
Saurabh Singhal is responsible for supply-side operations and brings experience from the mCaffeine ecosystem.
His expertise has helped Hyphen build its supply chain and distribution infrastructure while scaling rapidly across India.
Mohit Jain — Co-Founder & Head of Finance
Mohit Jain is part of Hyphen's founding team and handles finance.
His experience within the PEP Technologies ecosystem provides the company with financial and operational expertise required to manage rapid D2C growth.
What Does Hyphen Do?
Hyphen is a D2C skincare brand focused on creating simplified skincare products using multiple active ingredients.
The brand's philosophy is based on "hyphenating" different ingredients and benefits into a single product.
Instead of forcing consumers to purchase several different products for different ingredients, Hyphen aims to combine multiple ingredients into convenient formulations.
Its product philosophy brings together
- Nature
- Science
- Multiple active ingredients
- Affordable pricing
- Simplified skincare
- Consumer-focused formulations
The brand focuses on skincare concerns rather than simply selling individual ingredients.
What Products Does Hyphen Sell?
Hyphen's product portfolio includes several categories of skincare products.
These include
- Cleansers
- Moisturisers
- Serums
- Sunscreens
- Lip care
- Face creams
- Skincare treatments
- Other daily skincare products
The brand's products use ingredients such as niacinamide, peptides and hyaluronic acid, among other active ingredients.
One of the brand's notable product concepts is combining multiple skincare benefits into one product instead of requiring consumers to build complicated multi-step routines.
The name Hyphen comes from the concept of joining multiple things together.
The brand uses the idea of a hyphen to represent the combination of different skincare ingredients and benefits.
The underlying philosophy is
Nature + Science
Ingredient + Ingredient
Problem + Solution
This positioning allows the brand to communicate its central proposition of combining multiple active ingredients into simplified skincare products.
How Did Hyphen Start?
Hyphen was launched on July 27, 2023.
The idea emerged from Kriti Sanon's interest in skincare and her desire to build a consumer brand in the beauty category.
Instead of building the company alone, Kriti partnered with PEP Technologies, the team that had already created mCaffeine.
This was a strategic decision.
The PEP team already understood
- D2C distribution
- Supply chains
- Digital marketing
- Product development
- Consumer acquisition
- Ecommerce
- Influencer marketing
- Brand building
This allowed Hyphen to start with an experienced operating backbone rather than building every capability from zero.
Hyphen's Initial Investment
PEP Technologies invested approximately ₹30 crore into building Hyphen during its initial phase.
The investment was used across areas such as
- Supply chain
- Logistics
- Research and development
- Digital marketing
- Influencer partnerships
- Product development
- Brand building
- Consumer acquisition
The initial capital gave Hyphen the ability to build infrastructure and launch aggressively in a highly competitive skincare market.
Hyphen's Business Model
Hyphen operates primarily as a direct-to-consumer beauty and skincare company.
Its business model combines
- D2C ecommerce
- Online marketplaces
- Quick commerce
- Digital marketing
- Influencer marketing
- Celebrity-led brand building
- Product innovation
- Repeat purchases
- Data-driven consumer insights
The brand's distribution has expanded beyond its own website to ecommerce and quick-commerce platforms.
This creates a multi-channel model rather than relying entirely on one customer-acquisition channel.
Hyphen's Distribution Strategy
One of Hyphen's major strengths has been its digital-first distribution strategy.
The brand initially focused heavily on its D2C platform and digital channels.
It later expanded across major ecommerce and quick-commerce platforms.
Its distribution network has reached more than 19,000 PIN codes across India.
This broad geographic reach helped Hyphen expand beyond India's largest metropolitan markets and reach consumers across Tier-II and Tier-III cities as well.
Hyphen Revenue Growth
Hyphen's revenue growth has been one of the most impressive aspects of its journey.
The brand crossed a ₹100 crore annual run rate within its first year.
According to reported financial figures, Hyphen recorded
- FY24 operating revenue: ₹7.6 crore
- FY25 operating revenue: ₹50.4 crore
At the same time, the brand reported significantly higher gross-sales or annualised revenue milestones as it scaled.
Within two years of launch, Hyphen reported reaching approximately ₹400 crore in gross sales or annual recurring revenue.
This distinction is important because the ₹400 crore figure refers to a gross-sales or ARR milestone, while the audited operating-revenue figures are significantly different.
Hyphen's Customer Growth
Hyphen has also experienced rapid consumer growth.
The brand reported growing its customer base from approximately
1 million customers → 4 million customers
This represents a fourfold increase in its consumer base within a year.
The company also reported a 60% repeat-purchase rate.
A high repeat rate is particularly important in skincare because it indicates that customers are returning to purchase products as part of their ongoing skincare routines.
Hyphen's Market Reach
Hyphen has expanded its distribution across more than 19,000 PIN codes in India.
This demonstrates the brand's ability to reach consumers outside major metropolitan markets.
The company's growth strategy has therefore focused not only on celebrity-driven awareness but also on broad distribution and accessibility.
Hyphen's Product Philosophy
Hyphen's core product philosophy is based on simplifying skincare.
Modern skincare consumers are often exposed to dozens of individual ingredients and products.
Hyphen attempts to reduce this complexity by combining multiple ingredients into single formulations.
The brand's formulations may combine ingredients such as
- Niacinamide
- Hyaluronic acid
- Peptides
- Other active skincare ingredients
The objective is to provide multiple benefits through simplified products.
This positioning allows Hyphen to sit between mass-market skincare and highly premium or clinical skincare products.
Why Has Hyphen Grown So Quickly?
Hyphen's growth cannot be explained by celebrity influence alone.
The company combines several growth engines.
Celebrity Distribution
Kriti Sanon brought significant visibility and consumer attention to the brand from day one.
Operational Expertise
The PEP Technologies team had already built mCaffeine and understood the D2C operating model.
Strong Product Positioning
Hyphen created a simple proposition around combining multiple ingredients and skincare benefits.
Digital-First Marketing
The brand uses social media, influencers, digital advertising and content to reach consumers.
Wide Distribution
The company expanded across ecommerce, quick commerce and its own D2C platform.
Repeat Purchases
The reported 60% repeat-purchase rate provides an important retention engine for the business.
Hyphen's Biggest Achievements
₹100 Crore Annual Run Rate
Hyphen crossed a ₹100 crore annual run rate within its first year.
₹400 Crore Milestone
The brand reported approximately ₹400 crore in gross sales or ARR within two years.
4 Million Consumers
The consumer base grew from approximately 1 million to 4 million.
60% Repeat Purchase
The company reported a 60% repeat-purchase rate.
19,000+ PIN Codes
Hyphen expanded its reach across more than 19,000 PIN codes in India.
Strong D2C Presence
The company built a multi-channel distribution strategy across its own website, ecommerce and quick-commerce platforms.
Hyphen's Financial Challenges
Rapid growth also comes with financial pressure.
Although Hyphen scaled its revenue quickly, the company faced significant expenses associated with customer acquisition and marketing.
Marketing and promotional spending represented a major cost component during the scaling phase.
The company reported a net loss of approximately ₹12.9 crore in FY25 in the figures provided for the business.
This illustrates an important startup lesson
High revenue growth does not automatically mean high profitability.
D2C brands often have to spend heavily on
- Customer acquisition
- Influencer marketing
- Discounts
- Product development
- Inventory
- Logistics
- Distribution
- Brand awareness
The challenge is to eventually convert scale and customer retention into sustainable profitability.
Hyphen's Biggest Challenges
Intense Competition
The Indian beauty and personal-care market is highly competitive.
Hyphen competes with established D2C brands, traditional FMCG companies, celebrity-backed brands and digital-first beauty companies.
Customer Acquisition Costs
D2C brands often depend heavily on paid digital marketing and influencers.
As competition increases, customer acquisition can become more expensive.
Celebrity Dependence
Although Kriti Sanon's involvement provides a major advantage, the long-term challenge is to ensure that consumers remain loyal to the brand itself rather than only to the celebrity.
Profitability
Rapid expansion can put pressure on margins.
Hyphen must continue improving unit economics while maintaining growth.
Product Differentiation
The skincare market has thousands of products and increasingly sophisticated consumers.
The company must continue developing products that are meaningfully differentiated.
Operational Complexity
Scaling from a startup to a multi-million-customer consumer brand requires strong supply-chain, inventory, technology and customer-support systems.
Hyphen vs Traditional Celebrity Brands
Hyphen's model is different from a simple celebrity endorsement.
In a traditional celebrity endorsement model
Celebrity → Promotes Existing Product
In Hyphen's model
Celebrity + D2C Operators → Build Brand Together
Kriti Sanon is involved in product ideation, customer feedback and brand direction, while the PEP Technologies team contributes operational, growth, supply-chain and financial expertise.
This creates a more integrated founder structure.
Why Hyphen Is Different From a Typical Celebrity Startup
Many celebrity-backed brands rely heavily on the celebrity's audience for initial traction.
Hyphen combines celebrity reach with an experienced D2C operating system.
The PEP Technologies team had already learned how to build a consumer brand through mCaffeine.
This meant Hyphen did not have to start by figuring out
- Supply chains
- Ecommerce operations
- Performance marketing
- Influencer marketing
- Product development
- Distribution
- Customer acquisition
The team could focus on applying an existing operating playbook to a new category.
What Can Startups Learn From Hyphen?
Build With Experienced Operators
A strong founding team can dramatically reduce execution time.
Use Distribution as an Advantage
A great product is not enough. Startups need a strong distribution engine.
Build a Clear Product Proposition
Hyphen's "multiple ingredients in one product" positioning makes the concept easy for consumers to understand.
Turn Celebrity Reach Into Brand Equity
Celebrity influence can create awareness, but long-term success requires product quality, repeat purchases and consumer trust.
Focus on Repeat Purchases
For consumer brands, retention can be as important as acquisition.
Scale Infrastructure Early
Hyphen benefited from having supply-chain and operational capabilities from the beginning.
Celebrity + Execution: The Hyphen Model
The most interesting lesson from Hyphen is not simply that a celebrity launched a skincare brand.
It is that the company combined two different strengths.
Kriti Sanon brought
- Brand awareness
- Consumer understanding
- Cultural relevance
- Social-media reach
- Product insights
- Marketing visibility
PEP Technologies brought
- D2C expertise
- Supply-chain infrastructure
- Product development
- Growth marketing
- Financial management
- Operational experience
Together, these capabilities created a powerful combination.
The model can be summarised as
Celebrity Reach + Consumer Insight + D2C Infrastructure + Product Innovation = Hyphen
The Future of Hyphen
Hyphen has already demonstrated rapid growth in India's skincare market.
The next challenge is maintaining that growth while improving profitability, strengthening customer loyalty and building a brand that can stand independently from celebrity influence.
The company has also indicated ambitions to continue expanding its product portfolio and scale the business significantly.
The long-term opportunity lies in building Hyphen into a major Indian beauty and personal-care company rather than simply a successful celebrity skincare launch.
Summary Takeaway
💡 **Key Takeaway:** Hyphen's success shows what can happen when celebrity influence is combined with experienced D2C operators, strong distribution and product-focused execution.
Founded in 2023 by Kriti Sanon and the PEP Technologies team behind mCaffeine, Hyphen crossed a ₹100 crore annual run rate within its first year and reported approximately ₹400 crore in gross sales or ARR within two years. The brand also grew from around 1 million to 4 million consumers and reported a 60% repeat-purchase rate.
The bigger lesson is simple
**Celebrity attention can launch a brand, but product quality, distribution, consumer retention and execution are what can turn that attention into a scalable business.**
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