Backed by a USD 20 million investment, Kult Beauty is betting on AI-driven personalisation, to capture a larger share of India’s booming online beauty market, reveals Karishma Singh, CEO & Co-founder in an exclusive conversation
The ecommerce beauty landscape has evolved rapidly. How do you see the current phase of growth?
The first phase of ecommerce was about getting customers comfortable with buying beauty online. Today, that comfort has translated into a much stronger appetite for consumption, especially with so many new brands entering the market. On our app, repeat purchases are very high, and that’s been a key driver of revenue for us. Beyond assortment and international brands, our biggest differentiator is helping customers make informed decisions. Traditional ecommerce often overwhelms users with clutter, whereas our AI-driven personalisation ensures relevance, enabling us to deliver sales velocity even for new or lesser-known brands.
You recently secured a USD 20 million investment. What sales and revenue targets have you set over the next 12–18 months?
By March 2026, we are targeting 10,000 orders per day while maintaining an AOV (average order value) of Rs 3,000. The beauty market itself is still growing at around 30 per cent year-on-year, even after more than a decade of maturity. At our scale, achieving this milestone is about getting the fundamentals right and strengthening our assortment strategy.
Personalisation and AI are reshaping consumer behaviour. How has this played out on the Kult Beauty platform?
Technology is more of an enabler in the background, but its impact is visible in customer behaviour. Unlike traditional platforms that bombard users with endless banners, our app feels curated and relevant. The more a consumer engages, the more accurate and contextual their experience becomes. This builds trust and helps new brands scale faster with us, because customers are confident in their choices.
Which categories are driving the fastest growth in sales?
With an AOV of around Rs 3,000 and two units per order, we are clearly in the mid-to-premium and premium segments. This trend is industry-wide. Consumers are consistently trading up for better experiences and results. So while our focus has been premium-first, it aligns with the overall market shift.
How do you see India’s beauty-tech market evolving over the next three years, and what position is Kult Beauty aiming for?
Our ambition is to offer a hyper-personalised platform. To put it into perspective, while large ecommerce players talk about 30 consumer personas, in skincare alone we map over 96,000. That’s the level of depth AI allows us to achieve. Globally, we’re seeing new-age, AI-driven players disrupt legacy platforms, and India will follow the same trajectory. In three years, we are confident Kult Beauty will be among the top three online players in the category.
Your app has been described as clean and easy to navigate compared to other platforms. What makes the app-only approach work for you?
Being app-only means being mobile-first. Everything—from vertical layouts to minimal text—is optimised for the user experience. Many legacy players, who began in the desktop era, carry website-heavy features into mobile, which feels cluttered. For us, the app is intelligent, personalised, and seamless, which makes the shopping journey intuitive and engaging.
