14-05-2025
Meet The 30 Under 30 Asia Retail & Ecommerce Entrepreneurs Growing Local Brands
Forbes Asia
Looking for an India-made product to pamper her curly hair led Anshita Mehrotra to create Fix My Curls, a niche haircare brand that she says pulled in an estimated $2.8 million revenue for the fiscal year ended March.
Melhotra is one of the entrepreneurs on this year's Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia: Retail & Ecommerce list who are drawing inspiration from first-hand experiences to create a business.
The roots of the Gurgaon-based brand, which sells a range of shampoos, conditioners and gels, go back to early 2019, when Mehrotra took a semester off from media studies in Canada and returned home. When she ran out of her favorite frizz-control cream that wasn't available locally, her mother, founder of Indian skincare firm Fixderma, suggested she should concoct her own. Mehrotra spent the next few months working with Fixderma's team to create five products for the curly-haired. A year later, the business was hived off into a separate company, in which she owns a 68% stake. Her mother, who invested $200,000 in the venture, is the second-biggest shareholder.
Forbes Asia
Today Fix My Curls says it's delivered over 500,000 orders so far across ten countries, sold directly from its website as well as through Amazon, beauty retailer Nykaa and others. 'There's crazy potential in this business,' says Mehrotra.
Investors have caught on. In April 2024, she secured a $100,000 grant for female founders from VC firm Peak XV and a month later raised $910,000 in a seed round led by Amazon Sambhav Venture Fund (ASVF) at a $6.8 million valuation, per data platform Traxcn. 'She had great customer insights in the space and was focused on building a large brand,' says Mayank Nandwani, a principal at ASVF. 'There is a long way to go, but I believe she's executing well and in the right direction.'
'There's crazy potential in this business'
In Australia, Annabel Hay turned a wardrobe malfunction at a Sydney nightclub in 2016 into a multimillion-dollar business. Launched in 2022, Clutch Glue is a liquid alternative to fashion tape that Hay spent four years developing. The bootstrapped company uses a patented adhesive that is sweat-resistant but water soluble and does not seep into fabrics. In November 2024, the company received A$1.4 million ($900,000) in pre-seed funding led by Blackbird. In December, Hay quit her job at real estate firm JLL to run her company full time.
Going Local
Entrepreneurs on the list are also building niche brands and focusing on capturing their local markets.
Sisters Raena and Rahee Ambani launched Mumbai-based activewear company Terractive in 2023, offering innovative sportswear that is both cooling and anti-odor. Last December, Terractive raised 80 million rupees (about $950,000) in a pre-series A funding round led by Fireside Ventures and DeVC. The funds will be used develop new products and fabrics, according to the startup.
Jaivardhan Agarwal, cofounder of Gardens of India.
Jaivardhan Agarwal' s Gardens of India, a premium brand of teas and spices was founded in 2019. The company supplies to hotels including the Mayfair Hotels & Resorts chain and the Courtyard by Marriott Siliguri. Through its web portal, Gardens of India also sells a variety of teas, spices, tableware and gift sets direct to customers both in India and overseas.
Ecommerce is getting a revamp with this year's entrepreneurs, who aim to improve the experience and efficiency of online shopping.
Sydney-based childhood friends Alexis Aaron and Jodine Wolman cofounded Sortd in 2020 to make online shopping more efficient. The shopping assistant app allows users to track items from any online store, compare options, be notified when the items are on sale and see what others are buying . Sortd went through Antler Australia's accelerator program and raised A$1.26 million ($800,000) in pre-seed funding backed by Antler and private investors including ELMO Software's former chief commercial officer Darryl Garber.
lexis Aaron and Jodine Wolman, cofounders or Sortd.
In Japan, Hikaru Ito founded Stract in 2017. The company is the developer and operator of the Plug shopping assistant app. An extension for Apple's Safari browser, Plug scans the internet for cashback offers, coupons and the cheapest pricing point for products users want to buy. Tokyo-based Stract says Plug had been downloaded over 1.5 million times as of January 2024. The company has thus far raised 1.4 billion yen ($9.7 million) in funding from investors including Mitsubishi UFJ Capital, New Commerce Ventures and SMBC Venture Capital.
–Additional reporting by Anuradha Raghunathan
Read our complete Retail & Ecommerce list here – and be sure to check out our full Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia 2025 coverage here.
