Beauty-tech startup Kult has raised $20 million (over ₹170 crore) in Series A funding, led by Dr. Payal Kanodia and Aishwarya Bansal from the M3M Family Office. Venture Catalysts also participated in the round.
Founded by Karishma Singh and Ruchika Pallavi, Kult uses AI to offer personalised skincare and beauty recommendations. The platform showcases products on a range of Indian skin tones, helping users find what works best for them. With insights from over 300 global beauty experts, Kult combines tech with expert advice to simplify beauty shopping.
With fresh capital in hand, Kult plans to onboard over 700 premium handpicked global products and scale its operations to process more than 10,000 orders per day by the end of 2025. The brand also intends to expand its team to over 200 professionals across sourcing, engineering, product, and user experience.
“We’ve built Kult to be a technology-first solution that makes beauty easier to navigate and more inclusive for Indian users. This is about simplifying discovery through personalisation — because beauty should work for you, not the other way around,” said the founders.
Dr. Payal Kanodia said, “Kult’s data-driven, customer-first, tech-led model signals the next evolution in the online beauty space—where deep personalisation and human insight converge to deliver instant, precise solutions. The strong traction from repeat users in this early stage validates the timing and necessity of launching such a sharply focused, super-niche platform.”
“Kult is uniquely positioned at the intersection of beauty and technology. What drew me in was the clarity of purpose — to create a platform that doesn’t just sell products, but helps consumers make informed, confident choices”, added Aishwarya Bansal.
The Kult app launched in New Delhi, is a next-generation, app-first beauty platform focused on delivering a highly personalised and tech-enabled shopping experience. The platform helps consumers navigate beauty through features like intelligent curation, immersive technology, and a user-first design.
