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Jagpreet
18 July, 2024
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“To be successful, you really need to be irrationally passionate!” – Vinneta Singh
From living in a tiny house in Mumbai to building a multi-million dollar makeup brand, this woman pioneered entrepreneurship with sheer determination and passion for her work. She is the CEO and co-founder of Sugar Cosmetics and has been an investor/judge on a business reality show “Shark Tank India”. Yes! You guessed it right, it’s Vinneta Singh, the beauty with brains who launched her own line of makeup products especially to cater to young women and empower them with confidence and self-expression.
Vineeta Singh was born in 1983 in Anand Gujrat. She completed her schooling at Delhi Public School, in 2001. After that, she enrolled in IIT Madras to earn a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering. She graduated in 2005 and obtained her MBA from IIM Ahmedabain 2007. Also, Vineeta Singh achieved 2 Gold and 2 Silver medals for IIT Madras across 4 Inter IIT Sports Meets that she attended from 2001 to 2005.
Her career path was not a cakewalk but her zeal to become the best in her profession propelled her through every obstacle. During her MBA days, in 2006 she worked as a summer intern at Deutsche Bank; and after earning an MBA degree she was offered a prestigious job position. However, Vineeta believed in her passion for becoming a successful businesswoman and rejected the job worth 1 crore annual salary. At the age of 23, she started her own lingerie business. However, she lacked the capital to run the business smoothly. Even the investors did not support her idea, as they found her too young and inexperienced to stand out in such a competitive market.
Although she ran the business on Bootstrap for 5 years, she couldn’t sustain it due to insufficient funding. It is hard to believe that the girl who was offered a job position of annual worth 1 crore was living on a monthly salary of 10 thousand from her business turnover.
As a businesswoman Vineeta understood that the biggest change that was going to dominate the Indian market for the next 20 years was the demand for personal care and makeup products catering to young women. But unfortunately at that time, the market was captured by big cosmetic-giants and there was no space for newbies. Building the company to a top premium brand was not easy, especially when e-commerce businesses were not at all favoured by consumers.
In 2012, Vineeta Singh partnered with her husband Kaushik Mukherjee to build the premium cosmetic brand “Sugar”. She wanted ‘Sugar” to be the inspiration for younger women which focused on delivering accessible and inexpensive beauty products ideal to match Indian skin tones. More than anything like branding, marketing and packaging, these beauty products spoke for themselves. With a cruelty-free collection that is strong in design and top-class quality, these products quickly became the go-to option and one of the top preferences of young Indian women.
Sugar cosmetics has a cult following among millennials that grew over time mostly with word-of-mouth buzz and social media acclaim. The company today is one among the A-listed eCommerce brands that have a turnover of INR 4,000 crore.
Today, just like other grown startups such as WOW Skin, Plum, and Nykaa; Sugar has established a strong foothold in the Indian market. It is one of the globally recognised eCommerce brands that is dedicated to empowering women and offering a diverse range of choices to cater to individual needs and preferences.
Vineeta Singh, the CEO of the digital beauty brand “Sugar” also grabbed media attention in 2022 when she became the judge on the reality TV show “Shark Tank” designed to cater to aspiring and budding entrepreneurs. The show mainly aims to provide investment and mentorship to businessmen who have fresh and innovative startup business ideas.
On the show, the budding investors pitched their product ideas to a panel of successful investors in hopes of getting their business ideas taken off financially and gaining the necessary mentorship and insights to scale their ventures successfully. Vineeta was one of the investors on the judges’ panel who invested in many invaluable business ideas and helped many startups achieve their potential.
Vineeta Singh has received many awards and recognitions throughout her life, either due to her personal achievements or in recognition of Sugar cosmetics.
Some of the highlighted awards achieved by Vineeta are as follows:
Retail Start-Up of the Year 2019 by Entrepreneur
Most Promising Brand of The Year 2019 by The Economic Times
40 Under Forty 2020 by The Economic Times
40 under 40 2021 by Fortune India
Most Trusted Brand of India 2021 by CNBC TV18
Most Admired Retailer Award 2021 by IMAGES
W-Power 2021 by Forbes India
40 under 40 2021 by BW Disrupt
Young Global Leaders 2022 by World Economic Forum
MPW 2022 by Business Today
Women Achievers Day Award 2023 by DNA India
MPW 2023 by Business Today
Fun Fact: Vineeta is an ultramarathon runner and has participated in 20 marathons, ultramarathons, and 12-half marathons. Moreover, in the 2018 Mumbai Marathon, she ran a total of 21km in 2:42:51 secs while she was 6 months pregnant.
Vineeta Singh, the Co-founder and CEO of Sugar Cosmetics is a renowned figure in the Indian beauty industry. From a startup enthusiast,she grew into a successful entrepreneur, contributing to her impressive net worth. The amazing businesswoman is known for her long-term visions, fresh approach, strategic business acumen, and relentless determination to achieve business success. Thenet worth of Vineeta Singh stands at around INR 300 crore (approx. 40 million US Dollars).
Due to her remarkable entrepreneurial success, Vineeta Singh became the face of many popular brands and magazine covers such as Forbes India, Business Today, and Businessworld. In 2021, this young entrepreneur was even listed as one of the women achievers in Forbes India’s W-Power list. She is the beacon of light to many women who aspire to launch their own companies and become successful entrepreneurs.
She is an exemplary businesswoman who has set a powerful example of achieving success with resilience, vision and hard work. She showed us how to turn lemons into lemonades. Her role as a businesswoman, mentor and investor has not only inspired countless budding entrepreneurs but has also instilled a fighting spirit in them to achieve bigger and better in the startup ecosystem.
