Talks with Saurabh Agrawal
Talks with Saurabh Agrawal
Aishvarya Murali: The Missing Middle in Kids' Personal Care
Aishvarya Murali: The Missing Middle in Kids' Personal Care
Aishvarya Murali: The Missing Middle in Kids' Personal Care
Aishvarya Murali built a brand around a gap most parents feel but few brands had named: children who have outgrown baby products but whose skin is not ready for adult formulations.
Aishvarya is the Co-Founder of Tuco Kids, the Bengaluru-based personal care brand for children aged 3 to 13. The range spans hair care, body wash, soaps, face creams, sunscreens, mosquito repellents, kids' makeup, deodorants, and gift kits, all packaged in reclaimed plastic. Tuco has grown roughly 10x in a year, served over 200,000 parents, and sells through its own D2C platform alongside Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa, Myntra, FirstCry, Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart. The company raised a $4 million Series A led by RTP Global, with Fireside Ventures and Whiteboard Capital participating.
Aishvarya Murali built a brand around a gap most parents feel but few brands had named: children who have outgrown baby products but whose skin is not ready for adult formulations.
Aishvarya is the Co-Founder of Tuco Kids, the Bengaluru-based personal care brand for children aged 3 to 13. The range spans hair care, body wash, soaps, face creams, sunscreens, mosquito repellents, kids' makeup, deodorants, and gift kits, all packaged in reclaimed plastic. Tuco has grown roughly 10x in a year, served over 200,000 parents, and sells through its own D2C platform alongside Amazon, Flipkart, Nykaa, Myntra, FirstCry, Blinkit, Zepto, and Instamart. The company raised a $4 million Series A led by RTP Global, with Fireside Ventures and Whiteboard Capital participating.
Background – education and career
Aishvarya brings over two decades of brand and marketing experience to a category most FMCG companies had ignored. She has worked at Unilever, Ola, ZestMoney, and Furlenco, building consumer brands before turning that expertise toward children's personal care. She was joined by co-founder Chanakya Gupta, formerly of Curefit and Flipkart, who leads growth and operations.
3 key takeaways from the episode
Category creation is harder than brand building. Tuco had to convince parents a problem existed before it could sell a solution.
Indian supermarkets never had a kids' personal care aisle. That absence is the entire business opportunity, and it shapes everything from packaging to distribution.
The buyer and the user are two different people. Products must earn parental trust and simultaneously appeal to a child, which is a design constraint most brands never face.
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