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Alia Bhatt-backed Phool raises $8 million in funding from Sixth Sense Ventures

New Delhi: Direct-to-consumer (D2C) home fragrance and wellness brand Phool.co has raised $8 million in a funding round from consumer-focused venture fund, Sixth Sense Ventures. The round also saw participation from existing investors, Bollywood actor Alia Bhatt and IAN fund, a statement issued by the company said.

The home fragrance category is estimated at $3.2 billion. Bhatt said in a statement: “I believe Phool will be an important global aromatherapy story to emerge from India.”

Phool.co has previously raised seed rounding from IAN Fund, Social Alpha (FISE), Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation (San Francisco), and IIT Kanpur.

Company founder Ankit Agarwal said: “We plan to transform the global home fragrance market, and build a distinct brand with our product range.”

The company said with the fundraise, Phool will scale up operations, and ramp up R&D efforts to make animal leather obsolete with Fleather – a vegan alternative to animal leather.

Nikhil Vohra, founder and chief executive of Sixth Sense Ventures said: “The under-penetrated home fragrances industry presents a large, white space to be exploited. A clear shift to natural and sustainable alternatives is creating a strong demand for Phool’s products.”

Bhatt’s other venture, Ed-a-Mamma clothing brand for children, will be scaled up offline with multi-brand outlets including Shoppers Stop and Lifestyle this year, and it will double its offline footprint, she said. So far, the brand has been operating on a D2C business model.

Her other business interests include an investment in beauty platform Nykaa, and closet sharing initiative MiSu which deals with celebrities putting personal clothing for sale, the proceeds of which go to charity.