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Marico's Cosmix Deal, Whole Truth's $51 Mn Round & More

Inc42 February 05, 2026 03:41 PM

Marico’s INR 226 Cr Cosmix Bet

Marico is betting big on health-first, D2C brands. In its second acquisition in a week, after popcorn brand 4700BC, the FMCG giant will now pick up a controlling stake in plant-based protein startup Cosmix Wellness at a hefty valuation. So, what does the deal look like?

The Finer Print: The FMCG major will acquire a 60% stake in the wellness-focussed D2C brand from its two founders at an INR 375 Cr valuation, pegging the deal at INR 226 Cr. However, cofounders Vibha Harish and Soorya Jagadish will stay on and retain operational control.

The Acquisition Thesis: The deal makes sense for both parties. For Marico, the D2C brand offers a scaled and profitable brand, with product-market-fit, digital reach, supply-chain depth, and distribution. It also saves the FMCG major the trouble of building a brand in the space from scratch.

On the other hand, Cosmix will likely tap into Marico’s existing muscle to expand offline and scale sustainably, without the need to chase venture capital.

Retracing Cosmix’s Journey: The story starts in 2019, when Harish turned her Bengaluru apartment into a makeshift factory to start a clean-label D2C protein brand. However, instead of splurging heavily to capture market share, Cosmix followed a playbook of capital efficiency, steady offline expansion and a focus on its Instagram-led community.

This discipline has paid off over the years. The bootstrapped brand today boasts 55% repeat purchase rate, profitable operations, revenues nearing INR 90 Cr in FY26, an in-house manufacturing and 20+ SKUs spanning protein bars, pancakes and multivitamins.

But in the long run, why does the D2C wellness brand make sense for the FMCG giant? Let’s find out…

From The Editor’s Desk Aye Finance Gears Up For IPO

The NBFC has filed its RHP with SEBI for an INR 1,010 Cr IPO, which will comprise a fresh issue of shares worth INR 710 Cr and an OFS of INR 300 Cr. The public issue will open on February 9 and close on February 11.

The company has also set a price band of INR 122 to INR 129 for its IPO, which pegs the NBFC at INR 3,183 Cr at the upper end of the spectrum. It also boasts an FY25 price-to-earnings ratio of 13.81.

Founded in 2014, Aye Finance leverages AI to underwrite risk for small-ticket business loans to MSMEs. The NBFC’s net profit declined 40% YoY to INR 64.6 Cr in H1 FY26, while operating revenue rose 21.8% YoY to INR 843.5 Cr.

The Whole Truth Bags $51 Mn

The D2C healthy snacking brand has raised INR 416 Cr, via primary and secondary capital, in its Series D round co-led by Sauce.vc and Sofina. The fundraise pegged the startup between $350 Mn to $400 Mn.

The round also marks the start of the company’s IPO journey. The proceeds will be utilised to scale in-house manufacturing, meeting working capital needs and building “public-market ready” systems and capabilities.

The Whole Truth’s management also plans to turn profitable before listing. The D2C brand’s FY25 operating revenue jumped 232.5% YoY to INR 216 Cr, while losses widened 18.5% YoY to INR 28.2 Cr.

Mutual Funds Trim Paytm Exposure

Domestic mutual funds reduced their cumulative stake in the fintech major stake to 14.34% at the end of Q3 FY26 from 16.25% in the preceding quarter. Notable sellers included Motilal Oswal and Nippon Life.

The reduction came during a quarter when Paytm’s stock rallied nearly 18% and hit a 52-week high in early December, giving institutional holders a profit-booking window.

In line with domestic MFs, foreign direct investment in Paytm also fell by over 2 percentage points to 25.18%. However, AIF holdings rose to 1.2% in Q3 from 0.97% in Q2.

What’s Cooking At IndiaAI Mission?

The Mission’s CEO Abhishek Singh is framing the coming months around hard milestones – funding 12 Indian foundation models, building sector-specific small language models and delivering at least 50 “high-impact” applications.

Singh feels that the Mission will be successful when AI services reach at least 10 Cr Indians. He argues even sub-10% penetration can create outsized economic impact in citizen-facing areas like healthcare, agriculture and education.

He adds that the initiative aims to expand the number of GPUs in the country to 1 Lakh within a year from 38,000 GPUs currently. Yet, demand constraints mean that heterogeneous compute will shape what models get trained and how fast.

Dhruva Space Eyes $4.2 Mn

The spacetech startup’s board last week passed a proposal to raise INR 38.7 Cr via a private placement of 414 Pre-Series B CCPS to multiple investors. IAN will lead the round with an infusion of INR 26 Cr, while GVFL will pump INR 10 Cr.

Founded in 2012, Dhruva offers end-to-end space engineering solutions, including small satellites, ground stations, launch solutions and mission support. It has raised $13 Mn to date.

Operationally, 2026 started on a sombre note for Dhruva as its PA-1 mission failed due to an unsuccessful launch. Yet the pipeline remains strong as the startup is working on a SAR satellite constellation, which is targeted for late-2026 launch.

Inc42 Markets
Inc42 Startup Spotlight How Aegion Is Making Advanced Alloys In India
India’s aerospace and defence programmes rely heavily on imported components and advanced alloys. This dependence creates long lead times, high costs and a strategic choke point. Aegion is solving this problem by building these materials back home.

Made For India: Founded in 2022, Aegion manufactures critical components used in aerospace systems, defence platforms, energy equipment and space-adjacent applications. Its edge comes from combining in-house engineering with materials science, rather than operating as a conventional manufacturer.

Reimagining Recycling: Aegion claims that its innovation is a closed-loop titanium recycling process that reclaims titanium, nickel and rare-earth metals from aerospace scrap. It uses a hydrogen-assisted metallothermic method to produce high-purity metal feedstock, which is then used to produce superalloys that have use cases in many critical industries.

Carving A Niche: Backed by Rebalance, Aegion is eyeing a piece of India’s advanced materials market, which is projected to become a $21.5 Bn opportunity by 2030. The startup is looking to capitalise on India’s defence indigenisation and manufacturing priorities, where material sovereignty is becoming as important as machining capability. So, can Aegion scale its innovative recycling pitch to become a key domestic supplier?

Infographic Of The Day
After 18 new-age tech companies raised a record INR 41,248 Cr in 2025, the IPO pipeline for 2026 looks even stronger. ⁣⁣Let’s take a look…

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