India’s premium skincare segment has been drawing serious institutional capital, and the latest entrant is CHOSEN — a Chennai-based dermo-cosmetic brand that has raised $5 million in a Series A round led by Fireside Ventures, with participation from BOLD, the corporate venture capital fund of L’Oréal, alongside Alkemi Growth Capital and angel investors including CaratLane co-founder Avnish Anand, and dermatologists Dr. Chandan Asokan, KC Nischal, Punit Saraogi, Nishita Ranka, and Mikki Singh.
CHOSEN was launched in 2020 by Dr. Renita Rajan, a cosmetic dermatologist with nearly two decades of clinical experience who also runs RENDER Skin and Hair Clinic in Chennai. The brand is built specifically for melanin-rich Indian skin and is grounded in the science of the exposome — focusing on pigmentation, skin texture, contour, and hair aging as its four core domains. Prior to this round, the startup had raised $1.2 million in an angel round in 2024, making this its first significant institutional bet. The new capital will go into R&D, pipeline expansion, scaling its Centre of Excellence, and senior talent hiring.
“For decades, skincare has often overlooked the specific needs of skin of colour. CHOSEN’s science focuses on high-performance skincare that works with — not against — melanin-rich skin.” — Dr. Renita Rajan, Founder, CHOSEN
What makes CHOSEN’s model structurally interesting is how it bridges the clinical and the consumer. The brand’s products are currently prescribed across more than 2,000 clinics nationwide, with patients starting treatment under dermatologist guidance and then continuing independently through its D2C platform — nearly 95% of which runs on its own website rather than third-party marketplaces. It has built a portfolio of around 58 SKUs across topicals and nutraceuticals, and roughly 70% of its revenue comes from repeat customers, primarily women aged 30 to 50. That kind of retention in a premium skincare brand is not incidental — it signals that clinical trust, once built, converts into durable consumer habit.
The participation of L’Oréal’s BOLD is a telling signal. BOLD has backed science-led specialty skincare brands globally, and its entry into CHOSEN — at Series A, not later — suggests the fund sees early-mover advantage in backing an Indian brand native to skin-of-color science before the category matures. CHOSEN is already planning international expansion into Latin America and East Asia, markets where Indian skin’s dermatological profile closely mirrors local needs. In a segment currently dominated by brands like Avène, Cetaphil, Sebamed, and Heliocare — largely designed for Caucasian skin and adapted for Indian consumers — CHOSEN’s ground-up positioning is its core strategic edge.
