How Fraganote Is Building A ₹100 Cr Accessible-Premium Perfume Brand

India is in the mood to splurge. The spending spree, propelling the roughly $2.4 Tn consumer economy to be the world’s second largest at $4.3 Tn by 2030, is likely to drive all sectors, from two-wheelers to air-conditioners and from personal grooming to household utensils, with Indians forking out more than ₹31 Lakh Cr by the end of 2027.

The quintessential Indian is not just earning more, but they are spending more, and perhaps for the first time at this scale. The aroma of a thriving consumer market is in the air.

Perfume Enthusiast Garima Kakkar founded Fraganote with her husband, Arjun Anand, when they caught a whiff of an opportunity in the striking absence of Indian fragrance brands offering original formulations, especially for consumers looking for something better than a mass deodorant but reluctant to spend a fortune on a French import. 

In the Indian perfume market, charmed to shoot past ₹37,600 Cr by 2030, gifting is not the only instinct behind a purchase. Younger, more deliberate, increasingly aware of what they put on their skin and what it says about them, define the new consumer class for bottled fragrances. They are not just buying a scent but something that communicates who they are.

The New Delhi-based couple rolled out Fraganote in 2023 with a simple but sharp idea: build a fragrance in India that feels global in essence, shaped by buyers, and priced for a larger consumer class. “We believe fragrance is a form of self-expression, and not merely a commodity. Every product we create is designed to be worn with pride. But, we make sure that premium should not mean inaccessible,” said Kakkar.

And fragrance soon filled the air. The brand gained substantial popularity on social media, with over 70,000 Instagram followers. Thanks to its niche positioning, affordable pricing, and aggressive marketing, Fraganote hit a sweet spot for consumers looking to upgrade their cologne. Its primary offering is a 50 ML bottle priced at ₹999, and for those keen to explore a wider range, the brand offers a discovery set at ₹499.

The brand has also been able to build a multi-platform distribution on top of its early D2C foundation. Fraganote’s fragrances are now listed on leading ecommerce channels like Amazon, Myntra, and Nykaa, as well as on quick commerce platforms such as Blinkit, Zepto, Swiggy Instamart, and modern trade retail. 

“Our D2C channel gave us direct consumer data, which we layered on e-commerce, quick commerce and modern trade as proof points emerged. The funding environment also required us to build a compelling, data-backed narrative early, which shaped how we thought about metrics and retention from day one,” Kakkar told Inc42. 

In 2025, Fraganote raised ₹8 Cr ($1 Mn) in a Pre-Series A funding led by Rukam Capital for product development and inventory, brand and performance marketing, team building and deepening distribution across our omnichannel footprint.

According to the cofounder, the brand has gained more than 300,000 active customers in its first two years, with a repeat purchase rate of 35%. In a category where first-time purchases are common and repeat purchases are less frequent, the figure reflects robust customer retention. The founders, however, refused to share the financial details for FY26.

How Product Design Charms The Buyer

At Fraganote, the way the company is run reflects a classic founder split. Kakkar handles the commercial engine, from operations and supply chain to investor relations, while Anand takes charge of the creative side, brand strategy, and product development. 

According to Kakkar, this clarity is crucial as building a fragrance brand from scratch comes with its own unique challenges. The founders had to source aromatic oils that met global benchmarks, introduce consumers to scent profiles they had never tried before, and stitch together distribution across channels. 

“We addressed these core structural challenges by being extremely deliberate about product development. Every fragrance went through extensive consumer feedback loops before it was launched,” she said. 

One clear takeaway from these feedback loops was that the customers did not want surprises. They wanted to know exactly how a fragrance would smell before placing an order. Fraganote built its brand presentation around that insight. 

Instead of leaning on abstract or European-style naming, it calls its perfumes what they actually smell like. Vanilla Wood, Drunken Cake, Spiced Vanilla, Caramel-Loaded Popcorn. This removes guesswork, lowers hesitation, and lets the product speak for itself, especially when the customers are ordering it online. 

At the formulation level, gourmand notes like vanilla, tonka, musk, praline and caramel sit at the heart of Fraganote’s portfolio. Although these are widely used in global niche perfumery, these notes have had limited presence in India because it’s fairly difficult to manage their longevity in local conditions. 

Rather than just lifting and shifting these profiles to the Indian market, Fraganote tweaked the formulations to adapt them to heat, humidity, and wear times that could last a day. To make the discovery easier, the range organises its fragrance into these clear collections such as Gourmand, Tropical and Royal. It gives first-time users a way in without needing to understand the finer points of perfumery. 

The brand also uses high-end packaging to deliver an extra level of quality in the customer experience. Magnetic caps, polished glass bottles and rigid boxes are all part of the experience. “We want to make the purchase feel intentional, something you would pick for yourself rather than just another item in a cart,” she explained. 

In a crowded accessible-premium segment, where brands like Bella Vita and EM5 compete for attention, Fraganote is trying to carve out its own lane. The pitch rests on original formulations, white-labelled products, better oil quality, and tighter overall execution at the price point. The company does not get into the weeds on sourcing, but maintains that global benchmarking is central to its approach to building.

Rukam Capital’s Investment Thesis For Fraganote

Rukam Capital, an early stage consumer-focused investment firm, invested in Fraganote in 2025 after spending significant time understanding the fragrance category and the shifts shaping modern consumer demand. 

Speaking to Inc42, Rukam’s founder and managing partner, Archana Jahagirdar, said the VC firm’s $1 Mn Pre-Series A investment in 2025 was aimed at backing founders building differentiated consumer brands with strong long-term potential. 

“When we backed Fraganote with a $1 Mn Pre-Series A in 2025, it was more than capital. It was the first institutional signal that what Garima and Arjun were building had real merit,” said Jahagirdar.

Jahagirdar said that Fraganote had built a strong multi-channel operation while retaining its brand identity and product quality, adding that the company’s team, systems and overall operations had matured significantly over time.

Jahagirdar also opined that the next generation of Indian consumer brands would not win purely on pricing or distribution, but through cultural relevance, community, and strong brand memory, adding that Fraganote understands that.

“Over 3 to 5 years, I see Fraganote becoming one of the defining homegrown fragrance brands in India, a brand that sits at the intersection of quality, storytelling, and modern Indian identity,” said Jahagirdar. 

Rukam Capital’s founder also said that the brand is targeting ₹100 Cr in revenue over the next 18 months as it gears up for international expansion.

Betting On India’s Aspirational Middle

Fraganote is carving out a space between the mass market and the ultra-luxury, planting itself firmly in the aspirational middle where most of India’s consumption growth is likely to play out. The bet is that this is where the next wave of brand loyalty will be built.

Its target consumer also reflects that thinking. Urban, digitally native, aged 22 to 40, and increasingly treating personal care as a form of self-expression rather than routine. This is a customer willing to spend, but only when the product feels personal.

“Many Indians are discovering fragrance as a category for the first time, and Fraganote is designed to be their first serious fragrance brand, the one they graduate to, and the one they stay with,” Kakkar said.

According to the cofounder, the company is aiming for revenue of ₹100 Cr in the near term, expanding its offline footprint through modern trade across tier I and tier II markets, and moving beyond perfumes into adjacent fragrance-led personal care categories. “We have several collections in the works and expect to launch at least three of them in FY27,” she shared. 

Over the next couple of years, Fraganote plans to become a truly omnichannel brand with meaningful offline scale and also build a strong international presence. 

“Fraganote is not exporting an India that the world already has a template for. What they are building is a fragrance house that reflects the India that actually exists today. It is rooted in Indian sensibility, but entirely contemporary in its expression,” shared Kakkar. 

That ambition sits alongside a larger shift. As more Indian consumers move from functional use to expressive consumption, fragrance is slowly finding its place as an everyday category. If the shift continues, brands like Fraganote will not just ride the wave, but also become the ones shaping where it breaks.

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