“Skin is your one permanent home. Invest in your skin with Skinvest.” Divya Malpani

Divya Malpani is a 23-year-old founder of Skinvest, a skincare brand for the youth of India. She finished her schooling at Dhruv Global School till the 10th grade in Sangamner, Maharashtra. Later, she went to Indus International School, Bangalore, and completed the IB diploma program, after which she got admitted to Northeastern University, Boston, USA, for her undergraduate degree in business administration. Her concentrations in the course were finance, marketing, and entrepreneurship, of which entrepreneurship was her favorite. She was admitted as an honors student with a scholarship of 75 lakh rupees.

During her four years of business school, she completed two full-time, paid jobs for six months each and multiple internships. For the first one, she worked at a private equity real estate company called Northland Investments Corporation in Newton, MA, USA. She worked with their investment and development team.

Her second job was at a cybersecurity pen-testing startup called Cobalt in San Francisco, California. She always wanted to work for a startup, as she loves entrepreneurship, and she got the opportunity to work with and learn from most of the teams in the company.

For internships, she worked in her family business relating to the real estate and entertainment industry and also worked at Darwin Technologies in Italy for an LMS industry startup,

She loves skincare, working out, dogs, startups, and traveling. She is outgoing, adventurous, curious, and driven. She loves learning new things and figuring things out, hence entrepreneurship!

Her family has always been her support system, with their able guidance and constructive feedback. They offered her the best advice and always pointed her in the right direction. Her cousins helped her brainstorm multiple ideas for Skinvest and helped grow the venture from scratch.

Skinvest’s idea was incepted in 2020, when Divya was finishing her undergrad at Northeastern University, Boston. She was friends with a diverse set of people with different skin types and tones, from Caucasian to Indian, Hispanic, and Black.

She realized how different products reacted to her skin compared to her friends. It then triggered her thoughts on how the beauty industry has been overlooking Indian skin until 2020. All the skincare brands that we would use, like Lakme, Loreal, Dove, etc., are all brands that are made for and tested on Caucasian skin. Indian skin is more sensitive and prone to pigmentation and thus has its own unique skin needs and concerns that need special attention and care.

Moreover, most of the brands focus on anti-aging and other concerns that don’t really cater to the modern and outgoing Gen Z and Millenials of India for their unique skin needs.

Unfortunately, and especially in India, skin care is also perceived as a feminine chore. She wanted to end this perception by coming out with a gender-neutral skincare brand, as she believes skincare is for everyone, no matter their gender.

Acne and stretch marks are super common, but they are one of the main reasons people shy away from being themselves and feeling happy in their skin. The team had to overcome this with the help of Skinvest. Skinvest is addressing all of these gaps in the market by curating a brand for Indian youth and focusing on gender neutrality and mental health advocacy.

They are setting new standards by providing innovative, premium, high-quality, fun-to-use, effective, vegan, non-comedogenic, and paraben-, cruelty-, PEG-, and phthalate-free skincare in India.

Their mission is to transform the way you feel about your skin by making clinical skincare fun and cool.

In the next 5 years, she believes Skinvest will be the go-to brand for the youth of India for all their skin and wellness concerns. She doesn’t want to restrict Skinvest to being just a skincare brand but a wellness brand overall, with multiple courses, activities, and products that cater to the overall well-being of youth.

The USP of Skinvest is as follows:

High quality

Customer success focused

Result oriented

Strong connection with the youth

Transparency

Innovation in formulations, packaging, and experience

Community building

The customers have loved the products and the results, as there have been repeat purchases. They love the packaging, the thought-through ease of application, and the overall service. They say these products make them feel young, alive, and happy. That being said, Skinvest also gets constructive feedback, which is applied to make the products best suited for everyone.

Skinvest is a warm hug to the Indian skin, catering to all their skin and well-being needs with innovation and clinical but cool experiences. Customers can visit the official websites of Skinvest, Amazon, Nykaa, and other such marketplaces for their products. Skinvest is also reachable via Instagram and WhatsApp, as well as email and phone.

The motto of Divya’s life is to dream big, manifest, work hard, and achieve it. She ensures that she is disciplined enough and has enough wisdom to multiply her success.

Her favorite tour destination is Bali, and she loves to savor pan-Asian cuisine.

Her most cherished entrepreneurial moment is winning the Beauty and You Award, hosted by Estee Lauder and Nykaa.

Her message to fellow female entrepreneurs is to believe in themselves and trust in their skills and knowledge. No one will be able to discourage you. Learn as much as you can. Building a network of like-minded individuals and mentors can be invaluable.

Be prepared to work hard as Success in business is rarely handed to you on a silver platter

Embrace failure. Don't be afraid of it; instead, learn from your mistakes, adapt your approach, and move forward.

Set SMART goals.

Take calculated risks. Don't be afraid to step out of your comfort zone and take on new challenges. With risk comes the potential for great rewards.

The purpose of her work is to help the youth of India feel comfortable in their own skin and to help them invest in it in an intellectual way. Her purpose is to make sure skin and mental health concerns don't get in the way of the extraordinary Indians' achieving their dreams. Her purpose is to follow her passion and leave a mark on the Indian beauty industry.

Divya asserts that you shouldn't let anyone tell you that you can't do it all or that you don't have it in you. Do not wait for anyone's validation. You validate yourself and do the work. Make it work for yourself and show them all what you're made of.

Her parents believe in her, support her, encourage her, and are always the first ones to show off her and Skinvest’s success. Divya is very grateful to her family and parents for their unconditional love and support.

A special thanks to the entire team at Skinvest for treating the venture as their own, working hard, and maintaining a fun startup culture. Her special thanks go out to Avantika, Tanya, Gitika, Pramitee, Aditya, and Avinash for all their efforts for Skinvest.