Soma Ayurvedic Brings On Singer, Actor And Influencer Pragathi Guruprasad As Co-Founder, Starts Fundraising

Almost three years after launching Soma Ayurvedic, founder Arjun Sampath has a new partner in the business.

Pragathi Guruprasad, a singer, actor and influencer with nearly 540,000 Instagram followers, has become Sampath’s co-founder at the brand and will focus on expanding its community. According to Sampath, she’s been given an equity stake in Soma Ayurvedic, and it’s begun to fundraise with the goal of securing $500,000 to $1 million.

Guruprasad has been tied to the brand in an influencer capacity dating back to its debut and is the face of its Body Oil, a product launched in October last year that went on to be a big hit and represent over half of its sales. Both Guruprasad and Sampath view her decision to join Soma Ayurvedic as a co-founder as a seamless evolution of her relationship with it.

“It was just such a perfect fit,” says Guruprasad. “In terms of responsibilities, I’m really excited to take on more marketing, events and experiences, making sure the brand is getting in the right hands, and also managing the influencer side of things. It’s been about a month or two since I’ve started doing this work, and it’s been incredible going from the face to coming into the business. It’s been exciting how organically that transition has happened.”

Sampath says, “There’s so much going on when you’re an early stage bootstrapped brand. Amplifying efforts with someone else who has skin in the game is extremely important. While it never had to be a female, when 95% of your customer base is female, that was a no brainer, and it had to be someone who could challenge my ideas and way of thinking, and who understood the vision. I don’t think Pragathi would argue, she’s challenged me a lot. I never had that before. She’s opened my eyes up to strategies and people to reach out to I never thought of.”

A runner-up in the reality singing competition “Airtel Super Singer Junior” a decade ago, 25-year-old Guruprasad is known for lending her voice to Tamil language films. Along with her film gigs, she’s collaborated with musical talent, including composer Rajan Somasundaram, and appeared on television, notably in a small role on the comedy “Never Have I Ever.” In 2011, Guruprasad ventured into creating digital content that provides her fans glances at what she’s up to behind the scenes as she sings, acts and participates in brands partnerships.

“As I live my life and as I go to events, am on set or in the studio, it’s about documenting what that looks like. That’s what has kept my followers engaged and loyal,” she says. “It’s never been, ‘I have to shoot content today.’ It’s a natural part of my life, and that’s really what works for me best.”

“We truly believe we are the brand that can go mainstream and that everybody identifies as the leading Ayurvedic lifestyle and luxury brand.”

Guruprasad has inked partnerships with an extensive roster of recognizable companies such as Costco, Toyota, Walmart, Unilever and NYX—she recently showed her Instagram fans a NYX product with her face on it sold at Ulta Beauty—and several beauty brands spearheaded by South Asian founders such as Live Tinted and Shaz & Kiks. With her Soma Ayurvedic deal, she says, “My content will start being more tailored to Ayurveda, the brand message and aesthetics. That being said, I would still love to use and support as many South Asian businesses and founders as possible. I hope that doesn’t stop.”

Guruprasad will be helping Soma Ayurvedic boost its presence on TikTok, which hasn’t been a key priority of the brand. Two-thirds of Some Ayurvedic’s sales are driven by Instagram referrals, and Instagram has been its main advertising and influencer marketing priority. The brand’s customers are largely 25 to 50 years old, so TikTok’s younger audience isn’t necessarily in its wheelhouse, but Guruprasad believes Soma Ayurvedic can find its niche on TikTok with consistent posting and user-generated content.

Kicking off in direct-to-consumer distribution, the brand was situated well for the pandemic-stoked e-commerce rush. With people returning to brick-and-mortar stores, Soma Ayurvedic is interested in entering retailers next year. In DTC, its sales have climbed 100% annually in each of its first two years. Soma Ayurvedic expects to put seed funding toward retail operations and its product pipeline. “While we are growing at 100%, we think we can grow at 500%,” says Sampath. “In order to do that, in this business, we need resources.”

Together, Sampath and Guruprasad are readying Soma Ayurvedic to extend into categories outside of skincare and body care. Currently, in addition to its $128 Body Oil, the brand has three products: $68 Anti Aging Cream, $68 Under Eye Gel and $118 Vitamin C Serum. Containing jasmine from Madurai, a city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu famed for its jasmine, the scent of Soma Ayurvedic’s Body Oil has been a huge draw for the brand, and it’s building upon learnings from the product as it widens its product portfolio. Up to eight product releases could hit the market in 2023.

“I never set out to be just a beauty guy or skincare guy because I was looking at Soma Ayurvedic as a lifestyle, luxury and wellness platform that was beyond quote unquote beauty,” says Sampath. “As we gear up for our new product launches, you are going to see that coming to fruition, where this is going to look a lot more like a lifestyle brand.”

Although the number of Ayurveda-inspired products in the beauty industry are increasing, Sampath and Guruprasad assert Soma Ayurvedic’s luxury lifestyle positioning, quality ingredients and mission to democratize Ayurveda make it unique. “The last thing we want to do is intimidate a customer who isn’t familiar with Ayurveda. Everything we do is about accessibility,” says Sampath. “We truly believe we are the brand that can go mainstream and that everybody identifies as the leading Ayurvedic lifestyle and luxury brand.”