Arjun Vaidya

Arjun is D2C founder. He builted Dr. Vaidya’s to India’s largest Ayurveda brand online. The brand was recently acquired by RP Sanjiv Goenka Group – making it one of India’s first D2C exits.

‘Vaidya’ his last name means Ayurvedic doctor and this come from 150 years of Ayurveda legacy. His grandfather and 6 generations before were Ayurvedic doctors and passed down 100+ proprietary formulations.

He grew up with asthma and after 14 years of treatment, He was cured by my grandfather. More than just being a family legacy, this made him a believer in the potential of the science and so he promised him I’d take forward this legacy.

In 2009, he went to Brown University for my undergrad. He witnessed the natural and organic products revolution there. He also saw yoga become a multibillion-dollar industry with a repackaged identity for modern consumers. This made him think about the opportunity they had with Ayurveda…

In 2013, he moved back to India and joined a consumer sector focused growth private equity fund called L Capital Asia (now L Catterton). Here, he spent time understanding and investing in the Indian consumer story. he was also fortunate to see the advent of e-commerce in India closely.

In this time, his grandfather passed and so, he decided to action the promise he had made him. In October 2016, he quit his job to take on his family’s Ayurveda legacy. Dr. Vaidya’s repackaged the ancient Indian science of Ayurveda for modern consumers and emerged as India’s largest Ayurveda brand online. In 4 years, they successfully reached 1.5m+ consumers across 500+ cities and 16,500+ pin codes in India and launched 70+ products (check them out on www.drvaidyas.com).

He was the first Ayurvedic Entrepreneur to be featured in the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia List for and Business World 40 Under 40 List! thye also won Youth SMB of the Year from Amazon and the Retail Startup Award from the Retailers Association of India. In June 2019, they partnered with the USD 4b RP Sanjiv Goenka Group and led the business to an acquisition by the group – making it one of India’s first successful D2C exits.

As he find what’s next, He is actively angel investing and mentoring brands in India’s DTC ecosystem.

Outside work, He is a World Economic Forum Global Shaper, a Mentor at AIM and a part Brown University’s Young Alumni Advisory Council. He also run a podcast called Direct to a Billion Consumers on navigating India’s complex and exciting FMCG ecosystem.