Upma Kapoor is a single mum and a woman entrepreneur, who started Teal & Terra, hoping to create a space for herself in the organic beauty business, even though she had to face a lot of struggle throughout her life. She organized her savings and loans from her friends, to start her business with Rs. 8 lakhs.
The struggle she faced with girt
She lost her parents in an accident and was brought up by her elder sister. She had a corporate career for about 15 years but had to quit when her son was born. She even had to take a harsh decision of walking out of her marriage because of certain personal reasons.
She then worked as an independent consultant for four years, after which she finally decided to launch her start-up in 2017.
The Organic Business
Upma figured out that most of the Indian beauty products have no match with the ones abroad. But they are too expensive for the Indian customers to import. So, she decided to start a company which claims to use only natural ingredients and no chemicals, for making beauty products.
The ingredients for Teal & Terra are sourced from cities like Panchkula, Gurugram and Delhi, and the formula goes through extensive sampling to keep the quality in check. It is the first Indian company to introduce onion oil in its range of products, which was made possible with the help of technicians and biotechnologies.
Challenges faced
1. One of the major challenges that she faced was the difficulty to raise funds. She found it difficult to fund the start-up, single-handedly. But then, she had the support of her family and friends, who trusted in her, and lent her an interest-free loan to start her business.
2. The second major challenge was to make her way into the industry, which was already run by big players. She was always asked questions on the odds of succeeding, but she did not lose hope and continued to make her mark in the market with innovation.
Future prospects
Currently, she is working towards launching winter care range of products, and soon after that, she would also get into the baby care range. She even aims to take her business to the next level and hit a turnover of Rs.15 Cr. in the next few years.
