Ananta Capital picks up majority stake in personal care brand Phitku

Sumit Marda, Neha Marda and Rahul Dokania will continue to lead the company while retaining a significant stake in the business

by e4m Staff
Published: Jul 2, 2026 10:13 AM | 3 min read

Ananta Capital has acquired a controlling stake in Phitku, a personal care brand, through a combination of new investment and secondary share purchase, facilitating the company's expansion and providing partial exit options for its founders.
Founders Sumit Marda, Neha Marda, and Rahul Dokania will retain significant ownership and leadership roles in the company, which was established in early 2025 and has been profitable without external funding until now.
The partnership aims to enhance Phitku's product development, brand positioning, and distribution across direct-to-consumer channels and international markets, with a focus on clean and effective personal care products.
Ananta Capital's investment is seen as a strategic move to leverage its consumer ecosystem and operational expertise to help Phitku grow into a leading science-driven personal hygiene brand in India.

Ananta Capital has taken a controlling stake in Phitku, a personal care and hygiene brand, through a mix of fresh capital investment and a secondary share purchase. The deal not only injects new funds to support the company’s next phase of expansion but also offers partial exit opportunities to the founding team. Despite the transaction, Sumit Marda, Neha Marda and Rahul Dokania will remain at the helm and continue to hold a meaningful ownership stake.

Established in early 2025 by the same founding trio, Phitku has grown as a bootstrapped and profitable venture, making this the startup’s first institutional backing. Along with funding, the collaboration is expected to bring strategic guidance and operational support, enabling faster product development, stronger brand positioning, and wider distribution across D2C channels, quick commerce platforms and online marketplaces, with plans to selectively explore international expansion as it builds a science-driven hygiene brand from India.

Speaking on the investment, Ashutosh Taparia, Founder & Managing Partner, Ananta Capital, said: "What drew us to Phitku was the category itself. Consumers today are increasingly seeking cleaner personal care products and paying closer attention to ingredients, while odor protection remains a large category with limited innovation. Phitku has modernized a trusted ingredient like alum and built a proposition that resonates with today's consumers. We believe the brand is well positioned to lead this emerging category."

Sanjeev Taparia, part of the Taparia family, added, "We have been impressed by what the founders have built in such a short period of time. Going forward, we see an opportunity to build Phitku into a broader clean personal care platform by leveraging our consumer ecosystem, distribution network, product development capabilities, and international presence."

Commenting on the partnership, Sumit Marda, Co-founder and CEO of Phitku, said, “Phitku was founded with a simple vision, to build a science-led personal care brand that consumers can genuinely trust. As a team, we've stayed focused on one thing: building products that are clean, safe, and that actually work. For us, efficacy and safety aren't trade-offs; they go hand in hand. In a market where consumers have grown weary of brands that over-promise and under-deliver, we set out to bring back something simpler, pure trust and lasting loyalty. In just over a year, that approach has helped us build a community of over 6 lakh customers, reaffirming the demand for clean, effective, and ingredient-conscious hygiene solutions. Partnering with Ananta Capital is an important milestone for us. This is about far more than capital. Ananta brings the strategic expertise, operational experience, and long-term vision to help us build Phitku into a true personal hygiene platform, one that scales responsibly, accelerates innovation, and strengthens our distribution across both Indian and international markets. Together, we aim to build Phitku into India's leading science-led personal hygiene brand.”