A pre-seed round of $1.2 million is backing an unusual wager: that Indian consumers will buy colored contact lenses the way they buy lipstick.
Peep Beauty, which incorporated in June 2025, disclosed on September 11 that it had raised ₹12 crore in a pre-seed round led by Sadev Ventures. Joining the round were iSeed, ISV, TDV, and a string of angel investors including Roman Saini of Unacademy, Puneet Gupta of AstroTalk, and Gaurav Khatri of Noise, according to ET Retail. The startup declined to disclose its valuation, though it's positioning itself as India's first dedicated eye beauty brand.
The pitch is straightforward, if unproven in this market: strip away the clinical associations that have long clung to colored contact lenses in India and reposition them as beauty accessories, something closer to mascara than medical device. That Peep sells those lenses alongside liquid eyeshadows—six SKUs priced between ₹799 and ₹849—underscores the point.
Founder Aman Arora, who previously co-founded Keventers, the milkshake chain where he served as chief marketing officer, sees a subcategory worth ₹800–900 crore nested inside a broader ₹4,000–5,000 crore contact lens market. Those figures come from company estimates shared with ET Retail. "We aim to build a category around coloured contact lenses by developing products specifically for Indian consumers," Arora said.
The regulatory backdrop complicates things somewhat. Colored contacts remain classified as medical devices under India's Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, a designation that historically tilted the category toward pharmacies and optical chains rather than beauty counters. Lenskart, the country's dominant optical marketplace, sells established brands like Alcon's Air Optix Colors for around ₹1,599 per two-lens pack. Peep's entry price: ₹399 for the same pack size, available in five shades.
Distribution will run through the company's own site, third-party marketplaces, and quick-commerce platforms, ET Retail reported. Whether that channel mix can sidestep the optical incumbents or simply expand the category remains an open question.
Bollywood actor Triptii Dimri joined as both investor and co-creator—some reports use "co-founder," though her exact operational role isn't detailed. She fronts the brand's launch campaign, titled "Made You Look." In a statement, Dimri said contributing creatively to a brand from its earliest days made the partnership "incredibly exciting for me." Celebrity equity stakes in early-stage consumer brands have become standard in India's venture ecosystem, though the degree of involvement varies widely.
Venture studio UBR × DISRPTVE, co-founded by Binoy Khimji and Ashish Chowdhry, said it "led the fundraise" and brought Dimri into the fold, according to company materials distributed through ANI. Khimji and Chowdhry also invested personally. Vedika Berry appears as a director in corporate filings retrieved by Tofler; the company's registered address sits in Noida, Uttar Pradesh.
Additional angels include Arjun Vaidya of V3 Ventures, Dhruv Bhasin of Arata, and actors Naina Bhan and Anya Singh, ET Retail reported.
An independent sector analysis published late last year pegged India's contact lens market at roughly ₹4,100 crore in the most recent fiscal year, with annual growth of 8 to 9 percent expected. Lenskart's Aqualens and multinationals like Bausch + Lomb dominate the space, which has historically emphasized vision correction over aesthetics. Peep's beauty-first framing, then, represents something of a category bet rather than a direct play against optical retailers.
The startup went live in September with its initial lineup. Plans call for scaling through collaborations with makeup artists, beauty creators, and what the company describes as "cultural influencers." Headcount, revenue figures, and any timeline for a Series A remain undisclosed. The company's strategic hypothesis: that colored lenses can shed their optical-retail legacy and find shelf space—literal or digital—in India's beauty aisles.
