Vineeta Singh was born on August 6, 1983 in Anand, Gujarat into an academically accomplished family. Her mother holds a PhD, while her father Tej P. Singh is a biophysicist at the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). With such intellectually gifted parents, it’s no surprise that Vineeta Singh displayed exceptional intelligence from a young age. She managed to crack the highly competitive entrance exams for both the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs).
Vineeta Singh attended Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram for her early education. She then went on to pursue a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from IIT Madras, graduating in 2005. Not content to stop there, the diligent student followed up by completing her MBA from IIM Ahmedabad in 2007. It was during her MBA days that Vineeta first cultivated an interest in entrepreneurship, which would shape her future career path.
The Birth of an Entrepreneur
At just 23 years old, Vineeta Singh displayed remarkable determination by turning down a job offer worth Rs 1 crore from the prestigious Deutsche Bank. Instead, she chose to pursue her entrepreneurial dreams of starting her own venture. Teaming up with a friend, she took the bold step of launching her first startup called Quetzal. The company provided HR services and designed curriculum for business schools. However, Quetzal unfortunately did not succeed, partly due to skepticism from clients about working with such a young and inexperienced entrepreneur.
Undeterred by the failure of her first startup, Vineeta’s entrepreneurial spirit remained unshaken. In 2012, she dusted herself off and launched her second venture called Fab Bag – a subscription service that delivered monthly curated packages of beauty products to its members. It was while running Fab Bag that Vineeta identified a gap in the Indian market – lack of affordable and high-quality cosmetic products specifically tailored to suit the diverse needs and skin tones of Indian women. Recognizing this demand, Vineeta Singh along with her husband Kaushik Mukherjee, founded Sugar Cosmetics in 2015, which is now valued at around Rs 4,100 crore. From its inception, the brand’s core mission was to create makeup lines that catered to the preferences and celebrated the beauty of Indian women in all their diversity. According to data from Tracxn, the entrepreneurial couple holds a 25% stake in SUGAR Cosmetics, while investment fund A91 Partners owns a 20.8% share in the company.